Public Opinion
A CATI survey conducted in January 2008 revealed the following answers:
Paying for sex exploits women and should be a criminal offence: 44% of the total respondents agree (65% of those aged 18–24 agree; 48% of all women agree, 39% of men agree)
Paying for sex exploits women but should not be a criminal offence: 21% of the total respondents agree
Paying for sex does not exploit women and should not be a criminal offence: 17% of the total respondents agree
Paying for sex does not exploit women but should be a criminal offence: 8% of the total respondents agree
A Ipsos-Mori poll conducted in July and August 2008 showed that 61% of women and 42% of men thought that paying for sex was "unacceptable". 65% of women and 40% of men said selling sex was "unacceptable". Young people were the most opposed to prostitution: 64% of the youth said that paying for sex was "unacceptable" and 69% believed that selling sex was "unacceptable"; older people had more relaxed attitudes about prostitution (men over 55 were the most accepting of buying sex). 60% of all the people who were questioned would feel ashamed if they found out a family member was working as a prostitute. 43% thought it should be illegal to pay for sex, however 58% would support making it illegal to pay for sex if "it will help reduce the numbers of women and children being trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation".
Read more about this topic: Prostitution In The United Kingdom
Famous quotes containing the words public opinion, public and/or opinion:
“Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“How difficult the task to quench the fire and the pride of private ambition, and to sacrifice ourselves and all our hopes and expectations to the public weal! How few have souls capable of so noble an undertaking! How often are the laurels worn by those who have had no share in earning them! But there is a future recompense of reward, to which the upright man looks, and which he will most assuredly obtain, provided he perseveres unto the end.”
—Abigail Adams (1744–1818)
“Let a man learn to look for the permanent in the mutable and fleeting; let him learn to bear the disappearance of things he was wont to reverence; without losing his reverence; let him learn that he is here, not to work, but to be worked upon; and that, though abyss open under abyss, and opinion displace opinion, all are at last contained in the Eternal Cause.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)