ORIGINAL QUESTION: The pornography industry is one of the most lucrative in the nation some estimates are that it grosses more than $4 billion annuallyhowever the women and girls who work in this industry see very little of that money. Prostitution as well is highly profitable for a growing number of pimps and human traffickers selling both women and children. What are the legal and moral differences between these two types of sex work, and how have changing social norms contributed to the legal status of both today?

MY ANSWER:

Adler et al. (2021) define prostitution as advertising sexual act for financial gain, while pornography is showing pre-recorded sexually categorized material also for financial gain. Although the two definitions seem to be different in the context of the source, financial aspect is their common ground. Most of the time profits are not made or gathered by the parties involved in sexual acts but their "chain of command", such as madams, pimps, producers, and such. HG.org defines the main legal difference between pornography and prostitution, as "porn stars are paid to act and prostitutes are paid for sex" (HG.org, 2016). Every person may be faced with a moment in life where they have to make ends meet, and one of the routes to feel loved, cared about, and yet paid is through conscious exploitation. I personally think that the main moral difference between pornography and prostitution is in pornography, so-called victims have and make a conscious decision to participate in an act while being filmed. In prostitutions, the victims usually participate out of great financial need, due to coming out of the broken families and homes, and psychological need to be needed and cared about by someone, regardless of what their "boss" might be doing to them or with them. It much closer resembles an act of slavery for the purpose of having a roof over one's head and a bread crumb on their table.

While both industries are damaging social norms, it is having a negative impact on the legality today. Since pornography is a voluntary act, it is making law enforcement harder to arrest and prosecute, while in prostitution ladies and men are unwilling to press charges against their "superiors" in the fear of being dumped or thrown out.

References

Adler, F., Laufer, W., & Mueller, G. O. (2021).Criminology(10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education ISBN-13:9781260837001

HG.org. "Why Is Pornography Legal and Prostitution Is Not." HG.org, 2016, www.hg.org/legal-articles/why-is-pornography-legal-and-prostitution-is-not-31164

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR:

How do we improve as an institution of Criminal Justice to better identify and help these victims?

(SHOW SUPPORT)