Sex Workers' Rights - Legality of Prostitution - Legalization And/or Decriminalization - Support For Decriminilization

Support For Decriminilization

The legalization of sex work often entails additional restrictions and requirements placed on sex workers as well as registering with official government offices. Additionally, many activists favor decriminalization over legalization. Decriminalization involves a focus on laws which protect the rights of sex workers, such as those against coercion into or to stay in sex work, while all consensual sexual contact between adult sex workers and adult clients would not be criminalized.

Roanld Weitzer, a well-known proponent for the legalization/decriminalization of prostitution, stated that the use of nonscientific evidence about prostitution has contributed to a "moral panic" because opponents commonly use the argument that prostitution is inherently violent and unable to be regulated. However, he also claims that other governments have been able to reject this notion and find ways to regulate it and uses Nevada as an example. .

Below are some of the main premises that the pro-legalization and pro-decriminalization of prostitution movement rests upon.

• Prostitution is a crime where no one is necessarily harmed and the adults are consenting adults.
• Prostitution is a free choice for women.
• Sex work is no more moral or immoral than other jobs.
• Sex trafficking and coercion into the industry can be effectively prohibited if sex work is legalized and/or decriminalized.
• Decriminalization and/or legalization can protect women from violence.
• The spread of diseases can be hindered through the legalization and/or decriminalization of prostitution.
• The rates of rape could decrease if prostitution were legalized and/or decriminalized.
• Sex work could become a legal business that is able to be regulated and human rights would be able to be enforced.
• Prostitution can be a career option in which the free market is being taken advantage of and women’s claims over their own bodies.
• The criminalization of prostitutes only exacerbates problems that prostitutes are already facing. Therefore, the decriminalization and/or legalization can be a starting point to addressing these issues.