PROSTITUTION: SOME ARGUMENTS AGAINST PROSTITUTION

Various arguments are put forward against prostitution. Some of them are listed here:

• It is sinful, immoral and promotes fornication. It may lead to divorce.

• It degrades and misuses women solely to satisfy male lusts.

• It is an exploitation of the weaknesses of men by women and would not occur if women did

not offer the temptation.

• It tends to be associated with crime and criminals.

• It affects certain areas of cities reducing property values and making life miserable for non-

prostitute residents. (The Sexual Offences Act 1985 aimed at preventing curb crawling has

done something to help in this respect.)

• Due to ignorance or lack of care, the prostitute may harm the performance especially of young

men by, for example, hurrying them and so conditioning them to become premature

ejaculators.

• It spreads disease. This does not appear to be particularly true, at least for London prostitutes, and similar reassuring reports have been published from Copenhagen.

In the main, London prostitutes now insist that new clients wear a condom. The main concern there is the tendency for condoms to burst. Fifty prostitutes examined in 1985 were all clear of HIV. Women working in the San Francisco sex industry are no more likely to be HIV-positive than other sexually active women there. Elsewhere, especially in Africa and Haiti, prostitutes are a source of HIV. However, there are grounds for concern. One in five London prostitutes allows regular customers to have unprotected intercourse and nearly all fail to use condoms with their boyfriends and pimps. A more recent survey found 3 HIV-infected London prostitutes in a group of 150 but two were also drug abusers. Furthermore, several had infections with gonorrhoea and chlamydia probably caught from boyfriends. Although customer sex with London prostitutes is fairly safe they could become a source of spread of HIV in the future.