Prostitution

Originally Posted by husky03

you'd need to start from new then mate-the women(and guys)who are out selling themselves at the moment due to their drug habits would not stop walking the streets looking for punters just because its legal-they wouldn't fit the medical requirements of the new established bang houses so as normal it would go underground/back street and put them at even more risk-i speak to girls who have been doing it for years, oldest is mid 50's, been selling herself since late teens, sees it as her job-nothing is gonna change

What about if you legalised, licensed and regulated wh0re houses, left street prostitution outlawed, and increased the minimum sentence for curb crawling 5 years in prison.

Legally and easily go to a wh0re house, pay a regulated fee, and risk very little comeback, or curb crawl, get it cheap, but risk prison, marriage, job, house, miss your kids growing up, whatever.

The girls are not going to walk the streets if you completely remove the punters and make it just not work the risk.

As for the social impact for the girls, they are already on the bottom rung of the ladder and nothing we are doing now is succeeding in helping them climb up it. Whatever support system you put in place for those who have been "made redundant" because they are not in a fit state to work in a wh0re house, can't be any less successful in helping them clean up.

Originally Posted by 454697819

No

They should be putting their efforts into stopping it.

its a narrow minded view for sure but thats how I feel.

In a way I wish we could stop it but we never will but its money and resource intensive to really provide any adequate solution and long term help.
and what do you do with those that don't want the help and don't want to go inside as its all they've ever known.

though I believe that a small minority will go underground as in any and every industry

Originally Posted by Quedos

In a way I wish we could stop it but we never will but its money and resource intensive to really provide any adequate solution and long term help.
and what do you do with those that don't want the help and don't want to go inside as its all they've ever known.

though I believe that a small minority will go underground as in any and every industry

Correct, its not something I can really go full blown discussion on in this forum,

I am a Christian and as such anything like prostitution is a No, and I would encourage the illegality of it and clamp downs, however it is a unrealistic approach I am aware of that but in the 2 minutes I get to answer on here.. No.

I know how you feel I could rant on for hours about it too. I wd say it close to my heart but this lot would take it the wrong way.
its such an emotive subject too.

Legalised? I'm a "no". Possibly see some argument for decriminalisation on the front line supply side as it really doesn't help anyone that screwed up to give them a criminal record to boot - although from what I understand of policing priorities I get the impression that's pretty much the current situation, ie. with much more effort at tackling punters and pimps.

Main reason for the "no" is that our current Daily Mail inspired crop of stories of "work shy scroungers" would effectively create a state mandated employment of last resort. Can't get a job? Then give that dirty fat old man a BJ or lose your benefits you scum... Terminal cancer patient? Doesn't stop you lying back and thinking of England, no disability for you you scrounger...

Other than that, whilst what follows is purely conjecture as I have no experience or evidence, I get the strong impression that those who come out of a career in prostitution are invariably screwed up by the experience. I suspect tales of the happy and/or wealthy hooker are few and far between. Used to live near a particularly grotty area of Nottingham and from what I saw of the street workers there they all looked poor, screwed up and dead behind the eyes. I can't see legalisation improving that any, whilst at the same time it could greatly increase the numbers of people exposed to that life through an increased societal acceptance.

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by MiniMatt

Main reason for the "no" is that our current Daily Mail inspired crop of stories of "work shy scroungers" would effectively create a state mandated employment of last resort. Can't get a job? Then give that dirty fat old man a BJ or lose your benefits you scum... Terminal cancer patient? Doesn't stop you lying back and thinking of England, no disability for you you scrounger....

Hmm never thought of that angle before. Damn you Matt, you hippie, I used enjoy arguing with you.

I'm pretty ambivalent towards the whole thing, having never really been 'confronted' by prostitution or it's consequences. I have always been reasonably convinced by the 'safety for the girls' argument and not really seen a down-side. My only concern would be how the criminal pimps / gangs can be removed from the industry and kept out. Maybe nothing would change for the front-line workers but joe public would think it's all hunky dory now it was legal?

However Matt's point shows that legalising it could have un-foreseen consequences. I'm back on the fence...

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by thulfi

Some are just students that go to a respectable uni and wanna make more money on the side.

Not like it's any different to a one night stand in that case.

Plenty slappers around with no morals or self respect who might as well charge for it, "buy us a drink love", that make them hookers?

Originally Posted by thulfi

and the cause of the problem is what would need to be tackled - ie the economy.

We can thank new labour for solving the issue then! I don't know about anyone else but with the fuel prices at the moment I can hardly afford to go kerb crawling more than once or twice a week...

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

The girls are not going to walk the streets if you completely remove the punters and make it just not work the risk.

Yup I agree.

Originally Posted by Stig

Never have, never will, but yes, it should be legalised in my opinion.

+1.

One of those things that isn't my cup of tea, but which I suspect is a waste of money in policing. Legalised it'd be safer for all concerned, there'd be less exploitation and it'd generate some revenue. The negative social impacts of it already exist, we may as well get the positive side (taxation). I don't think you would suddenly notice a marked increase in people joining the profession or in people availing themselves of their services if you legalised it.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, for 6 months or so my wife was involved in making television documentaries about the sex industries (she was behind the camera ). She met and interviewed an awful lot of these people. The view one particular working girl put forwards, which my wife was inclined to believe was this: The abused, coerced and drug-addicted are in a minority. The reason they are so often talked about is two-fold. Firstly, they make for a very good, tragic interesting story. Secondly, the very nominal amount they are paid for their stories, versus the social stigma of being publicly outed as a prostitute (or even just having to deal with sanctimonious people questioning their choices) isn't worth it to any but the desperate. The professional middle class call girl making £100K+ a year who is looking to retire from the industry by the time she is 30 with her house paid off and set up for life, isn't going to jeopardise her chances of some semblance of a "normal" life afterwards by having her face all over national TV for £50. Conversely, to the drug-addled skank: That's 5 hits, yes please!

[cbay]

Originally Posted by Stig

Never have, never will, but yes, it should be legalised in my opinion.

+1 Also.

This is a genius quote!

simply put , prositution goes on, it will keep going on, no matter what, people will remain being victims, people will continue to take advantage of others, that is the real world we live in.
if you wish it a desease, one with no cure and be honest like i said above there is no cure, so we might as well threat the symptoms, it wont work for everyone (just like a medical desease) but it will help some, therefore unless someone can remove human nature and we *ALL* suddenly evolve into a highly enlightend people, we may as well help those we can, the perfect world is beyond our grasp in honesty so make the best of what we can , however we can. and in this case legalising it is the best we can make of a bad situation