Public Order Crimes: Is Prostitution Criminal and Immoral?
Since time can remember, societies have endlessly prohibited and limited behaviors that oppose social norms, customs, and values. Criminologists are concerned with who decides what is and is not considered acceptable behavior, and how we discriminate between the two (book, 311). Public order crimes are “actions that do not conform to society’s general ideas of normal social behavior and moral values.” These certain actions are viewed as harmful to the “public good” or harmful and disruptive to society (http://law.jrank.org/pages/11962/Public-Order-Crimes.html). For example, common law crimes such as kidnapping and rape are considered morally wrong and damaging, while other behaviors,
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Early records of prostitution state that “priests engaged in sex to promote fertility in the community.” The first established brothels weren’t around until about 500 BC in ancient Greece where the earnings helped pay for the temple of Aphrodite (book, 315). Today, prostitution is defined as “the granting of non-marital sexual access, established by mutual agreement of the prostitutes, their clients, and their employers, for payment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution).” There are numerous types of prostitutes such as streetwalkers, bar girls, brothel prostitutes, escorts, and call girls. There are also oversea trades called trafficking which young girls are forced or sold into …show more content…
Some women may have been coerced or forced to become prostitutes by “pimps or human trafficking.” If the decision to become a prostitute was independent, it may be the result of “poverty or the lack of support, opportunity, or other underlying problems. Past trauma, drug addiction, sexual abuse such as molestation, and other unfortunate, immoral circumstances may contribute in the decision. Anti-prostitution feminists also argue that there are long term effects of prostitution. It can lead to serious, negative, and damaging long term effects on the individual. For example: trauma, stress, depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse, self-harm, and suicide. It is exploitative because the prostitute will be exposed and vulnerable to psychological, physical, and sexual violence