> Sure, though the same can be said for drug cartels too.
This strikes me as an apt comparison, although maybe not for the reasons you intended. In both cases, the illegal services came about only because people wanted things that weren't or couldn't be provided legally. In both cases the laws are purportedly made for the public good, and in both cases it's not clear that they achieve the desired effect, and there are some decent reasons to think that we'd be better off if these things were legal. In both cases, there's behavior we wish wouldn't happen, but criminalizing it isn't really reducing it.
This strikes me as an apt comparison, although maybe not for the reasons you intended. In both cases, the illegal services came about only because people wanted things that weren't or couldn't be provided legally. In both cases the laws are purportedly made for the public good, and in both cases it's not clear that they achieve the desired effect, and there are some decent reasons to think that we'd be better off if these things were legal. In both cases, there's behavior we wish wouldn't happen, but criminalizing it isn't really reducing it.