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Prostitution: Right or Wrong?

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Submitted By Jtotherohc
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If one were to guess what the oldest profession in the world is, they would most likely think of some sort of manual labor. To their surprise they would find out that the world’s oldest profession is prostitution. Prostitution is defined as the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. It can be traced back before the times of Christ as women who were not married could not make a living so they had to resort to prostitution. However in today’s society, prostitution is viewed as crime more than a profession. Prostitution is illegal in forty nine out of the fifty states in the United States, with the exception of Nevada. Those who oppose prostitution believe that it is immoral, causes crime and increases sexually transmitted diseases. Most people do not realize how prostitution can benefit the United States. Legalizing prostitution will in fact reduce crime, reduce STDs, and increase revenue in the United States. With prostitution comes crime, or one would think it causes crime. However, it would reduce crime significantly. The amount of rapes in the United States would decrease as they did in Amsterdam where prostitution is legal. Kirby R. Cundiff, PhD, Associate Professor of Finance at Northeastern State University wrote, " It is estimated that if prostitution were legalized in the United States, the rape rate would decrease by roughly 25%”. In 2009, the United States had roughly ninety thousand cases of reported rapes. By simply legalizing a profession that has been around since the beginning of time, we could reduce these ninety thousand rapes in the United States by twenty five percent. Also, the amount of abuse among prostitutes would decrease. If prostitution were legal, prostitutes would not need a boss or “pimp” who typically abuse their workers. The prostitutes would be in safe, clean brothels that would be free

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