(no subject)
Mar. 12th, 2008 07:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pearwaldorfMore than enough has been written about Eliot Spitzer and what he's done, so I'm not going to address that. What I'm confused about is how exactly it's innovative and novel to go after the johns instead of the women they patronize. It seems pretty fucking obvious to me that this is a system that exploits a power differential between men with more money and power (pimps, johns) and women with none of that (Cody once overheard a cop shaking down a prostitute when we lived in Portland). So of course you'd go after the johns, who most of all fear being caught, and figure out a way to get the women out of the situation they're in.
No, prostitution as it is currently is certainly not a victimless crime. But it doesn't have to be the way it is now. The fact that it is illegal affords these women little protection or choice. But regulation (and subsequent taxation) would help alleviate that. This, of course, has to be coordinated with efforts to eliminate the reasons women become prostitutes in the first place. It is not my aim to eliminate the practice, but to make it a safe choice for those who do it.
No, prostitution as it is currently is certainly not a victimless crime. But it doesn't have to be the way it is now. The fact that it is illegal affords these women little protection or choice. But regulation (and subsequent taxation) would help alleviate that. This, of course, has to be coordinated with efforts to eliminate the reasons women become prostitutes in the first place. It is not my aim to eliminate the practice, but to make it a safe choice for those who do it.
