Prostitution is the performance of a sexual act performed in exchange for remuneration, usually money. Women make up the majority of sex workers, but men also make up a significant portion. The sex industry brings in around $14 billion a year. While prostitutes generally enter voluntarily, some are victims of human trafficking or sex trafficking. Immigrants may be forced to engage in sex work to repay migration-related debts and risk being threatened with deportation or violence against family members. However, most usually stay at home because they feel they cannot leave because they feel unsafe or threatened. Prostitutes are illegal in most countries, which makes their job even more difficult. These people face discrimination and harassment on a daily basis from people they don't even know, including mostly their clients. In this article, I argue that every day they risk the dangers of physical violence, criminalization, and emotional trauma simply because they are sex workers, because people view them as less than "Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The physical dangers of sex work include both violence and sexually transmitted diseases. Among the STDs that can be contracted is HIV. HIV interferes with your body's ability to fight infections and ultimately leads to inevitable death as there is still no known cure for this disease. According to “Prostitution”. clients often offer more money for unprotected sex because men feel they feel more "pleasure" when not using a condom, which only increases the risk of catching an STD. Another sexually transmitted disease that sex workers can contract is bacterial vaginosis. This is the cause of recent unprotected sex and intravaginal cleaning. Around 70% of women affected by this condition, also known as BV, are sex workers. BV can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, HIV, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Sex workers often face violence, usually from men. Prostitutes face high rates of violent assault in their personal and professional lives (Boynton). This includes kidnappings, robberies, murders and beatings. Sex workers often work under the direction of a pimp, more commonly known as a pimp. He recruits, provides basic needs, finds clients for them, plans work schedules and takes part of their earnings. They may use violence, threats and drugs to exert control over the sex workers for whom they are “responsible”. Another very serious physical danger that some, if not all, sex workers often face is rape or some form of sexual violence. There are very few reliable statistics regarding rape among prostitutes, as many survivors do not report them. There is about a 45 to 75 percent chance that sex workers will be victims of sexual violence at some point in their career, according to "Sex Workers Don't Deserve to Be Raped." We see that serial rapists first targetsex workers, mainly because they know the police won't do much to stop them. For example, high-end escort Véronique Monet was the victim of rape at the hands of a client. Monet tried to warn other sex workers about this man, but three weeks later, this same man raped another sex worker. However, because she fought back, he stabbed her in the face. This is just a small part of the sexual violence they experience that goes unnoticed due to the criminalization and discrimination of sex workers. The last physical danger I discuss in this article is human trafficking. Human trafficking and sex trafficking occur when a person is kidnapped to be bought and transported for illegal labor or to other people. Because most sex workers find clients on the street, they are an easier target and many become victims of human trafficking. The dangers of sex work are not limited to physical dangers. Causes of the criminalization of prostitutesa negative view of sex workers, often described as sluts, whores, and lack of self-respect. The criminal justice system and police have repeatedly failed sex workers when it comes to rape and sexual assault. These two powers treat sex workers as if rape were only an “occupational hazard” linked to their work. “When sex workers fear the police, the world becomes more dangerous for every woman. » Their fears are based on realities and personal experiences of a justice system that criminalizes their way of life. Sex workers who report sexual assault to the police may be ridiculed, ignored, accused of lying, arrested, or worse. Judges could use their work against them in court, thereby denying them justice. The New York State Rape Protection Act of 1975 protects rape victims from having their sexual history used against them in criminal proceedings. However, this law does not apply to women convicted of prostitution in the three years preceding this case. This shows that even when these women seek help, their cries for help go unheeded. Another example of injustice would be that in 2007, a Philadelphia judge dismissed rape charges against a man who organized the gang rape of a prostitute at gunpoint. The judge's reasoning was that the crime was simply "theft of services." “Criminalization allows people to imagine that we have no borders, voices or labor rights. This allows them to forget that we can also say “no”. There is strong evidence to suggest that decriminalization can protect both sex workers and all women from violent crime. For example, sex work crimes in Rhode Island dropped 31% after indoor prostitution was decriminalized for 6 years. Similar statistics were seen when Germany and New Zealand also decriminalized sex work. Those in power in the criminal justice system are also known to prevent sex workers from progressing in their personal lives, making it even harder for them to leave the industry, even if they really want to. As mentioned in “Sex Workers Don't Deserve to be Raped,” in most parts of the United States, former prostitutes can be fined for working..