Readers React: Want to help sex workers? Then decriminalize prostitution.

To the editor: Simon Hedlin and Birgitta Ohlsson propose decriminalizing one side of prostitution (the sex workers) while criminalizing the other side (sex seekers), which means that goods can be offered but potential buyers are forbidden to request or consume the desired product. (“How we should handle prostitution,” Op-Ed, Aug. 26)

This solution represents a crueler punishment for those in the business of selling pleasure than for the potential beneficiaries, who can satisfy their appetites using less-expensive tools that are readily available through the cyber world.

Unless the sex laborers become informants on their frustrated clients and get paid for turning them in, I don’t see any benefit for the prostitutes.

Berta Graciano-Buchman, Beverly Hills

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