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I. INTRODUCTION Over the past few decades, the topic of human trafficking has garnered a tremendous amount of academic and media attention. While the clandestine nature of this activity makes it impossible to generate accurate estimations of its magnitude and growth, many analysts assert that it is among the fastest growing global criminal enterprises. Researchers also suggest that human trafficking generates billions of dollars in profits. Much of the discourse on this topic has focused on trafficking in the sex industry and forced prostitution. Some researchers have asserted that prostitution is hardly a choice, alluding to the possibility that most incidents of prostitution occur due to force, fraud, or exploitation.1 Others have argued that the prohibition of prostitution in many countries leads to the creation of lucrative underground markets for trafficking in the sex industry, due to inevitable demands for prostitution services in those regions. Relatedly, it has been suggested that a likely solution to the problem of trafficking for sexual exploitation is legalization of prostitution. Proponents of this theory have suggested that purchasers of sex would prefer the procurement of legalized services instead of resorting to buying sex from trafficked individuals, where prostitution is legalized.2 Additionally, some researchers assert that legalization may also improve the position of sex workers, protect their rights, and increase transparency and accountability in the industry.3 Aligned with this perspective, Dutch authorities eliminated the ban on brothels in the Netherlands with the intention to regulate prostitution and crack down on trafficking for sexual exploitation, involuntary prostitution, and prostitution of minors.4 However, other scholars having examined these effects, caution against legalization, maintaining that trafficking increases wherever prostitution is legalized.5 Additionally, these analysts have demonstrated that prostitution is associated with a host of negative outcomes for sex workers, including exploitation, violence, crime, and reduced mental health and wellbeing.6 Consequently, the subject of prostitution has become a hotbed of tension for criminal law and human rights claims in international discourse. Since the nineteenth century, many countries enacted prostitution laws that deemed the selling of sex as illegal. However, more recently, criminal prostitution laws are being revarnished with the language of women’s rights for autonomy, in part due to the connections between prostitution and trafficking. These considerations...