Prostitution is a crime that is often listed with several other criminal offenses under the hading "victimless crimes," meaning such offenses as drunkenness, drug addiction, and gambling. Efforts toward decriminalization of prostitution emphasize the social and behavioral causes of prostitution and state that criminalization has done nothing to reduce the activity, while those who believe prostitution should remain a criminal offense point to the devastation it causes to individuals and the community. Current research on prostitution addresses several general topics, including the relationship between prostitution and the social and economic plight of women around the world, the relationship between prostitution and the spread of AIDS, the connection between prostitution and drug abuse, and the particular issue of adolescence and the beginning of prostitution. A survey of the literature shows how these topics are being treated today.
Today, 49 of the 50 states outlaw prostitution, in contrast to other Western nations such as England, the Netherlands, and Germany. In 1959 the American Law Institute's (ALI) Model Penal Code did not endorse the decriminalization of prostitution, though it did suggest decriminalizing other previously criminal sexual behaviors, such as homosexuality. At the time, the ALI cited several problems with prostitution which prevented it from making a recommendation of legalization, including that it encourages the spread of venereal disease, that it is a source of profit for criminal groups, that it exerts a corrupting influence on government and law enforcement, and that it promotes social disorganization and undermines marriage and the home. The ALI also considered responses to these issues, notably that prostitution cannot be eliminated, that generally unenforceable laws promote extortion and arbitrary enforcement, that legalization would reduce the opportunity for official corruption, that the failur...