You may think you’re security savvy, but hackers are always opening up new ways to infiltrate and gain private information. It’s not so much a matter of if you’ll be hacked, but when. It’s important to know the extent to which an attack can affect your life, both on and offline, as well as how to reduce the chances of being affected by hackers.

Nobody can afford to take hacking lightly–even if you are the most boring, dead-broke person in America with no online activity except Gmail for corresponding with your mother, and a Facebook account for posting photos of your cat. Here’s what you need to know:

What Gets Hacked and Why

Financial accounts, such as online banking, investments, or PayPal are popular targets for hackers looking for quick money. Email accounts get hacked because they’re easy targets, and old or sent email messages are full of useful information that hackers can exploit, such as retail sites you use frequently.

Often, hackers go after big repositories of customer data, either from retail sites like the recent Zappos hack, or social networking sites that can provide login and password information for millions of people. Because most people use the same login and password for multiple sites, the damage done by these big hacks can be epic. Even if your passwords are different for every site you use, hackers can use personal data to make phishing attacks more realistic-looking. (Phishing is when you get an email that looks like it’s from your bank, for example, but it actually links to a site controlled by the hackers in an attempt to get your financial information).

Signs You’ve Been Hacked

For social networking and email hacking, the signs include complaints or questions from friends who are suddenly receiving a bunch of spam, link suggestions, or requests from you. Likewise, if you’re getting tons of bounced messages that you never sent, it could indicate that your email was compromised.

If financial sites have been hacked, you may see charges or withdrawals you didn’t make. It’s a good idea to keep a regular eye on transactions in banking sites and PayPal so that, if your account is compromised, you catch it immediately.

How to Recover

If it’s an email problem, it may be that the hackers are “spoofing” your address, which means that your address appears in the “from” line, but isn’t really sent from your account. If this is the case, there’s not much you can do. But, if you find that you’re actually locked out of your email account, you need to notify your ISP immediately and get the password changed. The same applies to social network accounts like Facebook or Twitter—getting control of your accounts back is the first step. You may want to let your friends and family know that they shouldn’t open anything weird-looking from you or click on any links. If the hack is from a financial site, notify the company immediately, cancel all related cards, and change your password. In all cases, if you have used the same password on other accounts, you will need to change it everywhere.

Next, scan for malware on your computer. Malware can be used to obtain more of your personal data, and also to launch future attacks against others from your computer, compounding the damage.

Tips for Prevention  

Although hacks of large amounts of customer data, such as the Zappos hack, isn’t something you can necessarily prevent, you can take several actions to greatly reduce your personal vulnerability to data theft:

1.    Use strong passwords, especially for financial accounts, and mix them up as much as possible. Password management software is available if you can’t keep track of them all.

2.    Always keep your software updates current, which often contain patches for previous vulnerabilities.

3.    Install recommended anti-malware and virus protection on your computer and keep it updated.

4.    Never use public computers to check accounts, including your email.

5.    Set up a separate email account to use publicly, keeping your primary email address private for friends, family, and business associates only.

6.    Never log into personal accounts, especially financial ones, over an unsecured network.

How Far We’ve Come

The birth control pill wasn’t the first attempt at contraception. Since ancient times, both men and women have tried various methods. Ancient Egyptian women used cotton suppositories containing a mixture of dates, honey, and acacia; Greek women coated their cervixes with olive oil. Early condoms, in the Renaissance era, were made of animal intestines, and once rubber began to be mass produced in the 19th century condoms and diaphragms, called “womb veils,” were readily available.

None of these methods was surefire at preventing pregnancy, of course, and the ever-popular rhythm method often failed–in part because it wasn’t until the 1930s that science figured out women ovulated in the middle of their cycles, not during menstruation. Oops.

Just Say No?

A growing Puritanical movement in late 19th-century America made even these rudimentary attempts at birth control out of reach for many women in the U.S. Anthony Comstock was a crusader against anything he believed immoral; he believed that widespread access to condoms and “obscene literature” was causing the downfall of society.

Comstock founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and had such influence that in 1873 Congress passed what was popularly known as the Comstock Law. This made it illegal to distribute or sell any “obscene literature” or “immoral articles,” which included not just birth control devices themselves, but printed information about contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, human sexuality, and abortion.

Welcome to the 20th Century

The Comstock Laws were unchallenged until birth-control advocate Margaret Sanger took it upon herself to oppose the Comstock Act. She challenged the law in 1916 by opening up the first birth control clinic in the U.S. in Brooklyn. Sanger was arrested, but the publicity brought birth control into the public debate. Her case eventually resulted in the 1918 Crane decision, which legalized birth control for medicinal purposes.

Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921 and began her next challenge: finding researchers willing to work on formulating an oral contraceptive for women. The next amendment came in 1936 with a U.S. Court of Appeals decision that allowed doctors to mail birth control devices and contraceptive information. Finally, in 1965, the Supreme Court case of Griswold v. Connecticut overturned the Comstock Law, ruling that married couples had a constitutional right to use birth control.

The Birth of the Pill

The first human trials on the birth control pill were in 1954, on 50 women in Massachusetts. In 1956, large-scale trials were conducted in Puerto Rico, where there were no anti-birth control laws on the books. In 1957 the FDA approved the Pill, but only for severe menstrual disorders, not as a contraceptive. Finally, in 1960, the Pill was approved for use as a contraceptive.

It wasn’t without controversy, however; in the early 1960s the Pill was still illegal in eight states. However, increasingly outdated moral standards couldn’t compete with the first method of contraception deemed nearly 100 percent effective when taken correctly.  After two years, 1.2 million Americans women were on the Pill; by 1965 that number had risen to 6.5 million.

Controversy and Risk

Along with controversy, taking the Pill meant taking some risks. The first birth control pills had high hormonal doses, up to 10 milligrams. Side effects included nausea, blurred vision, bloating, weight gain, mood swings, and depression; even more serious were potentially fatal risks like blood clots and stroke. Women taking the Pill were often unaware of these risks, as doctors routinely believed their patients unable to make informed judgments about such things.

After nearly a decade of rising popularity and acceptance, the first real challenge to the Pill appeared in the form of Barbara Seaman’s book The Doctor’s Case Against the Pill. The book talks about what women on the Pill already knew about side effects, including weight gain, loss of libido, and depression; it also exposed the serious risks of blood clots, heart attack, and stroke. The Senate held hearings on the safety of the birth control pill in 1970; by 1979 sales had dropped more than a quarter due to publicity about health risks.

The Pill Today

The approval of the birth control pill is widely acknowledge as playing a major role in the sexual liberation movement of the 1960s. For the first time, women were as free as men to enjoy sex without fear of pregnancy.

Improvements to the formulation continued; in 1988 the original formulation of the pill was taken off the market for good. An FDA study showed that the benefits of new low-dose pills–with as little as one milligram of active ingredients–included a decreased risk of uterine and ovarian cancers, iron deficiency anemia, and pelvic inflammatory disease.

In 2000, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that prescription contraception must be covered by employer-offered health insurance. In 2010 it was estimated that about 16 million women use the Pill.

While there appears to be a divide on Capitol Hill over the Obama administration’s requirement that health insurance plans cover the cost of prescription birth control, a majority of Americans appear to support the policy. A recent New York Times poll showed 65 percent of voters agreeing that employer-provided health insurance plans should cover prescription contraceptives, and 59 percent agreed that the plans of religiously affiliated employers should not be exempt.

The reality of war vs. what the rules say aside, women in combat is a hot issue at the moment. Women have successfully broken through countless barriers in the past century, now regularly doing what was once considered “men’s work.” The military is one of the last areas where women have been unapologetically shut out of certain positions–positions that are considered necessary for military career advancement.

When considering the issue, it’s important to look not just at the pros and cons of making changes to the rules, but the history of women in the military and how other countries address it as well.

The History

Although women have long been considered the “weaker sex,” in need of protection by men, it wasn’t always this way. It’s only been in the last few centuries that women could afford to avoid violent conflict—certainly in early human history, women had to fight alongside men during conflicts. Nobody could afford to be coddled—it was a matter of survival. Later, women warriors became the stuff of legend: Boadicea, Joan of Arc, and Mulan to name a few. We know for sure that about 400 women fought alongside men during the Civil War, and it’s likely that the practice of passing as a male and going to war to escape an oppressive life at home took place in virtually every war prior to that as well.

The Naysayers

So what is it about women in combat that’s such a problem for people, other than outdated notions? The most obvious is that women are, on average, smaller than men and don’t have the advantage of testosterone that makes it easy for men to put on muscle. Combat is physically demanding, and includes carrying loads of up to 100 lbs. Many women don’t weigh much more than that themselves.

So, perhaps combat isn’t right for all women, but like firefighting or police work, shouldn’t women be given the opportunity to at least try? Some women are strong enough, both physically and mentally, to handle the rigors of combat. If they can pass the same training and testing that men do, why should they be shut out?

Another argument is that men will feel compelled to protect the women soldiers who are fighting alongside them. But, don’t men protect one another in battle anyway, when they aren’t fighting for their own lives? The fact is, more than 255,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps it is the fear of the unknown, more than actual limitations, that keep some male infantry members from supporting the change.

