But the majority of prostitutes are NOT drugged out, pimp-controlled streetwalkers. They're educated, clean women and "pimps" are largely a thing of the past. Nowadays, you have escort services, not a 'pimp'. These businesses are the front and provide the girls with a way to meet customers, transportation if necessary, and protection if desired. In return, the girls pay them a fee. Just like any other third party business. Most of the girls, however, will gather a group of regulars and drop the escort service after awhile.
I'm sorry but escort services are not the same as street corners. Escort services largely cater to upper crust type clients and the women providing the service tend to be well off. On the streets, however, there is a disproportionate number of illegal immigrants who were either lured from foreign places with false promises, or they were coerced after they arrived. The white prostitution market is better off across the board, even in the areas of illegality. Women who are dark skinned or asian are not part of the well off market you're talking about.
I mean, we've all seen instances like the big boobed white escort who appeared on Oprah to talk about how prostitution is her empowered choice, and that it should be legal in order to empower women everywhere, but she's already in a position of power. She's a white woman. She's beautiful. When she talks, people listen. But that is not the real voice of prostitution. I disagree with you that the minority are controlled by pimps or experienced sexual assault and repeated abuse. They are the majority the world over. The legal sex industry is booming so why are so many people sucked into the gutter of the illegal underground? Why don't those women just transfer to the legal industry and do other work that is comparatively safer, healthier, and out of dodge? Obviously their choices are being affected by certain circumstances.
Legalization creates standards for safer sex in prostitution, but it's up to the woman and the client to obey them. There will always be johns who are willing to pay more for unprotected. There will always be johns who like it rough, or who like their women stripped of power.
This is why I am in favor of decriminalization but not legalization. The women need agency to leave if they want, but at the same time the (mostly) men who lured them into it should not escape punishment. Nor should the clientele. Legalization does nothing to curb the illegal global trafficking of women and children. If it's legal, then when a woman gets abused the law will just say that she walked into it; if it's legal, then when a woman has AIDS then they will just see her as a high hazard worker. Nothing will happen to the johns, or the pimps who pressured through abuse to go for the higher price tag for unprotected sex.
A service like the one in the OP will possibly help the drug addled streetwalkers that comprise the minority of prostitutes, and that's not a bad thing per se. Essentially, it would just be a drug rehab program and could be open for anyone. But it wouldn't affect the majority of prostitutes since they don't require that kind of assistance. They aren't destitute, they aren't uneducated, and they aren't drug addicts.
I strongly disagree with this assessment. Prostitution that is visible, marketed, and high profile in the media is not representative of what exists on the street level and behind closed doors in all the illegal arrangements. You should take a stroll though East Hastings in Vancouver and try to tell me that those women are empowered.
