Title: Why is prostitution illegal? - The Straight Dope
Headings: Why is prostitution illegal?
Why is prostitution illegal?
Content: The victims aren’t complaining. Why should the rest of us care? The usual explanation is that criminalization of prostitution is a product of the moralizing impulse in American politics. As with other victimless crimes such as gambling and drug use, our antiprostitution laws largely date from the Progressive era around the turn of the 20th century. This period also produced reforms such as the pure food and drugs laws and antitrust regulation. Many Progressive leaders were educated, articulate members of the middle class that had emerged during the economic expansion following the Civil War. No longer was it necessary to accept social ills as inevitable, they felt. If we apply scientific methods and can-do attitude to our problems, we can eradicate them altogether. In many respects the Progressive project was a great success. Today everybody is grateful that we have pure food laws and antitrust regulation. (