The Sex Thing

Another major concern to women serving in combat is the sex factor. Will men and women serving together be more likely to fraternize? Is the risk of sexual harassment of women particularly high among soldiers? Is segregation by sex reasonable in combat situations, or will men and women in the same unit have to sleep in close proximity—and does it even matter? Certainly, these kinds of social and cultural issues must be considered, but a few other countries seem to have figured it out.

What the Rest of the World Thinks

Most of the world’s militaries do not allow women to serve in combat, but those who do include Israel, France, Germany, New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, Canada, Norway, Serbia, Sweden, and Switzerland. In addition, women in the U.K. can serve in artillery, though not infantry.

The changes made by the Pentagon are considered to be baby steps by supporters of women in combat, and will not take effect all at once. Meanwhile, there’s no doubt that at least a few women will continue to serve in combat, albeit under the radar.

Many countries, especially in Europe, have generous parental leave laws, but the U.S. isn’t one of them. Formal parental leave doesn’t exist in U.S. law; however the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows moms and dads to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for, among other things, the birth, adoption, or fostering of a child.

Of course, there is fine print, so it’s a good idea to know who is eligible. Here are a few guidelines:

Qualifying for FMLA

Unfortunately, not everyone is entitled to even unpaid leave under FMLA. If you work for a very small company, have been there for less than 12 months, or not worked at least 1,250 hours in the past year, or if you are in the top 10% of earners at your company and they would be economically harmed by your absence, you can be denied leave. If you and your partner both work for the same company, you can be limited to 12 weeks total between the two of you, as well.

However, even if you don’t qualify for FMLA by federal standards, your company may have a more open leave policy, so it’s worth asking. Many states, such as California and New Jersey, also have more generous parental leave laws than the federal guidelines.

Creative Paternity Leave Plans

Many men face situations where they can legally take 12 weeks of unpaid leave, but it would create a hardship either for their company, their own careers, or their household finances. In this case, it’s sometimes possible to get creative with unpaid paternity leave. You may choose to combine it with paid vacation time, or divide it into chunks of unpaid leave over the course of the first year. Another option is to take the leave in the form of shorter workdays, or certain days off for a few months. Your employer has to agree to alternate arrangements, of course, but most are likely to prefer partial leave to an entirely absent employee for 12 full weeks.

Additionally, the more advance warning you give your employer, the better chance you have of getting the time off you need. Thirty days notice is a minimum, but consider starting to work out the details as early as the beginning of the second trimester.

Paternity Leave in the Rest of the World

The U.S. is one of only four countries in the world that have no federal law for paid parental leave (the other three being Swaziland, Liberia, and Papua New Guinea). Every other country in the world recognizes the need for new parents to bond with their children and provides varying levels of financial support to do so. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, for example, one parent (usually the mother, although the father has the option as well) typically stays home with a child for 3 full years, supported by the state.

Sweden allows 16 months of paid leave per child for all working parents, two months of which is actually required to be used by the non-primary parent (usually the father). Laws vary widely by country, but virtually all offer significant paid leave for one or the other parent, and many specifically allow for fathers to take anywhere from a few days to several weeks of paid leave in addition to or in lieu of the mother’s leave. Some countries cover the costs in full, whereas others split the costs with the employers.

Paternity Leave Numbers in America

According to surveys, only around half of American men qualify for unpaid paternity leave, and of the remaining 50%, few actually take it for one reason: they can’t afford to. Even before the American economy collapsed, few families could afford to give up their income for more than a few days and still pay the bills. This isn’t to say that men don’t miss any work when they become new dads, but that most are forced to cobble together paid vacation and sick days rather than taking advantage of FMLA. According to James Levine of the Families and Work Institute of New York, men are only averaging five days off after the birth or adoption of a child, adding that social pressure adds to the problem. The American work ethic is strongly entrenched in our culture, and makes it difficult for many dads to justify taking time off for family reasons.

From extramarital affairs to bribery to misuse of power, here are some of the most outrageous political scandals in the history of the United States. Will this election year add even more names to the list?

Gary Hart

In the spring of 1987, U.S. Senator Gary Hart was an early front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination despite rumors of his philandering ways. When reporters for the Washington Post broke the story of Hart’s extramarital affair with Donna Rice in May, it changed the political game forever. Prior to this, politicians’ personal lives were generally considered off-limits; the truth of John F. Kennedy’s affairs weren’t discovered until a decade after his assassination.

