That's the argument, of course. But I have yet to see evidence.
I am entertaining the hypothesis that legalizing prostitution may turn like legalizing abortion: vastly increasing the behavior, while bringing to a halt any effective enforcement against the grossest abuses. Net result: the grossest abuses continue to flourish, in the midst of an accelerated breakdown of social constraint.
So: your evidence that legalizing would make things better? I'm listening.
You’re equating a crime against other individuals (in this case horrific killing of the unborn, exploitation of minors, sex trade with human trafficking of women) with activity between consenting adults.
Look at it from another perspective: Has the legal sale of alcohol stopped all instances of drunk driving or domestic abuse when one is drunk? Has the advent of licensed casino gambling or even lottery ticket sales stopped all gambling addiction? Have warnings on cigarette packaging stopped all those who smoke from lighting up? Has the ability to obtain prescription painkillers stopped their abuse? The answer to all of these is of course no. An argument can be made that from the viewpoint of social constraint, all of the above should be banned.
On the other hand, drunk drivers and domestic abusers are jailed; gamblers and prescription drug addicts hopefully receive intervention, especially because families are impacted by their addiction; smokers are finding places to light up more difficult. There are penalties for those that exceed legal boundaries, especially those that inflict harm on others, including mental as well as physical abuse. So such penalties would be and are imposed against those who engage in exploitation of minors, human sex trafficking and sex slavery
But those that drink in private, smoke indoors with no children present, gamble with their own money should be allowed to do so. So it can be argued that behavior between informed consenting adults, though it would be against the social mores of some or even many, be allowed.
I don’t offer any persuasive evidence ,I just placed the subject out there for discussion.
Certainly things are working fine today, with pimps and under aged prostitutes, drugs, and disease.Prostitutes beaten and abused, Johns arrested, murphy games
If you are happy with the way prostitution is today, that’s cool with me.
Why change it?