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ACLU Report on Decriminalizing Sex Work
Several organizations including the ACLU and Amnesty International have been working to decriminalize prostitution, aka sex work. This includes for sex worker and client alike--though usually paired with regulation of that work. They reject the middle ground of decriminalizing prostitution for the sex worker but retaining criminal sanctions for the client. These organizations argue that decriminalizing sex work for the sex worker only fails to accomplish the goal--if the client still faces criminal punishment, the sex worker must still work in secret, subject to violence.
Others argue just as strenuously that sex work should remain a crime, at least for the client. For them, such work is never or rarely voluntary, and even the term "sex worker" misleads us into believing that prostitution is work like any other work.
I include the below links as background. Read just the first two pages of the ACLU report, though of course feel free to read more. The Pamela Paul piece gives a popular summary of movements against decriminalization.
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