While most men support legalizing prostitution, most women disagree
Currently in the United States prostitution is only legal in parts of Nevada, but in many other countries prostitution is legal to a varying degree. In most parts of the United States it is illegal to both accept money for sex or pay money for sex, however many sex workers and campaigners have called for prostitution to be decriminalized, arguing that legal prostitution will protect sex workers from predatory pimps and violent customers.
YouGov's latest research shows that, overall, Americans narrowly say that accepting money for sex should be illegal (43%) rather than legal (40%). This conceals a notable gender gap, however, as a majority of men (51%) support legalizing prostitution but half of women (50%) say that prostitution should remain illegal.
Despite this, however, both men (47%) and women (65%) tend to say that it is morally wrong to accept money for sex and overally 57% of Americans say it is morally wrong to work as a prostitute.
Additionally, whereas men are much more likely than women to admit to having paid for sex (12% to 1%) they are actually no less likely than women to admit to having been paid for sex (6% for both).
