NCAST

O.J. Simpson found out what happens in Vegas doesn't stay there.

The rest of the country might ponder that lesson in a much larger context.

When New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote about the exploitive underside of prostitution in Las Vegas, Sin City Mayor Oscar Goodman responded by saying he'd like to take a baseball bat to Herbert.

That response should put to rest any remaining arguments about the prevalence of violence in a culture built on a deep disrespect for human dignity.

The issue here is not whether Vegas should keep lowering the bar on decency just so the rest of the nation can stop in for an occasional naughty, anonymous weekend.

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The first thing to understand about prostitution, including legal prostitution, is that the element of coercion is almost always present.

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Book exposes harsh reality of Nevada prostitution

There is only one place in the US where brothels are legal, and that's Nevada -- a state in which prostitution has been considered a necessary service industry since the days when the place was populated solely by prospecters. There are at least 20 legal brothels in business now. Not so many, you might think, but these state-sanctioned operations punch above their weight in public relations (PR) terms.

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After a week of talking about sex, we should not get too hot and bothered debating whether Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is a tiresome buffoon or whether prostitution will be legalized. One question is settled; the other is moot.

But a discussion, maybe even an argument worth having, is what kind of community we strive to be and whether we are content to tell a tale of two cities. One is where Goodman, a Dickensian character if ever there were one, sets the tone, a place where anything that’s legal is just fine, where taste is optional, where no sin is too sinful. The other is a wholly different venue, one where parents are proud to raise their children, where culture, sophistication and erudition are prized, where family values refer to something other than mob mores.

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Amber is 19 years old and on Sunday she caught a flight out of Las Vegas’s McCarran International Airport and went home to a small town in Minnesota, not far from the Iowa border.

I’m rooting for her. She’s low on funds (“I’ve got my ticket, that’s about all,” she said), and she’s at a crucial turning point in her life.

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'It's like you sign a contract to be raped'

Friday September 7, 2007
The Guardian
Julie Bindel reports

If you believe their PR, Nevada's legal brothels are safe, healthy - even fun - places in which to work. So why do so many prostitutes tell such horrific tales of abuse?

There is only one place in the US where brothels are legal, and that's Nevada - a state in which prostitution has been considered a necessary service industry since the days when the place was populated solely by prospecters. There are at least 20 legal brothels in business now. Not so many, you might think, but these state-sanctioned operations punch above their weight in PR terms.

read more 

"Prostitution is not work," said Farley, a psychologist who has spent years researching prostitution and its psychological effects. "Rather, it's a human rights violation."

The group argued that legal prostitution can be just as harmful to women as illegal prostitution because both involve kinds of abuse and cause long-lasting psychological damage.