The Student Room Group

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Psyk
Good for you. But it might not be such a big deal for other people.

Mrgd291190, what do you mean by state run brothels? Do you actually mean the government owns and manages the brothel? Or just regulated by a state-run agency? I really don't think it's the government's job to run brothels. Despite what Caspiantiger thinks it's not a neccessity, and I wouldn't say it's really enriching society either so I don't see why it should get government funding itself. But if they are to exist as commercial enterprises then obviously the government needs to keep an eye on them.

Personally, I use the example of Artemis brothel in Germany where prostitution is legal (I'll admit I haven't read the entire articles, especially the second, I'm in school at the moment :wink:).
I don't see a huge problem with an organisation such as the BBC, heavily subsidised by the government but also paying huge taxes - at least at the begining, in order to standardise the trade. Afterwards, if private corporations can provide a good standard in the brothels then there's no reason it shouldn't eventually be privatised, if heavily regulated.
I hate to agree with Caspiantiger but I think it is neccessary for a short time, afterwards...it may just be able to be seen as a good source of revenue.
Something like OFPROST would be useful as well.
Ishtar
I would rather work in tescos for 8 hours than destroy my self respect and ruin the prospect of having a healthy sexual relationship for the rest of my life. Having sex with someone you have no feelings for and do not fancy is one of the hardest things in the world.

Oh, and on the 'prostitution laws are discriminatory against men' point - STOP IT. Your views on women (if indeed these are your real views on women) are boring and have been hung out to dry more times that I care to remember on this forum. Substantiate them or pipe down.


That may be your opinion, however a lot of people don't follow your line of thinking. I know lots of girls who can have sex with people they have no feelings for.
Lots of girls these days aspire to be WAGS, pornstars and even escorts, when you don't have a cambridge education choosing to work in the sex industry is a lot easier.
Not many people want to work in tesco's for 8 hours a day.


Ofcourse the prostitution laws are discriminatory to men. Women are seen as poor little victims and the men are seen as aggresors and nasty people. Some men have a very hard time finding women who like them (which is not a crime) and so they will use prostitutes. Are they bad people, i wouldn't say so, i feel bad for them.
Reply 83
I think legalising it and regulating it is probably the best solution. There is nothing wrong with a girl choosing to be a prostitute, provided she is not controlled by a pimp, and provided she is actively choosing that lifestyle. It isn't as if they don't make a LOT of money, after all. Who are we to dictate to people that using a prostitute is immoral?
Reply 84
Dionysus
I think legalising it and regulating it is probably the best solution. There is nothing wrong with a girl choosing to be a prostitute, provided she is not controlled by a pimp, and provided she is actively choosing that lifestyle. It isn't as if they don't make a LOT of money, after all. Who are we to dictate to people that using a prostitute is immoral?


But prostitutes would need some sort of management system, for historical purposes I think the title of pimp should remain.
Reply 85
Tory Dan
But prostitutes would need some sort of management system, for historical purposes I think the title of pimp should remain.


That's bordering on sinister. If they are to be legalised, they should be self employed, operating out of government-owned premises on which they would pay rent. The thing is that I doubt the British public would ever accept the logic behind this, and adopt a NIMBY approach, despite the fact it works perfectly well in other countries and often isn't even considered particularly seedy, because it's kept so clean. I saw a documentary about Amsterdam. They don't allow people in drunk or abusive, drugs are completely prohibited, and condoms and showers are provided.
Reply 86
I don't think they should necessarily be self-employed, but that's not a bad way to do it. I don't see anything wrong with having a manager, or employer. Obviously they would be subject to the same rules as any other employer, but perhaps with some additional ones. So it's not like just because they are technically a pimp they'd be allowed to abuse their employees.

Why a government owned premises? Why not allow them to operate out of a privately owned premises like Artemis in Germany? That sounds like a pretty sensible system to me. The prostitutes pay to operate in the building and the punters pay for entry, but for the actual sex the money goes directly to the prostitute. Makes sense to me, and I don't see why it should be run by the government.
Reply 87
Dionysus
That's bordering on sinister. If they are to be legalised, they should be self employed, operating out of government-owned premises on which they would pay rent. The thing is that I doubt the British public would ever accept the logic behind this, and adopt a NIMBY approach, despite the fact it works perfectly well in other countries and often isn't even considered particularly seedy, because it's kept so clean. I saw a documentary about Amsterdam. They don't allow people in drunk or abusive, drugs are completely prohibited, and condoms and showers are provided.


Wtf, we are not going to nationalise the prostitution industry thats bordering on communism! Let the market work, it will regulate itself and the government will require very little regulation. You could imagine guides would be made like High Life hooker version to mark the level, quality and price of a brothel.

Oh yes lets just copy the Dutch, if we copied the Dutch we wouldn't be the economic and maritime power we would be now.
Not so fast Tory Dan, nationalising prostitution may be the only way the gov't is going to claw itself out of its huge budget deficits...
Reply 89
Ohh, this one I always find conflicting. The liberal half of me says that adults are free to make their own decisions and act as they see fit. For this reason I have no theoretical objections to prostitution. However reality shows me that prostiotution is incredibly damaging for the majority of women who participate in it. I found these statistics about the current state of prostitution in the uk

Of the estimated 80,000 people involved in prostitution in the UK, up to 5,000 children may beinvolved at any one time, with a female to male ratio of four to one.

