How did prostitution become criminalized throughout the US?

15 comments

1. It’s not. It’s legal in one place.

2. basically, old prudes

3. Anti-freedom folks

4. The run up to World War I had propaganda putting anything that had to do with teutonic stereotypes in a highly negative light, prostitution was incredibly common there and in response most states criminalized it.

5. I would guess, through the passage of laws

6. They passed a law that made it illegal, and that’s how it became illegal.

7. Though it’s illegal in most countries. It’s only legal in about 15 or so countries.

   [https://www.nswp.org/sex-work-laws-map](https://www.nswp.org/sex-work-laws-map)

   https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-where-prostitution-is-legal

8. Imagine not having STD testing, condoms, birth control, or antibiotics.

   We just lived through a pandemic and had a ton of laws and measures put in place in an attempt to keep the public safe.

   It was the same with prostitution. Public health.

   And the laws have remained on the books. There’s also the morality police.

9. [This documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otbml6WIQPo) should shed some light on it.

10. The first European settlements here were mostly religious sects looking for more oppression than they could arrange back in Europe. They considered adultery a crime, prostitution was right out.

    Really, all the European colonies carried over the attitudes and legal stances of their home nations in most cases, and prostitution was illegal there first.

11. Because we were settled by Puritans.

12. Probably a result of religion bleeding over into politics and also a fear of sex trafficking.

13. Do people forget that the US started as a British colony?

14. The United States is very religious, or was. So when it started to become mainstream, the evangelicals probably pressured their state to criminalize it

15. Same way everything gets banned at some point during history. Fucking prudes get in power