Legalizing Prostitution

October 17, 2011
Weitzer, criminologist and professor of sociology at George Washington University, provides an erudite overview of sex work and detailed case studies of three cities with red-light districts: Antwerp, Belgium; Frankfurt, Germany; and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Quoting comedian George Carlin—“Sex is legal. Selling is legal. Why is selling sex illegal?”—he traces the history of the criminalization of prostitution. Arguing that criminalization leads to a cyclic conclusion where “arrests and fines have little deterrent effect on the seller, who quickly return to selling sex” and that “some of those arrested present no harm to the public,” Weitzer presents a two-track policy, targeting “the reduction of street prostitution” and relaxing enforcement against “indoor actors who are operating consensually.” From independent escort to streetwalker, Weitzer evaluates the different types of prostitution and their degrees of vulnerability, claiming that “indoor prostitutes” and escorts suffer far less third-party manipulation and victimization, and have greater psychosocial well-being than those who work the streets. Prostitution, Weitzer convincingly declares, “can be organized in a way that is superior to blanket criminalization and marginalization.”