Jail Spitzer, Free Everyone Else

My comments on the Spitzer case were in the March 28, 2008 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education in an overview of views on prostitution that were expressed as a result of Spitzer’s case.

CRITICAL MASS Should Prostitution Be Legalized?
By ROBERT LALASZ

You won’t find much pity online for Eliot Spitzer, who was forced to resign as governor of New York this month because of disclosures that he had patronized a high-priced prostitution ring — the kind of organization he had vigorously prosecuted as attorney general of the state. But a debate about whether Spitzer should have been exposed in the first place has flared up in the blogosphere and commentary pages, courtesy of that perennial hot-button issue: Should prostitution be legalized?

What’s different about the present discussion is that there’s now economic, anthropological, and sociological analysis of sex work upon which to draw — not to mention the voices of prostitutes themselves. What hasn’t changed is that some analysts continue to view sex work through the lens of their own mores and philosophies — whether libertine or restrictive

Quotes from Martha Nussbaum, Andrew Sullivan, Noah Millman, Patty Kelly, Scott Lemieux, Amanda Marcotte, Ross Douthat, Suki Falconberg, and myself.

Hat tip to Cyril Morong