ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a short historical overview of the legality of prostitution. It analyzes a person's freedom to use his or her body in any way that person sees fit, which includes selling or renting it in exchange for money, as well as a person's freedom to purchase sexual acts performed by another in the contemporary United States. In the contemporary United States, outside of certain counties in Nevada, it is illegal for a person to buy or offer to pay for sexual services. The amount and kind of government restrictions supported by the different groups will most likely be a function of whether or not the group sees the buying and selling of sexual services as more of an economic or a social matter. Some critics of the illegality of prostitution reason that it is not the government's job to police morality or popularity.