When Hart was first questioned, he went into damage control mode and actually invited the press to follow him. Unfortunately for him, they did. Gary Hart quit the presidential race on May 8, 1987, several days after Donna Rice told reporters she’d vacationed with the senator aboard a boat called Monkey Business the month before. Several weeks later, the National Enquirer published the infamous photo of Hart wearing a “Monkey Business” crew t-shirt, with Rice sitting on his lap.

The Keating Five

In 1989, when the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association collapsed, its chairman, Charles H. Keating Jr., accused the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and its former head Edwin J. Gray of conspiring against him. Gray later testified that five senators had asked him to back off from investigating Keating, on the grounds that the Savings and Loan was a major employer in their respective states.

These senators became known as the Keating Five after it was discovered they had, in total, received more than a million bucks in campaign contributions directly from Keating. While a Senate Ethics Committee investigation claimed that all five acted improperly, all five senators maintained there was nothing unethical about their behavior. Keating himself was convicted on 73 counts of fraud in 1993 and served 4 years in prison.

The Keating Five included Alan Cranston of California, Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, John Glenn of Ohio, Donald Riegle of Michigan, and John McCain of Arizona–yes, that John McCain, 2008 Republican candidate for president. Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle all declined to run for reelection after the 1991 Ethics Committee investigation criticized them for “questionable conduct.” John Glenn was reelected in 1992 and retired in 1999; McCain continues to serve as senator after successful reelection bids in 1992, 1998, 2004, and 2010.

Mark Foley

A Republican from Florida, Mark Foley resigned in disgrace in 2006, after a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives. ABC News asked Foley about suggestive and sexually explicit emails he had sent teenage congressional pages. It turned out that Foley’s activities were fairly common knowledge in the House and other Congressmen had tried to get him to rein it in for a while. On September 29, 2006, a day after the story broke in the national press, Foley resigned.

Mark Sanford

South Carolina governor Mark Sanford might find his last legacy to be the creation of a whole new euphemism for extramarital sex. Late-night comedians found his claim in 2009 following a brief disappearance to be “hiking the Appalachian trail” highly entertaining; the Columbia, S.C. newspaper discovered he’d actually used public money to fund trips to South America to see his Argentinian mistress. While Sanford’s marriage and political career fell apart in the wake of the scandal, his love affair is apparently still going strong.

Rod Blagojevich

In 2008, Rod Blagojevich was in his second term as Illinois governor when he was arrested on federal corruption charges after trying to auction off Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. He was also charged with bribery, conspiracy, and mail fraud. He was impeached in January 2009 by the Illinois House of Representatives and summarily removed from office.

The former governor appeared on late-night talk shows, wrote an autobiography, and was a contestant on Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” reality show. Fun and games are about to stop, however; in June of 2011, Blagojevich was found guilty on 17 of 20 charges in the second of two trials, the first having ended in a mistrial. He was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison and will have to serve at least 12 years of that, beginning in March of 2012.

Conversely, are these men all that they seem? How would a young Ukrainian or Malaysian woman know if the man she’d corresponded with was representing himself truthfully?

Go West

In the 19th century, men who headed west to find their fortune found few women on the frontier, and would place ads in newspapers seeking a bride. Women from more populated areas such as the East Coast would write back, often those from poorer social classes with few marital prospects at home. They may have been seeking financial security, escape from life as a servant or factory worker, or adventure in the Wild West.

The advent of the Internet caused a reversal of the historical trend. Now, women willing to advertise on the internet for a husband are typically from poorer areas of the world, seeking marriage and maybe a path to citizenship in a more prosperous Western country. Or they may be from areas with a “man shortage.” Russia, for example, has a sex ratio of about four men for every five women–forcing some women seeking marriage to look elsewhere for mates.

Email-order Brides

Type “mail-order brides” into a search engine and the first hits are advertisements. “Asian women are waiting” says one; “Thousands of Latin beauties” is another tagline. These are matchmaking sites specifically set up for Western men to contact women, mostly from Eastern European and Asian countries.

At least two types of  international matchmaking agencies exist. The first sells clients’ contact information to men  and encourages couples to correspond prior to meeting. The second type offers group tours for men who want to travel around a foreign country and meet up to a hundred women at organized social events.

Signing up with one of these agencies isn’t cheap. In addition to membership fees (which run anywhere from $20 to $40 a month) “romance tours” can cost upwards of $4,000. Many sites also charge six to eight bucks for translating each email exchanged–even more for phone and instant message translation. Some will even arrange the paperwork for fiancee or spousal visas, for yet another fee.

