It is a constitutionally impermissible to prosecute consenting adults for engaging in sex in private. Why in a capitalist country is it permissible to prosecute consenting adults for engaging in sex in private for hire? If a doctor will not treat a patient, except for money, that is not a crime but is part of our understanding of capitalism.
Don't try to introduce logic and reason when discussing the illegalities of prostitution. You'll only wind up hurting your head. At any rate, I've often wondered why it is that prostitution suddenly becomes legal when the sex act is filmed and downloaded onto a porn site.
If there are associated social ills accompanying the business of prostitution, such as abuse by pimps, regulate those activities.
As an interesting aside, the recent best-selling book Super Freakonomics did a whole chapter on the business of prostitution. A researcher profiled several Chicago streetwalkers and found that those who use pimps actually make more money from fewer sex acts than those who don't --even after handing over the traditional 25% of their earnings to the pimp. Turns out, if the John is black, the prostitute offers a fixed rate. If the John is white, the prostitute asks him how much he's willing to pay. In almost all cases, the white John offers far more than she's used to getting from her black customers. The pimps know this as well and they go out and find white customers for their girls.
I've often wondered why it is that prostitution suddenly becomes legal when the sex act is filmed and downloaded onto a porn site. Is it because the sex act when filmed acquires the constitutional protection of the First Amendment? That is not vitiated by the fact that the actors are paid. The sex act between consenting adults in private is constitutionally protected, why is that protection lost when the actors are paid?
Surely, the associated social ills alleged to be the byproduct of prostitution such as exploitation, spread of disease, degradation of morals generally, are all to be found in filming porn. And what about the additional social degradation which occurs from the fact that the porn is published while the act of prostitution for hire is presumably done in private?
The legalization of prostitution, like the legalization of drugs, and the general acceptance of homosexuality, whether for good or ill, is inevitable and we should get on with it. That is not to say that these activities are in themselves desirable it is to say that the criminalization of these activities is more harmful to society then to tolerate and regulate them.
