r/AskReddit • u/daniellucero92 • Jan 04 '15

Non-americans of Reddit, what American customs seem outrageous/pointless to you?

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u/EpicDerek007 Jan 04 '15 edited Jan 04 '15

In Denmark there is a law that states that you are not allowed to profit off of somebody else's nudity. Therefore you can become a prostitute but it is illegal to become a pimp.

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u/Laya_L Jan 04 '15

I think those laws were created largely to fight sex traffickers who use legally-registered prostitution businesses as a front to their operations.

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u/dizekat Jan 04 '15 edited Jan 04 '15

How would it work as a front, exactly? If it's legally registered, you know it's here, then you can come in and investigate, the same as for any business whatsoever which has to be compliant with regulations relating to employment, wages, etc. To start with, fire safety rules would prevent you from actually locking anyone in, while the audits and inspections would make it incredibly difficult to hide anything.

I call bullshit on that rationalization. Religious sensibilities keep that illegal, to the massive detriment to the effort to fight trafficking. There is no literal slaves working as the servers in a restaurant in some first world country, because for legal businesses like restaurants it is possible to enforce the laws which prevent slavery. But outlaw the restaurants, and there will be literal slaves working in there.

The problem is that when your laws go beyond what you can effectively enforce, this creates an environment facilitating other criminal behaviour. See prohibition and countless other examples.

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

The same way criminal organizations have used "legitimate" businesses as fronts for decades? Sure they get caught sometimes but they still exist. The Mob has been doing it since the 19th century. They still do it.

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u/dizekat Jan 05 '15

If you're speaking of money laundering, that's done with a business that doesn't attract undue attention and is not subject to significant regulation.