The analysis is based on the author's 40 years of legal practice as well as interviews with prostitutes and a review of media reports. The author argues that prostitution is ineradicable because human sexual urges, frustrations, and deviations demand satisfaction more or less continuously. Therefore, it is preferable that prostitution be recognized by the government as performing a useful social function and be controlled and regulated in the most efficient manner. Accordingly, the activities of prostitutes should be decriminalized, they should be allowed to have their own unions, and brothels should be licensed. Such a change would make streets cleaner and less crime-ridden. Individual chapters discuss the law, case histories, the history and causes of prostitution, clients of prostitutes, arguments against and for decriminalization and legal brothels, prostitution in the United States and other countries, brothels for homosexuals, heterosexual brothels for women, and issues related to child prostitutes. Figures and 76 references