MYTH: Decriminalization of prostitution will stop illegal prostitution

FACT: Decriminalization of prostitution in Australia and New Zealand has resulted in an increase in illegal, hidden, and street prostitution. Decriminalization promotes sex trafficking.

MYTH: If prostitution were decriminalized, licensed brothel owners would not hire illegal, underage or trafficked women.

FACT: Decriminalization increases child prostitution.  This has been well documented in the Netherlands since brothel prostitution was instituted. Pimps - owners of brothels, escort agencies, and massage parlors - want to make money. They don't care if someone is illegal, a child, or trafficked. Pimps, traffickers, procurers and especially johns flock to wherever a thriving prostitution industry exists.

MYTH: If prostitution were decriminalized it would eliminate pimps by providing prostitutes with occupational alternatives

FACT: Prostitution is not labor, it is a violation of human rights.  It is often paid rape.  It is intrinsically harmful and traumatic.  For almost everyone in it, prostitution is about not having a range of educational and job options to choose from. Most women in prostitution end up there only because many other options are not available. They do not have stable housing, they urgently need money to support children or pay for school, and they often have limited or no education.   Imagine this scenario: Vocational Rehab counselors recommending that women learn how to prostitute as a way of supporting themselves.  That occurred in New Zealand where prostitution was recently decriminalized.

MYTH: If prostitution were decriminalized it would promote the mental health of prostitutes because they feel isolated and ashamed.

FACT: It's not the legal status of prostitution that causes the harm, it's the prostitution itself. The longer she is in prostitution Ð legal or illegal - the more she is psychologically harmed.  The shame and the isolation persist even if prostitution is decriminalized or legalized.  Women in Dutch prostitution don't register as legal prostitutes because they are ashamed to be known as prostitutes - even though they'd be accruing  retirement benefits if they registered.  Regardless of its legal status, women don't want to be prostitutes and are ashamed of it.  Does any woman in prostitution deserve to be treated disrespectfully or stigmatized?  Of course not. But prostitution inevitably means that you're treated like an object to be masturbated into.

MYTH: If prostitution were decriminalized, prostitutes would be safer from rape and physical assaults.

FACT: Women can report rapes and assaults to the police under current laws. The problem is that the contempt toward prostitutes stays the same, whether prostitution is legal or illegal. Women get raped in escort and brothel prostitution just as often as in street prostitution, according to a number of studies.  Almost everyone in prostitution was raped as a child before she got into it.  Incest and rape are bootcamp for prostitution.

MYTH: Decriminalizing prostitution would save a lot of money because police wouldn't have to make arrests

FACT: Decriminalization has resulted in expensive legal challenges because no one wants prostitution zoned into their neighborhood or near their kids' schools.  Mustang Ranch (NV) was shut down because of tax evasion. Pimps are simply not going to hand over the massive profits that are a part of the industry