Many illegal prostitutes enter this profession to support their drug habits. Also, the use of illegal drugs is many times used to help them cope with the hardships of their lifestyle, (Hock). If prostitution were legal, there would be many more regulations placed on the profession. Therefore, the relationship between prostitution and illegal drugs would be less likely. When something is illegal, it is more likely to be linked with other illegal and harmful activities.
An obvious issue with illegal prostitution is the spreading and contracting of sexually transmitted infections. Prostitutes on the whole generally have much higher rates of sexually transmitted infections than the rest of the population. This could possibly be due to the amount of sex prostitutes are having compared to an average person. But it is definitely caused by the lack of education and the fact that illegal prostitutes often do not use any protection. This risk also rises with the use of things like injectable drugs, which have often been associated with illegal prostitution, (Hock). For example, 10 percent of illegal prostitutes arrested in 1990 tested positive for HIV writes author Charles S. Clark. Around the same time, a study in 1991 taken of legal prostitutes turned up not one case of AIDS, (Clark). Prostitutes who work where prostitution is either legal or decriminalized are at much less a risk than prostitutes working where prostitution is illegal. Where prostitution is legal or decriminalized, the prostitutes have the option to work somewhere where they are safe from being exposed to sexually transmitted infections.
It would seem like a no brainer to make prostitution legal everywhere considering all the dangers of illegal prostitution. However, plenty of people are very opposed to this idea. Many people with conservative beliefs and definitely those within religious groups find this concept preposterous.
