All Politics Is Local
How the Spitzer scandal is covered in the Israeli press.
Incidentally, it seems the bien pensant position to take on Spitzer is that there was nothing “wrong” with what he did as such; he wronged his wife by doing it behind her back, and, as a former AG who prosecuted call-girl rings himself, he’s guilty of gross hypocrisy. Plus the Mann Act is a barbaric relic of Jim Crow.
Well, Israel is one of the many countries around the world where prostitution is, in fact, legal. And guess what? That fact hasn’t “cleaned up” the profession. Rape, physical abuse and intimidation are still widespread.
“Sin industries” – gambling, prostitution, drugs (including alcohol and tobacco), pornography – are genuinely tough public policy problems. Legalize, and you get more of them – and those who suffer most are those who can afford it least, the weakest, dumbest and most vulnerable. Criminalize, and you don’t stamp it out, you create a whole class of criminals who don’t think they are doing anything “wrong” (and who are sure to be prosecuted in an inequitable manner), and you feed the coffers of organized crime to boot.
As a response, I find reflex cultural libertarianism as unserious and unpersuasive as reflex cultural moralism.
UPDATE: Via Matt Yglesias, here’s a rundown from Bradford Plumer on different approaches around the world. His bottom line is that legalize-and-regulate is the least-bad approach, but he is honest enough to acknowledge that least-bad doesn’t mean good and, specifically, that this approach is likely to lead not only to more prostitution but, because you probably can’t have a sex industry without exploitation and violence, very likely more people suffering from exploitation and violence, albeit likely of a less-severe variety. In other words, you’re reducing the severity of the abuses by increasing their frequency. Whether that’s a good trade depends a great deal on the numbers on each side, and good, hard numbers on either are going to be tough to come by.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Can’t resist linking to Derb quoting Quentin Crisp.
“Well, Israel is one of the many countries around the world where prostitution is, in fact, legal. And guess what? That fact hasn’t “cleaned up” the profession. Rape, physical abuse and intimidation are still widespread.”
point taken noah, but if you click the link don’t you think your assertion is a little deceptive? ;-) a lot of the issues noted have to due with illegal immigrant status and slavery. and brothels are still illegal….
— razib · Mar 11, 06:03 PM · #
razib: I’m pretty sure that many of the countries that have legalized prostitution continue to criminalize pimping, for obvious reasons. And the immigration angle is also pretty ubiquitous, not at all unique to Israel. Do you think that most prostitutes in the Netherlands are Dutch? Of course not: they’re from Ukraine, Russia, Southeast Asia, etc.
The assumption that by making prostitution legal you eliminate coersion is unwarranted. Saying that the coersion is due to something else – “immigration status and slavery” – strikes me as a semantic evasion. Unless you’re suggesting that making slavery legal would eliminate coersion . . .
— Noah Millman · Mar 11, 06:15 PM · #
“The assumption that by making prostitution legal you eliminate coersion is unwarranted.”
well, i doubt anyone would say that eveything is going to be fine & dandy. the issue is whether there is quantitatively increased or less utility; however you judge that. e.g., there are +‘s and -‘s for having a “red light district.” whether you think it is acceptable depends on how you weight the +‘s and -‘s.
— razib · Mar 11, 08:00 PM · #