By Jack Perry
A group of 50 professors from across the country and around the world has penned a letter to Rhode Island lawmakers, imploring them not to ban indoor prostitution.
The state's current policy of treating indoor and outdoor prostitution differently is a sensible practice, they argue.
"Compared to street workers, women and men who work indoors generally are much safer and less at risk of being assaulted, raped, or robbed," the letter reads. "They also have lower rates of sexually transmitted infections, enter prostitution at an older age, have more education, and are less likely to be drug-dependent or have a history of childhood abuse."
"Many indoor workers made conscious decisions to enter the trade, and several studies also find that indoor workers have moderate-to-high job satisfaction and believe they provide a valuable service," it continues.
Written by George Washington University Prof. Ronald Weitzer and Nassau Community College Prof. Elizabeth Wood, and signed by educators from such institutions as New York University, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Victoria University in New Zealand, the letter emphasizes that it is not trying to "romanticize indoor prostitution."
"Rhode Island's current system of treating indoor and street prostitution differently is a step in the right direction. Criminalizing indoor sexual services is not the answer," it reads.
At present, Rhode Island is the only state -- apart from several counties in Nevada -- that does not ban indoor prostitution. The General Assembly has worked this year to change that law, though legislators have not yet agreed on a common version of the proposal.
A group of 50 professors from across the country and around the world has penned a letter to Rhode Island lawmakers, imploring them not to ban indoor prostitution.
The state's current policy of treating indoor and outdoor prostitution differently is a sensible practice, they argue.
"Compared to street workers, women and men who work indoors generally are much safer and less at risk of being assaulted, raped, or robbed," the letter reads. "They also have lower rates of sexually transmitted infections, enter prostitution at an older age, have more education, and are less likely to be drug-dependent or have a history of childhood abuse."
"Many indoor workers made conscious decisions to enter the trade, and several studies also find that indoor workers have moderate-to-high job satisfaction and believe they provide a valuable service," it continues.
Written by George Washington University Prof. Ronald Weitzer and Nassau Community College Prof. Elizabeth Wood, and signed by educators from such institutions as New York University, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Victoria University in New Zealand, the letter emphasizes that it is not trying to "romanticize indoor prostitution."
"Rhode Island's current system of treating indoor and street prostitution differently is a step in the right direction. Criminalizing indoor sexual services is not the answer," it reads.
At present, Rhode Island is the only state -- apart from several counties in Nevada -- that does not ban indoor prostitution. The General Assembly has worked this year to change that law, though legislators have not yet agreed on a common version of the proposal.
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