While there is research to suggest that legalization of prostitution can
lower incidence of violence and disease afflicting consenting sex workers, it would increase the prevalence of sex trafficking and further inhibit law enforcement's efforts to intervene.
That said,
consenting sex workers and victims of sex trafficking often are unjustly criminalized when they report victimization to police, which is unacceptable.(WTFFFFFF).
For example, consider the case of a woman in Connecticut who called police to
report her sex trafficker but then was arrested for prostitution. Two years later, her sex trafficker was arrested for the malicious wounding of a woman in Fairfax County, Virginia, though he was not prosecuted when the victim went missing.
Most police, anti-trafficking groups and advocates for sex worker rights agree that victims of sex trafficking and other forms of violence never should be criminalized. But the legalization of prostitution is not the answer; it would further complicate the problem. Instead, legislators should consider measures that expand tools for law enforcement to facilitate investigations, rescues and arrests. In addition, to protect victims, consider decriminalization, which is not the same as legalization. Decriminalization would allow police to use further discretion in enforcing the law and/or lessen penalties for truly consensual exchanges between adults.