Prosecution offers to drop charges of Patriot's owner admits guilt

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/19/us/rober ... index.html

Can you imagine ever being offered this kind of deal on anything? Like, a parking ticket?

[Madner Kami]

Given prostitution is legal in my country and I have absolutely no moral problem with prostitution as long as it's between consenting adults, I have to say: I do not see a problem here. There shouldn't be any charges in the first place.

[Draco Dracul]

Given prostitution is legal in my country and I have absolutely no moral problem with prostitution as long as it's between consenting adults, I have to say: I do not see a problem here. There shouldn't be any charges in the first place.

See I while I do think there is a strong argument for legalizing prostitution, there is a significant difference between a regulated legal industries and an illicit one. Mostly that in countries where prostitution is illegal it funnels money to organized crime, and is often interlinked with human trafficking.

[Yukaphile]

Seriously? Are you against legalized prostitution, Draco? I'm in favor of legalizing prostitution here in the US. Hell, one could argue outlawing it is what drives them underground into sex trafficking.

[Madner Kami]

Seriously? Are you against legalized prostitution, Draco?

As far as I can tell, that isn't what he has written at all.

[...] there is a significant difference between a regulated legal industries and an illicit one. Mostly that in countries where prostitution is illegal it funnels money to organized crime, and is often interlinked with human trafficking.

Well, the difference is, that one is illegal and the other is not. What you wrote in your final sentence is pretty much true for everything under the sun and is hardly an innate property of prostitution itself. I don't need to point out, how the "War on Drugs" works out, do I? Or do I need to pull out the Mastercard over issues like this and play out "Prohibition"? I'll let John Davison Rockefeller Jr., a strong supporter of the Prohibition describe what happens, if you try to push something into illegality that the vast majority of the population considers to be fine or even desireable:

When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.

Looks familiar, doesn't it? The simple fact of the matter is, if you want to restrict access to something that is widely believed to be fair game, then people are going to do or drink or eat or whatever they want regardless and since all legal avenues are blocked, they'll turn to illegal avenues of access. This is hardly surprising and not an arguement against prositution, quite the contrary. Legalize the behaviour, tax it and regulate it. It's a winwinwinwinwin for everyone involved.

So, to me, the problem here isn't that someone does something illegal, that neither hurts society nor any individual involved. The problem is, that it's illegal in the first place.

[Riedquat]

This sounds a bit like "banning something doesn't work", which has an unfortunate tendency to be used to justify legalising absolutely anything. There's a reason we have laws, and unfortunately it boils down to subjective opinion about what should and shouldn't be illegal.

In theory I've no problem with prostitution being legal but because of the very strong desires involved in anything sexual it's very easy to exploit, and that's not as easy a thing to deal with as it may appear - some people would sell themselves into slavery in desperation but I hope we'd all agree that slavery should be illegal.

[Admiral X]

If it's legalized, it can be regulated, though, which can make it safer for both the prostitutes and their clients, as well as reduce human trafficking and slavery out of lack of demand. Having it be illegal is only a case of legislated morality, and I can't help but get the feeling that, much like with people who are against porn, they don't seem to get that people would actually want to do it without feeling like they're being forced into it because they enjoy the work and/or the amount of money it can earn them for seemingly little effort on their part.

[Madner Kami]

This sounds a bit like "banning something doesn't work", which has an unfortunate tendency to be used to justify legalising absolutely anything.

No, it doesn't. Banning works, if a vast majority of the society complies. This is clearly not the case for alcohol, drugs and prostitution however, which means that the vast majority of the societies desire these goods and practises.

There's a reason we have laws, and unfortunately it boils down to subjective opinion about what should and shouldn't be illegal.

Laws are rules that a society agreed on. If a society does not agree with the law, then the law will be broken over and over again until either the society got clubbed into submission by their overlords or till the law is removed. How subjective collectively created and accepted rules are, is up to debate. In a dictatorship, yeah, the rules are subjective. In a democracy however... Not so much.

In theory I've no problem with prostitution being legal but because of the very strong desires involved in anything sexual it's very easy to exploit, and that's not as easy a thing to deal with as it may appear - some people would sell themselves into slavery in desperation but I hope we'd all agree that slavery should be illegal.

As I and Admiral said: If it's legalized, it can be taxed and regulated. By that very practice, you make the real and opportunity-costs of the societally not accepted variants go up to (generally) unreasonable levels and make them automatically largely unavailable. Conversely, the real and opportunity-costs for societally accepted or tolerable alternatives for undesired variants goes down, lowering crime rates and making life just plain better for everyone involved.