Prostitution is regarded as one of the world’s oldest profession. Subsequently, the laws that prevent prostitutions are the government oldest forms of government regulations and discriminations. It is believed that in a free society such laws are biased since they curtail the freedom of those people that practice prostitutions. Prostitution in United States of America plays an important role in the U.S.A economy since it is estimated that over one million of American women earn their daily living primarily on prostitution. Statistics indicates that one out of six American men willingly purchase sex from a prostitute within a time span of five years. Despite the high prevalence of prostitution in United States of America, it is believed that prostitution in U.S.A is the third most common method that makes American men to contract AIDS Virus. The alarming high rates of HIV and AIDS infection as well as high incidents of transmission of other sexual transmitted diseases are some of the major reasons that triggered the complete legalization of prostitution in many States in United States of America. Ironically, it is believed that prostitution in United States of America is ranked as the third method that makes American men contract HIV and AIDS. Statistics in New York City and Washington D.C indicates that approximately 50 percent of the prostitutes that operate in these two cities are HIV positive. In Newark and New Jersey statistics reveals that about 60 percent of the prostitutes are HIV positive. On the other hand, researches indicate that those States that have legalized prostitution record few incidents of AIDS victims among the prostitutes that operate there. For example, a research conducted in 1989 in Nevada to determine the prevalence of AIDS among prostitutions operating there did not feature any incidence of AIDS victims among the prostitutes that participated in the study (Armentano, 1993).
In areas where prostitution has been fully legalized, there are no many incidents of AIDS incidents. The low incidents of HIV and AIDS incidents are as a result of the measures that are taken during the process of issuing licenses to prostitutes. For example, in Nevada all those prostitutes that receive licenses to practice prostitution in that state are issued with the license after undergoing a blood test and being confirmed that they are HIV negative. Such regulations occur in the absence of state regulations. These protocols are regulated by the Nevada’s licensed bordellos. The move is undertaken to improve the services they deliver to their clients. They do so to create a competitive edge over their competitors. They aspire to guarantee their customers safe sex in order to win more clients through referrals and repeated business. Thus, legalization of prostitution can greatly help to minimize the spread of prostitution since participants will now compete on the quality of service they offer to their customers and one sure approach to ensure high quality sex services is blood screening to make sure that prostitutes are free from HIV viruses (Armentano, 1993).
Prostitution is highly related with criminal activities. For instance, a research conducted in Los Angels indicated that about 50 percent of the prison female populations are prostitutes. In addition, it was revealed that approximately 100 million dollars is used yearly to deal with illegal prostitution in the city. The fight against prostitution has never been successful and is doomed to fail for ever since it involves a fight against willing buyers and sellers. The most common argument that has greatly been put across by those factions that support prostitution is that prohibiting the legalization of prostitution is biased since prostitution involves voluntary sales/rental of labor services. They argue that people own their bodies and their own labor service and thus should not be controlled on how to use them. They argue that as long as they are not forcing people to buy or sell their services, the government should not interfere with their business as such interference infringes the liberty of those involved. Those groups that support prostitution argue that the only part that the government should play is to ensure that prostitution is exercised voluntary and no one is coerced to participate in it (100 Countries and Their Prostitution Policies, 2010).
The nations that have legalized prostitution are known to offer better social environment for individuals. In such countries the AIDS prevalence is likely to be low since prostitutes are not coerced into unprotected sex. Legalization of prostitution helps in the improvement of the services rendered through blood screening that greatly reduces AIDS virus transmissions. Legalization of prostitution makes it easier for prostitutes to seek medical facilities without the fear of police. Conversely, prohibition of legalization of prostitution increases incidents of unprotected sex and the spread of AIDS and other sexual transmitted illness such as gonorrhea, syphilis, Herpes and Chlamydia. Legalization of prostitution on the other hand makes it easier for the government to monitor prostitutes and provide them with appropriate medical facilities such as condoms that highly curtail the spread of AIDS and other sexual transmitted illness (Diva, 2010).
References
Armentano, Paul. “The Case for Legalized Prostitution,” 1993
100 Countries and Their Prostitution Policies, ProCo.org. 2010
done in as little as 1 hour
Diva, Unpretentious. “Legalizing Prostitution,” 2010