ABSTRACT
The practical problem surrounding prostitution has always been how to regulate it; how to control both the institution of prostitution and the women who work in it. The most commonly proposed solution is that prostitutes should be put in brothels - an altogether more comfortable and manageable setting. Advocates of legalization cite numerous advantages to the brothel system, most notably that removing prostitutes from the streets would negate the public nuisance aspect of street prostitution whilst simultaneously protecting prostitutes from pimps, violent clients, AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases. The classical liberal position is that prostitution should be decriminalized. Decriminalization would mean that all references to prostitution would be removed from the criminal law. According to some observers, this could be achieved in a number of ways: decriminalization could be achieved through simple obsolescence, or it could be brought about because of a change in public opinion linked to a diminishing sense of moral rigidity concerning the activity.
