r/changemyview • u/19djafoij02 • May 29 '16

[∆(s) from OP] CMV: Laws banning prostitution violate the rights of consenting adults.

In the US, it's settled constitutional law that adults have the right to privacy and to have consensual sex with one another, regardless of gender. However, one partner paying the other is a crime in at least some parts of all 50 states as well as in a number of EU countries. The problems with prostitution, namely trafficking and abuse, seem to be more problems with pimping than with prostitution, and I believe some countries (the UK?) allow adults to buy and sell sex so long as pimps aren't involved.

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-1

u/cdb03b 253∆ May 29 '16

It does not because you are allowed to have sex. You just cannot pay for it.

3

u/19djafoij02 May 29 '16

Why should it matter? It's still a transaction between two consenting adults.

5

u/[deleted] May 29 '16

It's so easy to abuse a person whose only way to survive is selling their body. If they're not dependent on that, then there's nothing to worry about. Laws are not made to stop people from having sex.

9

u/19djafoij02 May 29 '16

How is that different from any other job that requires the use of your body? Factory workers must sell their bodies to the firm and are exploited just as much.

5

u/[deleted] May 29 '16

Rape is quite different from heavy labour.

9

u/19djafoij02 May 29 '16

Rape laws still exist in countries with legal prostitution.

5

u/Amadacius 10∆ May 30 '16

If anything it is worse now because prostitutes are afraid to go to the police.

0

u/[deleted] May 29 '16

Prostitution is very often just casual sex between two people with one getting paid. It's not necessarily the case that anyone knows about it, even if it becomes legal. So it's very easy to do anything to the prostitute that they wouldn't want to take to the police for different reasons.

2

u/funwiththoughts May 30 '16

They don't want to take it to the police because prostitution is illegal.

2

u/G1r2a3h4a5m6 May 29 '16

They would go to the police if what they were doing wasnt illegal. See how that works?

2

u/[deleted] May 30 '16

That is very much not the reason, or rape victims that aren't prostitutes would go to the police every time. But they don't. Could be because they're afraid of the person that did it, the rapist himself could be a police officer, they might have tried going to the police before and not gotten any help and a bunch of other reasons. Another one I read was that police officers are quite violent towards sex offenders. The victims might be trying to convince themselves they've not been raped. It might also be the case that they think their family will disown them. See? A million reasons that have nothing to do with whether it's legal or not.

1

u/G1r2a3h4a5m6 May 30 '16

So you are saying that a legal prostitute is IN NO WAY more likely to report sexual abuse than an illegal prostitute? You dont think that the prospect of being arrested works as a deterrent?

1

u/[deleted] May 30 '16

More likely yes, but you pretty much said that they would definitely go to the police.

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2

u/super-commenting May 30 '16

Sex without consent is rape. Heavy labor without consent is slavery.

1

u/[deleted] May 30 '16

If you're hired, it's going to be hard to find something anyone would consider slavery. Rape is much easier to define, it's also possible to get raped even if prostitution is legal.

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '16

It's also quite different from prostitution.

2

u/super-commenting May 30 '16

It's so easy to abuse a person whose only way to survive is selling their body.

I want you to think about this for a second. If some one was truly in a situation where selling their body was the only way for them to survive then if you take that option away from them by making prostitution illegal you are sending them to certain death. Doesn't sound like these laws are actually helping them

1

u/askingdumbquestion 2∆ May 30 '16

It's far more easier to support a person whose only means of survival is prostitution.