Up to 75% of women involved in prostitution began when they were under 18 years of ageand most teenager prostitutes are involved in street prostitution, which is estimated to be tentimes more dangerous than working from houses or flats.

75% of children who become involved in prostitution have interrupted or prematurely
terminated educational careers.35

74% of women involved in prostitution cited poverty, the need to pay household expenses and support their children, as a primary motivator for entering sex work.

It is estimated that as many as 95% of women involved in prostitution have a drug or alcohol addiction.

The Government’s own figures for 2002 show that there were 2,678 convictions for soliciting in comparison to only 993 convictions for kerb crawling.


from here:http://www.whywomen.org.uk/Downloads/Statistics.pdf

http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/prostitution_research/000020.html
This study also indicates levels of PTSD and violence experienced by prostitutes (but it has quite a small sample size)

This is without considering the social effects of prostitution- pimps, crime, trafficking

This indicates to me that the neagtive effects of prostitution and the lack of real choice for women/men entering the profession trumps my belief in individual freedom. This is similar to my beliefs on say drugs (negative effects on majority of users and organised crime trump my belief in personal autonomy)

Having concluded that prostitution in its current form is damaging to women and society and limits individual freedoms I therefore believe that we have to act. As I see it there are four possible options:

1.Legalise and Regulate Prostitution,
2.Criminalise the Selling of Sex
3.Criminalise the Buying of Sex
4. 2&3 together

There are some precedents for this in other countries (Netherlands, Sweeden etc) so to me the logical solution is to examine the effects of different legislation on prostitution, in particular focusing on

1.The condition of the prostitutes- are they there through real choice? Is there support if they want to leave? Is there condition better/safer and do they experience less violence from Punters? Has it had an effect on trafficking and organised crime?
2.The effect on society- Is it more or less dangerous, have no go areas been illiminated/increased. Has the rate of sexual assaults/harrassment of women increased/decreased

Other countries have tried this and so we don't have to strike out alone. People working as prostitutes should be involved in the consultation process the whole way. We should rely on teh evidence to see what works and what dosent and in this way we can move forward to a society where no-one is forced to work as a prostitute either by violence or poverty.

Whatever route we choose, however we should ensure that there are addequate resources for people working as prostitutes so they can ensure their health and saftey, live free from violence and haev the choice to leave prostitution if they wish.
Lychee all those statistics prove is that illegal prostitution results in young girls being abused. I think if legal prostitution is done right we could avoid many of those pitfalls.
Reply 91
afc1886
Think of the tax that would be put on it if it were legal...


:eek:
Reply 92
Caspiantiger
Lychee all those statistics prove is that illegal prostitution results in young girls being abused. I think if legal prostitution is done right we could avoid many of those pitfalls.



Well that is kindof what I said. I dont which of my 4 suggestions would be best, I think we should do research studies into different countries which have differnt sorts of legislation and see what is best. If legal prostitution has a positive effect for prostitutes and no negative effects for wider society (ie dosent increase trafficking/legitimise organised crime) then great, go for it. If this dosent happen then its not the best way to go. We need to do more investigation But prostitution in its current form is damaging for prostitutes and wider society and needs to change.
Yes.
The best way to keep prostitutes safe is to make it legal and regulated.
Reply 94
The question isn't "should it be made legal" but "does the government have a right to make it illegal"...
I'm still not entirely sure about my views on this one - largely I lean towards legalisation as a way of protecting prostitutes and regulating the entire profession. That said, legalisation brings with it its own problems. Apparently, a whole new method of pimping has begun in Holland since prostitution was legalised - men enter relationships with girls and then convince them to enter prostitution as they need the money (a scenario which would obviously be much more difficult if prostitution was illegal), and then make it difficult for them to stop. Also, someone posted a link earlier in the thread (can't remember where), which mentioned the possibility of women losing unemployment benefits if they refuse to work as prostitutes - obviously a hypothetical, but worth thinking about if prostitution is 'just another profession'.

That said, if prostitution were legalised, I think strict rules about registration and monitoring combined with hefty fines and prison sentences for those found flouting said rules (including customers) could potentially heavily reduce trafficking. I also agree with those who have said that pimping should remain illegal (and also be heavily monitored). Prostitutes should only ever be self employed, as it is so easy to coerce people into prostitution. Although this would reduce the ability of people to form large brothels, I imagine that the law would be in place to prevent exploitation rather than facilitating prostitution, so its hardly a bad thing.
Reply 96
I personally don't see anything wrong with the act itself. If I came to the point in my life, where I was working all the time, hadn't found a girlfriend and couldn't find the time or effort to go and pick up a girl in a bar; then i'd pay for sex. I don't see what's bad about it, or why it's 'pathetic' or whatever other nonsense you can come up with. To be honest, if you account for the amount of time and money spent on buying the girl drinks in the bar before you sleep with her, it makes the £200 you pay a prostitute for sex look a lot nicer... and the latter is most definately the best bet. Why? You have no guilt about leaving her, you've paid for a girl who's got a lot of experience and whatever you fancy, she's probabally bound to do it.

I'm totally against the whole idea of brothels and all that jazz, since you don't know who'll end up getting your money. However, I see nothing with a private escort you've found on the internet, who's simply selling the good looks God gave her.

However, having said all that, it's certeinly nothing to be proud of(quite like masturbation).

Also, no one labelled Ronaldo, Nani and Anderson 'pathetic', etc when they paid for a big hooker ball at their mansion haha.