CMV: Criminalizing men who buy sex is a good idea

Did a quick search of this sub before posting and didn't see any related CMV posts.<br><br>As much as sex work should be protected and legal, I believe that buyers of sex should be criminalized. <br><br>I don't think it's fair to punish the sex worker because sex work is 100% of their means of income. But buyers of sex can easily seek other means of sexual gratification.<br><br>I believe that criminalizing sex work is a big catalyst for sex trafficking. This is because "normal" sex work in places where it is criminalized are forced to operate in the shadows, easily able to be coerced into sex trafficking or otherwise exploited.<br><br>###Submissions that may change my view:<br><br>* Any means of achieving the same end (no sex trafficking, etc) that doesn't place any legal restrictions on the buyers<br>* Any information that shows a correlation between criminalizing buyers and *increased* sex trafficking<br><br><br><br>EDIT: I clearly struck a nerve. Thank you for your comments, I didn't anticipate a post like this getting so many at one time. I am reading through them now, and replying where I see fit.<br><br>EDIT 2: I feel that many of the comments are missing the point, and aren't really replying to the argument but rather some strawman of what I'm saying. I'm not saying that all people who buy sex are abusers/exploiters/etc. In fact that's why I prefaced my post with saying I believe sex work should be protected and legal. <br><br>The onus of my argument is that the way we currently handle sex work (criminalize it) is a huge catalyst for sex trafficking, and I believe that criminalizing the buyers of sex (even when it is legal) is a good way to handle it.<br><br>Your examples of sex work being exploited when it is legal are not very good, because they don't address the huge problem of sex trafficking that is caused by sex work being criminalized in the first place.