Althouse: "Last week, Amnesty International passed a resolution supporting the decriminalization of sex work, on the grounds that it would be safer for sex workers..."

August 26, 2015

"Last week, Amnesty International passed a resolution supporting the decriminalization of sex work, on the grounds that it would be safer for sex workers..."

"... a move that many human’s rights groups disagree with and opposed. Does legal prostitution better protect women and sex workers?"

18 comments:

Matt said...: "Does legal prostitution better protect women and sex workers?"

Yes.; 8/26/15, 7:19 PM
Heartless Aztec said...: It would be safer for me. If I was the type to for pay for what is so abundantly free.

Old joke - What do you pay a sex worker for?
You pay for them to leave.; 8/26/15, 7:21 PM
cubanbob said...: Why not try a novel concept? Do legal work. Why not make drug dealing legal? Wouldn't it be safer? BLM. First world people need to make better career path choices. Third world people have to make do with what they can, there is a reason the third world is the third world and just legalizing something in third world countries doesn't make it better or safer.; 8/26/15, 7:32 PM
Bobby said...: Surfed,

Oldie, but a goodie!; 8/26/15, 7:57 PM
Big Mike said...: Is there a way to set up legalized "sex work" so as to wipe out human sex trafficking? If so then that's all the reason we need to do it.; 8/26/15, 7:58 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: It is an insult to workers everywhere to call prostitutes "sex workers".
"I am a plumber. I install and repair the infrastructure that makes modern life possible."
"I am a sex worker. I let my customers come on my face for an extra $20."; 8/26/15, 8:11 PM
Mark said...: Treating women -- and girls -- like articles of commerce, just another form of chattel? Yeah, there is your progressive ideology at play.; 8/26/15, 8:53 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: I always assume the big-L Libertarian types would actually be very upset if a sister or a daughter (or a brother or son) was a prosti, or if their spouse was doing prostitution as part-time work. Maybe I am wrong.; 8/26/15, 9:12 PM
William said...: Will this raise or lower the price of prostitutes for UN peacekeeping forces? I can see a conflict of interest here. Perhaps the UN is behind de criminalization because it will allow their members to enjoy cheaper sex in safer surroundings.; 8/26/15, 9:18 PM
The Godfather said...: Start from the premise that, no matter what laws you pass, there will be prostitution. There are negative effects from the existence of prostitution, for the whores, for the johns, for the neighborhoods, etc. Then ask: Does criminalizing the practice reduce or increase the negative effects? If you think legalizing but regulating the activity will ameliorate the ills, consider whether the regulations will create a black market.

After you've solved that problem, you can start work on a gun control program.; 8/26/15, 9:53 PM
Known Unknown said...: "be very upset if a sister or a daughter (or a brother or son) was a prosti, or if their spouse was doing prostitution as part-time work. Maybe I am wrong."

I can't say I wouldn't like it, but I must admit that I am sometimes cruel enough to believe that adults are capable of making their own decisions and managing their own lives.; 8/26/15, 11:02 PM
Known Unknown said...: would like it. Sorry for the typo.; 8/26/15, 11:03 PM
Quaestor said...: Nevada's legal brothels could be the subject of a pertinent study. I've not made such a study, obviously, but I did find a news story from the New York Times, dated barely twenty months ago, which makes one wonder if staff writers at the NYT know how to google their own newspaper.; 8/27/15, 4:16 AM
Quaestor said...: I don't see how anyone can seriously argue that legalized prostitution can do any more harm to women in particular or society in general than what has already been done by illegal sex work.; 8/27/15, 4:22 AM
Peter said...: "Last week, Amnesty International passed a resolution supporting the decriminalization of sex work, on the grounds that it would be safer for sex workers..."

And perhaps it would, but if it's legal there would be more prostitution and more prostitutes, which is unimportant only if you're convinced this is not a degrading way to make a living. After all, selling oneself into slavery, or selling parts of one's body, or commercial euthanasia parlors could also be free and legal choices, but, does that imply they also must (or should) be legalized?

And it might not be a free choice, for if prostitution is a a lawful way to make a living, why would unemployment compensation recipients not be cut off if they refuse to accept such employment?

Perhaps what's surprising in this resolution is the implication that individual freedom is the only possible criteria for determining what should or should not be legal.; 8/27/15, 9:50 AM
Brent said...: Nail salons are legal and even loosely licensed. But, as a recent NY Times expose showed,exploitation and even downright slavery conditions still exist and are not being weeded out by any government agency. Women in the legal Netherlands sex industry are massively mistreated and abused despite the pro-legal prostitution advocates similarity to the people in this article.

What will be different this time?

Just as there are leftists who still insist that National Communism can work, it just hadn't been given enough time (what, 70 years and they still hadn't slaughtered enough people?),the pro sex exploitation crowd never learns.; 8/27/15, 8:32 PM
Brent said...: Questor,a better NY Times link would have been this one:

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/19/is-legalized-prostitution-safer/nevadas-legal-brothels-are-coercive-too; 8/27/15, 8:37 PM
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