Finding common ground for rational discussion

While I disagree with their basic premise that prostitution - indoor or outdoor - should be criminalized (I believe that criminalization will make things worse rather than better) I want to point to some very helpful observations made by RI Senators Paul V. Jabour and Sen. Michael J. McCaffrey in yesterday morning's Herald News.

1. We need to re-draw the now-blurred line between prostitution, human trafficking, and age of consent issues. It does not help victims of forced labor or coercive human trafficking when we distract ourselves from their issues by focusing on the sexual content of some of their work. Nor does it help when we make generalizations about prostitution.

2. Some people who are engaged in prostitution (and other informal economic activity) have primary needs that are not being addressed. Education, job training, housing and health care and other employment opportunities can change the equation for some of those for whom prostitution becomes the best of a set of limited options.

3. Imprisonment is not the answer. It is not the answer to prostitution or to many other crimes. There are some people who do need to be separated from the rest of the population, but the prison industrial complex creates more problems than it solves.See point #2.

If we could focus on these and one or two other important premises that I believe many of us share, namely that adult consensual sexual expression should be a matter of personal freedom, and that everybody should be protected from violence and from unsafe working conditions, I think we could have a very productive discussion leading to eminently rational laws.

Criminalization of prostitution is an emotionally driven reaction to a moral panic and exemplifies one group trying to force others to abide by its religious or moral standards. On the other hand, laws that protect workers, protect civil rights, and free up public resources to address violent crime and community development should be based on reason, evidence, and thoughtful discourse.

Here are some specific ways this discussion - in Rhode Island and around the country - could be restructured:

• Focus on reducing violence: Reducing violence is a goal that goes well beyond commercial sex. Assault and battery in intimate relationships is a significant problem, and street violence is also a problem in many communities. Reducing violence in our society is a goal that requires us to foster respect for difference, to reduce the amount of inequality in our society, and to rethink our addiction, drug policy, and gun control. 
• Focus on improving standards of living for people with few opportunities so that they have meaningful choices about how to support themselves and their families.
• Focus on protecting civil rights including the right to make choices about how we use our bodies for work or for pleasure
• Focus on how to address human development issues like education, housing, and health care so that we have safer, more secure communities.

If these things were the focus of our civil discourse and our legislative efforts we would solve many more problems than we will if our approach is limited to the moral panic approach advocated by the prohibitionists.