I think you are on the right track- I think that the rape of a prostitute by a john as theft rather than rape implicitly makes prostitution legal, as you would have to argue that an legal contractual obligation was formed that constituted consent. I would argue that even lowering it to assault would do the same thing.
Now how a jury sees rape of a prostitute vs. rape of an innocent stranger is another thing. Many would only give the maximum sentence in the latter case.
Nope. That's not what I'm saying. Nor am I saying it justifies being raped. And Nope, I'm not saying "because he bought her dinner, she better deliver". That's so arcane.
She, the prostitute, has verbally transacted a trade: money for sex. She has moved herself physically to a place for the transaction to take place. That's quite different from going on a date for dinner and show, wouldn't you agree?
Your scenario works only if she has by direct or implied words said she was In the Trade. And that was her explicit, specific interest in you, a consumer.
But she was not thefted, that's what the socialists would say. She was assaulted. If the perp had major toe fetishes, and "projected" forcibly his big toe into her nose, wouldn't that constitute "ASSAULT"? If she has consented to a sexual activity as a trade, this then is NOT theft and because the trade is "illegal": It is not acknowledged, legally, as a "business". Nor are drugs, for that matter. Kinda reminds me of the guy who calls the police, filing a report that someone stold some of his stash. Or an illegal immigrant claiming someone stole their Identity.
But you raise a provocative point here:
Now how a jury sees rape of a prostitute vs. rape of an innocent stranger is another thing. Many would only give the maximum sentence in the latter case.
Not necessarily so. There's entire campus, DUKE, who are out to harm and terrorize some innocent students just upon an ACCUSATION of rape. These folks can be the jury. In which case, no proof, no distinctions, are necessary for a hysterical mob ruling.