THESIS SYNOPSIS

TOPIC: Should Canada legalize prostitution?

THESIS: Legalizing prostitution in Canada would be wrong and lead to a lack of governmental control, increased mental disorders of sex workers, and higher rates of organized crime.

Argument #1: It would be impossible for the Canadian government to control every aspect that comes with legalizing prostitution.

∙the government would undoubtedly make many promises when controlling every factor of legalized prostitution

∙would need to provide documentation for sex workers:

  • impossible to have documentation for every sex worker in the country
  • Ex. Legalizing prostitution in Amsterdam has lead to over 270 brothels with 70% of women working in the brothels having no proper documentation (1)
  • Also, many women in the sex industry would not want to register due to the constant health check-ups and taxes on their income

∙Unable to restrain own law-enforcement agents

  • “the human rights violation of trafficking persons cannot flourish without the complicity of indifferent and corrupt state officials” (2)
  • Many corrupt officials help smuggle women through international borders, obtain fake documentation, contribute to the sex market by buying their services, etc. (3)
  • Some officers would take advantage of their position in society and receive free services from these women/men for nothing in return

∙Even though prostitution is not legalized in Canada, there are already many problems flourishing within society

  • There are over 5000 sex workers in Montreal of which a third of them are women and children in street prostitution. About twelve, 16-30 year old Asians are trafficked into Canada each week and are sold into prostitution. There are over 10 000 sex workers in the greater Toronto area of which over 4000 are in the escort trade. (4)

∙The health problems in this trade would be too much for the government to handle

  • Large percentages of these women have been trafficked and have no proper documentation; therefore, do not receive government aid
  • The environment in which these sex slaves live in are disease-filled, damp closets that they sleep in, eat in, and basically spend their life in

Argument #2: The legalized sex trade would cause more women to suffer from psychological disorders.

∙Prostitution does not only negatively affects the sex workers’ physical health, but their mental health as well

∙"Laws that justify legalization or decriminalization of prostitution to safeguard women’s health fail to address the psychological harm of prostitution,” (5)

  • working in the sex industry, PTSD is said to be a normal mental disorder in which causes the sex workers to suffer through long, hard years with this problem
  • Working as a sex worker makes the person vulnerable to attacks, rapes, battering by pimps, etc.
  • Sex workers are also subjected to lies, deceit, and pain from their pimps/owners
  • “During their lifetime, 90% of sex workers currently working in the sex industry have suffered sexual abuse during their childhood years, often incest, and 75% of sex workers have been violently raped, not being involved in their work, in their years of being an adult” (6)

∙Women in the sex trade are most vulnerable to rapes

  • This most often occurs because johns (clients of prostitutes) are sometimes unwilling to pay the fees for the sexual services and are then subjected to raping the sex workers for free sexual pleasure
  • chances of a woman developing PTSD after their first rape are 50%-90% (7)
  • The ratio for severe disorder to distress is in one in four cases; compared to other crimes that only result in one in eight chances that the victim will get a severe distress disorder (7)

∙Sex workers are unable to receive the psychological help they need

  • “Prostitutes often will not seek counseling for their problems because they are suspicious of outsiders and authorities, fear rejection, and fear change. Prostitutes often fear admitting they have been harmed. They may have difficulty establishing enough control over their own lives to seek counseling, and they may fear that health care and other services will not help them because they are prostitutes” (8)
  • Unable to seek help; will be subjected to suffer through these psychological problems, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, for the rest of their lives,

Argument #3: Legalizing prostitution would cause higher rates of organized crime.

∙there is a whole underground side to prostitution that is filled with trafficking and illegal sex working

∙the process of illegally trafficking women into other countries already results to breaking many laws in the process

  • Procedures such as smuggling women into foreign countries, creating false documentation of these women, selling these women for sexual exploitation, and even drug abuse to keep them “tamed” for their pimps/owners, are all part of the procedures taken to traffic people into the sex industry (9)
  • Traffickers and pimps such as these are the reason for gang dominance in the sex trade of prostitution-legal countries
  • Generally, the percentages of prostitutes that are legitimately registered in prostitution-able countries only amount to 4% of women in the sex trade (10)

∙Other countries that have legalized prostitution still show gang-dominance in the sex trade

  • Studies have shown that after only one year of legalizing prostitution in the Netherlands, 50% of the sex trade had been run by traffickers (11)
  • In both the Netherlands and Amsterdam, 80% of women prostitutes are foreigners of which 70% of them do not have proper documentation which suggests that they were trafficked (12)

∙Pimps use many forms of violence to “tame” their sex workers

  • Torture such as beatings, excessive rapes, coercion, verbal abuse, and battering are inflicted onto the sex workers in order for the owners to take control over them (13)
  • “Pimps used violence for many different reasons and purposes. Violence was used to initiate some women into prostitution and to break them down so that they would do the sexual acts. After initiation, at every step of the way, violence was used for sexual gratification of the pimps, as a form of punishment, to threaten and intimidate women, to exert the pimp's dominance, to exact compliance, to punish women for alleged "violations," to humiliate women, and to isolate and confine women” (14)

Counter Arguments:

∙Legalizing prostitution would create great benefits for the sex workers and their “clients”

∙Legalizing prostitution would create greater governmental control and the gangs running prostitution would disintegrate

∙These sex workers have chosen to work in the sex trade and should not be subjected to the legalities of the legal system (should not be fined or arrested to do it)

∙Having prostitution legalized would provide sex workers with more protection from rapes, threats, deaths, etc.

∙Trafficking will disappear since the government will control all of the sex trade

Footnotes:

(1)Poulin, Richard. The Legalization of Prostitution and its Impact on Trafficking in Women and Children.6 Feb. 2005. 5 Mar. 2008

(2)Malarek, Victor. The Natashas.London, England: Penguin Group, 2003 (pg 136)

(3)Malarek, Victor. The Natashas.London, England: Penguin Group, 2003 (pg 132)

(4)Global March Against Child Labour. Child Prostitution and Pornography. Nov. 2001. 1 May 2008 <

(5)Farley, Melissa. Is Prostitution Psychologically Harmful to Prostitutes? 2007. 1 May 2008 <

(6)Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault . Prostitution.. 2 May 2008 <

(7)Miller, Ted R., Mark A. Cohen, and Shelli B. Rossman, Victim Costs of Violent Crime and Resulting Injuries. Health Affairs (Winter 1993).

(8)Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Prostitution. 2005. 1 May 2008 <

(9)Victor, Malarek. The Natashas.London, England: Penguin Group, 2003 (pg 57)

(10)Poulin, Richard. The Legalization of Prostitution and its Impact on Trafficking in Women and Children.6 Feb. 2005. 5 Mar. 2008

(11)Concerned Women for America . Keep the Anti-Prostitution Provision in PEPFAR.15 Aug. 2007. 2 May 2008 <

(12)Hughes, Donna M., Laura J. Sporic, and Nadine Z. Mendelsohn. The Netherlands. 2007. 20 Apr. 2008 <

(13)Farley, Melissa. Prostitution Fact Sheet.20 July 2001. 2 May 2008 <

(14)Raymond, Janice G. 10 Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution.25 Mar. 2003. 10 Apr. 2008 <