A selection of our reader comments is provided below. We believe these statements are particularly relevant to our core question: "Should prostitution be legal?"

We posted these pro, con, and neutral comments in the approximate ratio that we received them. (For example, if 60% of the responses received are "pro," then about 60% of the responses posted below would be "pro").

The comments are arranged in reverse chronological order -- most recent first. We sometimes edit comments for brevity, clarity, and spelling. We may also remove comments posted when we find better comments covering the same issues. To preserve confidentiality, only the writer's first name is noted, unless he/she has waived confidentiality. Respondents are generally notified when we add their comments to this section.

• CON 4/10/08 - "I am concerned about what message we are sending to our children. What will happen to increased drug, crime, and disease rates? What about peer pressure for teens? It is an unhealthy way to make money for everyone involved. Law enforcements are paid to do their job and it means protecting everyone. Just because a governor wants to do it legally, doesn't mean they should legalize it or just because some call girl claims it to be positive. Why not support other ways for people to make money and keep them from turning to prostitution. This is so wrong! I don't want my daughters to wind up in this mess!"
  Margaret, 4/10/08

• CON 3/25/08 - "I think a lot of people tend to forget about the spouses, partner, etc. (both male and female) of these people using prostitutes...as victims of this crime as well...
  
  What I don't understand are those prostitutes or strippers (online or not) who agree to be what they are as a form of 'work' or 'job' when there are other things available for them...These men and women don't seem to realize they HURT other people by doing their 'job'. They are partners in destroying people's lives and families and perpetuate this stupidity and addiction...They can't grasp the concept that they may feel there is no victim there, but you know what there are - broken families, broken hearts, hurt feelings and lifelong suffering of STDs of the partners..."
  Clarisa, 3/25/08

• PRO 3/13/08 - "I think prostitution should be legalized because some people need that job because the government won't give them a job whether or not they have a college degree. Some of them have kids that they need to provide for so if the government doesn't like it they should start providing jobs for them."
  Tiffany, 3/13/08

• CON 3/12/08 - "I think prostitution shouldn't be legalized! It's a ridiculous idea to start with. In my English 1102 class we're writing positions essays, and I choose this topic because I feel that if the government were to ever make this legal it's like saying to the world it's okay to be a prostitute! I mean what would that say to the kids today when we're suppose to be setting an example...In taxing it like it's a career, is our society that desperate for money that it is willing to stoop so low to get it?"
  Teecara, 3/12/08

• PRO 2/20/08 - "I believe prostitution should be legalized for the safety and well-being of the women/men involved."
  Christi, 2/20/08

• CON 2/14/08 - "Prostitution may be a trade or profession, and to legalize it would encourage more people to go into the profession and more people to seek their services. What would be the impact of that on family as we traditionally know it?...There are arguments on both sides of the coin but I believe that in the end, the one who gains from the boom in customers is the one who would be exposed to more abuses and pain...
  
  It is bad enough that this profession still exists, but to legalize it may also be compared to legalizing drugs and products of that type, and anyone who wants it can have it with no legal/moral consequences.
  
  Who would be proud to say he or she is a prostitute, or that their child or spouse is a prostitute? Would legalizing the profession make it less dishonorable? I think not."
  Vera, 2/14/08

• PRO 2/2/08 - "I think prostitution should be legalized.
  
  If a man wants sexual satisfaction bad enough to be willing to pay for it, and a woman wants money bad enough to give him that satisfaction in exchange for said money, that should be nobody else's business but their own! As long as both participants are consenting adults, and understand the risks they are taking, I feel everyone not directly involved should keep their noses out of it, and mind their own business!"
  Jim, 2/2/08

• PRO 1/19/08 - "Legislation of morality is never the right course. Laws need to be made only to protect, not to dictate. The laws against prostitution actually do MORE harm than good. People will just become criminals because the behavior won't stop; the behavior just becomes a crime. There actually would be less crime with legalization, more protection with less ability to take advantage of that which people will do anyway."
  Jan, 1/19/08

• CON 12/24/07 - "The only obstacle as whether to legalize it or not is the question of morality and the religious perspective. Prostitution and adultery have always been like two faces of one coin; both require and result from a lack of loyalty to one single partner, either in wedlock or out of it.
  
