Is prostitution a business like any other, which should be legalised?
There are a number of reasons why prostitution is not just a business like any other. Women who sell sex report high levels of physical and sexual violence, including verbal abuse, threats and intimidation one UK study of found that 63% of women in street and indoor prostitution had experienced violence (Barnard et al 2002). Selling access to the body also has a negative psychological and emotional impact for women. A study in five different countries found that two thirds of women in prostitution met the criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Farley et al, 1998). The majority of those in prostitution are women, and the majority of buyers are men. Prostitution arises from and perpetuates gender inequality. The majority of women who sell sex were socially marginalised even before entering prostitution. Legalisation only serves to entrench and give government sanction to this commodification and the discrimination inherent in it. Those who profit from the legalisation are the pimps
