Prostitution we know exists as far back as Christ. How? Because of the references made to it by Jesus and his saving Mary Magdalene from stoning. Then we know that dice then called lots were cast for h is clothing by the Roman Soldiers as he upon the cross was dying

In determining the good and evil and whether the good our weighs the bad the following questions must be asked and the reasons for asking examined:

Is Prostitution necessary as a protection for respectable women and girls against violent and brutish attacks of men? In all stages of civilized life it has been maintained by men and women that there would be no end to criminal assaults, rapine and murder of good women and girls

Early western stories or myths of brothels and their need seem to support the above proposition. Decent women were of the taught the believe both in the church and the home that sexual gratification was sinful and wrong and the only purpose for sexual intercourse was for the purpose of child bearing. Therefore the prostitute was publicly condemned while privately praised.

In fact women were lured to the west for the purpose of the men who had gone west to settle it but were wifeless. By some this might by definition be deemed a form of prostitution as their promise to merry was a means of paying for their passage west.

In Athens Georgia, prior to the civil war city government meant at the first Y.M.C.A. in that city and passed an ordinance for the regulation and establishment of governmentally overseen brothels to protect the female students at the University of Georgia and the city has many forms of prostitution operating there today according to website information.

Also as early as the early 1500s Religious institutions encouraged young men to marry prostitutes in order to remove them from such away of life.

Now if it is truly mans pernicious ways our women must be protected from, then I suppose in that light the good far outweighs the evil. But on the other hand there is no volume evidence spporting such is the nature of man or men, or the necessity for such legislation then such activity perhaps should be determined as neither more good nor more evil. Certainly legislation of morality in the history of civilization has not proven to be an effective deterrent of such activities whether they are deemed by that society as good or evil.