  The examples of how religion looks at it are explicit in all Heavenly faiths, and to sanction this particular aspect of all cultures without regard to the moral and religious considerations would be an outright violation to all that keeps societies morally intact."
  Elizus, 12/24/07

• PRO 11/18/07 - "Prostitution should be made legal. There is no reason why it shouldn't, as long as it is limited by fair conditions and terms; a woman's body is HER body and no one else's, therefore she should be able to do with it what she pleases. If prostitution were decriminalized it would be fair to require that all prostitutes have frequent medical check-ups by sufficient doctors to prevent the spread of STIs. People forcing women and children into the trade could be decreased dramatically because the prostitutes that voluntarily worked could report it to authorities without having to worry about revealing themselves."
  Christine, 11/18/07

• PRO 11/17/07 - "Prostitution should be decriminalized. The only restriction should be age related. Why should consenting adults not be allowed to engage in agreed upon transactions that are victimless?"
  Eric, 11/17/07

• PRO 10/31/07 - "As an adult entertainer/escort (by independent choice) I fully support legalizing prostitution. I believe that by legalizing prostitution the women who are independent providers by choice wouldn't have to fret over being 'caught' or visited by Law Enforcement. It would also allow the community to locate the prostitutes who are being forced to do so either by their situation or by another person.

  Prostitution is a victimless crime!!!

  There are many other things that have been legalized on the sole basis of 'women's rights' (i.e. abortion, birth control, anonymous new-born drop off spots etc). These things have been allowed because women have the right to do what they wish to themselves (particularly their bodies) so it seems just a bit hypocritical to keep prostitution illegal."
  Carmen Smythe, adult entertainer and escort, 10/31/07

• PRO 10/9/07 - "If it's legal in politics, should it not be legal in all other relationships? People have the freedom and the right, regardless of 'government' opinion to do with their bodies whatever they so choose."
  Anthony,10/9/07

• CON 10/2/07 - "Prostitution is sexual slavery, sexual fascism, ripping profits from the vulnerable bodies of those who were commonly brutalized as children. Children and women have always been trafficked by bullies who seek to legalize their merciless barbarism. In fact, all prostitution is forced. For no healed human being would willingly serve as a garbage dump for every selfish, vulgar, and heartless boor passing through town."
  Judith Reisman, PhD, President of the Institute for Media Education and Science Advisor to the California Protective Parents Association,10/2/07

• PRO 9/29/07 - "There are hundreds of millions of women in the world who get paid for prostituting and live by the income. The paradox is we see and know its existence but fail to recognize it. Whether we recognize it or not we must live with it because these women have a right to live and they do not have any other best alternative to what they are doing. Unless we can change it we better legalize it as a genuine business and respect those who do this business."
  Anonymous 9/29/07

• PRO 8/14/07 - "Using resources on prostitutes and drug offenders to prosecute and jail them is an extreme waste in so many ways. There has to be some sanity somewhere."
  Thomas 8/14/07

• PRO 8/08/07 - "What no one seems to care about is the guys who women do not find attractive enough to sleep with them. What about us? I'm fat, lazy, insecure, I'm not being funny here just honest. I feel a prostitute's job is to have sex with guys who can't get laid (by a CUTE woman) for free. I think it is cruel to guys like me to have to either remain celibate, or have to constantly worry about getting caught and arrested. Why does no one seem to care about the guys who can't get sex any other way?"
  Anonymous 8/08/07

• PRO 5/22/07 - "I think that there should be a distinction between forced and voluntary prostitution. Nobody should be forced by violence or threat to prostitute himself.... On the other side if people choose freely to prostitute themselves in order to gain money or for whatever other reason I think nobody has the right to decide in their place...."
  Ralph 5/22/07