"There has been an increasing push for the decriminalisation of prostitution in Jamaica on account of the positive impact which this measure is anticipated to have on the fight against HIV/AIDS, as well as on sex workers’ more general right to health care access and criminal justice. This paper aims to offer a framework for examining the many issues which are relevant in considering the question of whether prostitution ought to be decriminalised. Rather than offering a definitive answer to this legal conundrum, the paper identifies and distils the many questions to be addressed in determining whether, within the Jamaican context, the decriminalisation of prostitution is an idea whose time has come. In so doing, it will examine in comparative context the effects of decriminalisation on three important social harms linked to prostitution:
a. violence against, and exploitation of, sex workers;
b. human trafficking; and
c. HIV/AIDS vulnerability."