Yep.
The other thing that has always killed me about prostitution is that the lawmen always go after the men. As if they are somehow responsible.
It is the women who put on the negligee, lipstick, heels and advertise their wares on the streetcorner trying to entice the men.
If they were selling drugs, the buyers are looked at as the victims, but the sellers are a worse class of criminals called “pushers” and “dealers”.
Why is it so different with prostitution? If it’s a bad thing, then the sellers should be the ones penalized most severely, not the buyers (victims).
Personally, I don’t think it should be illegal.
It’s easier to catch buyers because there are more of them.
The majority of drug criminals are also not dealers, but rather people with drug in their possession. And, in fact, “intent to distribute” is not based on intent but quantity, based on weight. In many states the weight includes paraphernalia as well, which means a lot of users convicted of a crime different than what they actually committed.
The reality is police go after targets based on ease of arrest and conviction in most cases, and not based on the threat to society or severity of the crime.
And before the “you hate cops” crowd comes out, my older brother is a now retired police Sargent who served as point man for the SWAT team and head of a federally funded interdepartmental narcotics task force, and I base my opinions in large part on his observations.
Well, Spitzer got off scot-free and they prosecuted the vendor.