Toni said:
Do you really think that johns have any vested interest in reporting an abused prostitute?
People in general tend to be quite protective of women. I doubt Johns are any different.
Yeah, Toni's question reveal a cartoonish notion of John's as abnormal immoral monsters. Most are just average males who want to have sex. In fact, the moment prostitution was fully legalized, John's would become an even more representative sample of the male population, and just as likely to report a sex-slave as they would to report a woman being physically abused, raped, and imprisoned at a neighbors house.
I suspect many women fail to grasp the fact that it's a small % of males getting the majority of sexual partners, with many if not most males going long periods without sex, despite a strong ever-present desire for it. Plus, there are many John's who are "normal" married men that turn to prostitutes when they cheat. While being unfaithful eliminates them from sainthood, it doesn't make them callous immoral scum.
Or that johns aren't abusing prostitutes?
I doubt any of the Johns think they're abusing anyone.
Putting their subjective delusions aside, clearly some John's do abuse the prostitutes, but it is a small minority. Also, it is the secrecy of its illegality that make such John's willing to engage in such abuse, because they know that law enforcement won't be getting involved. Every illegal market for anything, from water to pets to toys, has increased violence between all parties involved due to the illegality itself, because each party knows that the other will not go to the cops.
What about all of the underaged prostitutes--and there are many?
How do you know? Whenever the police find one it's headline news. That's not indicative of it being common. If it was it wouldn't be news.
And, like every other negative aspect surround prostitution, under-age one are made many times more likely by making prostitution illegal. Most Johns and virtually all "over-age" prostitutes would report potential under-age ones, if they could do so without themselves being criminalized and shamed for it. Legalization would mean licensing involving age verification, allowing Johns to avoid engaging in criminal child rape. It would create a much clearer demarcation between prostitution with consenting adults versus with minor and other non-consenters. Normal market forces would then greatly undermine the profitability of pimps using minors. It would still happen, because their are pervs who only want minors, but it would greatly shrink the market to just them and make it far harder for them to hide in the currently massive shadow cast by criminalizing all sex for money.
You all still have some mighty romantic ideas of what a prostitute's life is like.
I think you have taken the worst case scenarios and assumed they're the norm.
And, those worse case scenarios are made worse and far more common than they need to be by Toni's attitudes and politics, which are a major cause increasing all the forms of violence and non-consensual sex that is tied to prostitution, mostly because of the illegality and slut shaming that she is promoting.