The worlds largest trade, Prostitution, has always found ways to overcome the legal attempts to suppress it. Prostitution has become one of the most common trades throughout the world. Many poor countries have turned to prostitution as an outlet from their economic difficulties.
It is the easiest from of labor for those who do not have a proper education or the economic background to join the legal labor force. Many men and women have found this line of work to be extremely rewarding in monetary aspects. Therefore the globalization and popularity of prostitution is not seen as a huge surprise. Prostitution has been on the streets and behind doors since the sixteenth century. It was present during the medieval period through the Victorian period and now to the present time. In the past, prostitution was seen as morally wrong and a great social evil.
During the medieval time in Europe and England, prostitutes were fully exploited by society. In medieval Europe and England, prostitutes were known to be single women who could not marry. There were not many opportunities for single women in the labor force during this time. If women were unable to marry, they turned to prostitution as an alternative out of economic necessity. The medieval society felt the need to stigmatize and exploit the single women for prostitution. The Victorians saw prostitution as asocial evil and refused to accept it in their society.
Prostitution was tolerated in a sense, but seen as big nuisance in the streets. Society was disturbed by it, but did nothing to change the problem. Children were forced into prostitution by their parents or guardians. Many women and children were given off to perform sexual activities in exchange for money.
The Victorians tolerated prostitution, but never accepted it as part of their society. By the mid-nineteenth century, prostitution became more open and accepted. Men of all social classes went to brothels and engaged in sexual activities with street prostitutes. The government became lenient in their resistant to strengthening the laws against prostitutes. Regulation or systematic toleration was put into place as a result of the changing attitudes towards prostitution.
The government realized that prostitution could never completely disappear, so it was tolerated and regulated simultaneously. Street prostitution is the largest group of prostitution today. It is the easiest to join because there are not many necessities or requirements involved. Three major groups of street prostitution exist.
Professionals who work full time for a living, the ones who work to feed a habit, and the part-time workers who work to support their family. The professionals join this line of work through their own volition and make a long life career out of it. Many of them are sex-crazed and therefore choose to become prostitutes. The prostitutes that work to feed a habit, usually work to get money for drugs and alcohol. Intravenous drugs has become linked with prostitution in the past few years. The criminalization of prostitution has forced it into the streets where drugs and alcohol are abundantly present. The prostitutes become addicted to the drugs and use prostitution to feed this addiction.
Part-time workers need the money to feed their children, pay the bills, or for extra cash. They usually practice prostitution on the side to make ends meet. Street prostitution has become one of the biggest trades for women who need easy money Prostitution has been criminalized for so long, but still the problems have not been solved or even slightly changed. It has been pushed underground where it has become the third most commonest way of transmission of AIDS and the closest association of drugs. The criminalization of prostitution has caused it to become unsafe,unclean, and forced it into association with criminal activity.
Prostitutes are big contributors to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases because of this. Legalizing prostitution will curtail the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and keep them under control, take it off the streets to more regulated and comfortable surroundings, and make the police squads free to control real illegal acts. The laws against prostitution have never been effective because they have never been strictly enforced. They are not practiced on a regular basis. Many times the prostitutes are just fined when caught performing the illegal action. This shows signs of tolerance, not enforcement of laws.
