Should prostitution be legalised?

The good thing about the Amsterdam model apart from the advantages outlined by TinaF1 is that it is confined to a specific area. You would only go there if you intended to, it does not overflow into residential areas.

Even squeaky clean cities like Singapore have recognised red light districts, in fact the Singapore district is all red lights !.

I also agree that this discussion is not about us or our nearest & dearest following the profession, but about those that do for whatever reason, and their protection.

But it is about us and our nearest and dearest. The people that do and going to do this are someones' sons and daughters.
Legalising things will entice them more. New people join all the time.

But NOT legalising it hasn't worked either has it?

Hundreds if not thousands of years of the non legalised sex trade has not stamped it out or even dented it a bit.

There is a demand whether we like or agree with it .

So surely it's better to be legal and safer and regulated than ad hoc as it is now?

I have to disagree, whomever takes up the profession is better regulated and safe, than at the hands of criminals, pimps, slavers etc.

Being illegal is only an advantage if we had the resources to adequately police it, which we will never have.

Depends what you mean by worked.

Of course it is never going to be stamped out, but it is a bit like health and safety. Can we tell how many accidents have been prevented by tighter health and safety rules?
With prostitution it is an even harder thing to quantify.

If the whole industry is better regulated, I suspect that a whole lot more men will try their services.

Men are the main users of the service, and I suspect would continue to be, whatever the regulation.

But apparently Amsterdam still has unregulated prostitution, so regulation is only a partial solution. And a defined red light district is feasible in a large town or city, but how about sex workers in a small market town; would they be confined to an industrial estate?

I am wholly in favour of legalisation as far as it is necessary, but there are practicalities to be overcome.

I find this a real challenge. I accept prostitution has always and will always be with us. I would like to live in a world where that wasn't so. Where we all had proper relationships in which we loved and cared for each other, rather than exploited, abused and hurt each other.

Iam64. Agree, we would love a world where such things did not exist. But life being what it is, they always will and we have to manage the situation as best we can, so that it has as little impact as possible.

Grumppa

You put it more eloquently than I did in my 3rd paragraph.

I doubt there would be a request for brothels in market towns , anyone who lives in one will know even an affair is impossible to remain a secret

It could make an interesting market stall

Craft or farmers market pompa

Anniebach, you have just come up with the solution to the end of the sex trade!
Make everyone live in small towns!

Perhaps obieone , but I suggest not a market town with a promenade and definitely not if the promenade has a band stand , takes time to read the names written there and not good if a churned boyfriend writes the name of an ex there , causes problems

Having always lived in a big city, I had no idea that the male inhabitants of market towns and their surrounding villages did not have the same needs as other men. I suppose it's the availability of livestock....

You shouldn't believe that very, very old joke about sheep Grumppa

After a long break for family reasons just caught up with this site again. Forgive me if someone has already raised this but, having read a fair number of the comments, I haven't seen one yet that talks about the other group affected by prostitution legal or otherwise. In that group are the spouses, partners, girl/boyfriends of the users of the service who are usually unaware that their other half is using these services. They too have a right to be protected from disease and betrayal. I doubt that many users come home and inform their partners that they have visited a prostitute and had, perhaps, unprotected sex, thus giving them the chance to protect their own bodies. In my view if you think it is ok to visit prostitutes it should be ok to have an open and frank discussion about it and its dangers with your nearest and dearest.

Why do the Welsh always rise to bait, ab?

You baited Grumppa ? Not kind surely

grumppa, are you suggesting that men's "needs" as you put it have to be met, either by prostitutes or dumb animals if they aren't being met elsewhere? The fact your post comes immediately before Devorgilla's post about the rights of the partners of men or women who use prostitutes is one of life's little ironies isn't it.

Prostitution isn't a victimless crime, much as many of us would like it to be. those of us who have helped pick up the pieces when the lives of sex workers lead to their children being neglected, exposed to stuff they shouldn't have to see or know about or worse, become embroiled into the sordid trade itself are more than well aware of that.

I apologise for not seeing the joke about men's needs and the use of animals to satisfy them.

Absolutely - Grumppa if you're going to hang around with us you need to be a little more careful about who you might be offending. The Welsh can get sick to the back teeth about that kind of humour. (you know, like the Irish getting understandably fed up with jokes about thick Paddies?)
And as for "men's needs" well my heart is bleeding. Seems to me that prostitutes are used for entertainment purposes by many men. Nothing to do with need. They should masturbate on their own and not pay someone else to add variety to the activity IMO.
The World Cup in Germany highlighted the extent to which prostitution is seen as part of the leisure industry with women's bodies being the commodities.
www.theguardian.com/world/2006/may/30/germany.features11

You shouldn't believe that very, very old joke about sheep Grumppa
Have you led a sheltered life, anniebach?
I wouldn't say it's widespread but .....

Not a sheltered life Jamila, as you must know of someone who has or does partake in this pass time I will accept your word, myself I have never heard anyone admit to it

Well, they wouldn't would they?