Stranger Danger

The Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit organization that offers services to immigrant women, estimates that the number of mail-order marriages in the U.S. more than doubled between 1999 and 2007, when up to 16,500 such marriages were performed. They say that foreign brides are particularly vulnerable and dependent on their new husbands since they are isolated from family and friends, and often unfamiliar with the language and customs of their new home.

There have been several notorious cases of foreign brides murdered by their new husbands. In 2000, a 20-year-old woman from Kyrgyzstan was strangled by her 40-year-old husband, who had a restraining order against him from his first wife, and was already seeking another match on an international dating site. Susana Blackwell, from the Philippines, was eight months pregnant when her husband shot her outside a Seattle courtroom on the final day of their divorce proceedings; her husband had claimed during the divorce that she had married him only to come to the U.S.

Coming to America

Due to cases such as these, and further incidences of women claiming physical and sexual abuse and sex trafficking, the U.S. passed the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 (IMBRA). This requires background checks on U.S. citizens before they can communicate with anyone via a matchmaking service. Those who fail to comply cannot get a fiancee visa petition approved.

While some Americans worry that these women are seeking only a green card, most of these relationships do turn out to be legitimate, or at least well-intentioned. More than 20 years ago the U.S. Senate concluded marriage fraud was a “significant and growing problem,” but not much was done about it. The initial estimate was that one in three marriages was faked–it was later revised to eight percent.

Across the country, very few green card petitions related to marriage are denied; in 2009 only 506 of the 241,154 immigrant visa petitions filed by citizen spouses were rejected on the basis of fraud.

In the United States, same-sex marriage can only be recognized at the state level; the current Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage at the federal level as being between a man and a woman. With the likelihood of California reinstating it increasing, and several other states confronting the issue this year, what do gay marriage rights look like across the the country right now?

States Recognizing Same Sex Marriage

In all, six states and Washington D.C. have officially recognized marriage between gay and lesbian couples. In every case, same-sex marriage has been legalized through legislation or court ruling; no state has as of yet changed the definition of marriage through popular vote.

Massachusetts: The Bay State became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage on May 17, 2004. The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to exclude same-sex couples from the civil benefits of marriage.

Connecticut: On November 12, 2008, the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned the a 2005 civil-union statute as unconstitutionally discriminating against same-sex couples.

Iowa: Legalized April 27, 2009 via a unanimous ruling of the Iowa Supreme Court. The Court stated that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples “does not substantially further any important governmental objective.”

Vermont: The state legislature overrode the governor’s veto of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage on September 1, 2009. Vermont was the first state to legalize gay and lesbian marriages through legislative action instead of a judicial ruling.

The District of Columbia: A bill recognizing same-sex marriages was signed into law by Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty on December 18, 2009.

New Hampshire:  Governor John Lynch signed a bill legalizing same-sex marriages on January 1, 2010. The New Hampshire legislature is expected to vote during their current  session on a bill repealing the law, brought by gay marriage opponents.

New York: On July 24, 2011, the New York legislature passed a bill recognizing the institution after four Republican state senators crossed party lines to vote in favor, along with all but one Democratic senator.

California has a complicated history when it comes to legalizing same-sex marriage. Gay marriage was effectively legalized on May 15, 2008, when the state Supreme Court ruled California’s existing definition of marriage violated the constitutional rights of same-sex couples. However, opponents of same-sex marriage got Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as between opposite-sex couples only, on the November 2008 ballot, and it was approved by popular vote. On August 4, 2010, a decision by the U.S. District Court ruled Proposition 8 unconstitutional–but opponents appealed. The appeals court agreed with the district court ruling this week. However, the ruling is still on hold as further appeals are expected.

In the Works

Washington may soon become the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage. The state House passed a bill recognizing marriage between same-sex couples February 8, and Governor Christine Gregoire has said she will sign it. In North Carolina, a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman will be on the May ballot. Minnesota will vote on a similar amendment in November.

States Recognizing Civil Unions

Eleven states–Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Illinois and Washington–have created legal unions for same-sex couples that offer some version of marital rights under state law. New Jersey legal unions, while not called marriages, are explicitly defined as offering all the rights and responsibilities of marriage under state law.

States Prohibiting Same Sex Marriage

As of January 2012, 29 states have constitutional bans on same-sex marriage, while 12 others have laws against it. Nineteen states ban any civil-union type recognition of same-sex partnerships that would be equivalent to civil marriage.

The Federal Outlook

Opponents of same-sex marriage have tried to introduce an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would prevent individual states from recognizing same-sex marriages. In 2006, the Federal Marriage Amendment was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee but ultimately shot down in both houses of Congress.

The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage federally as between a man and a woman, meaning that same-sex couples married in states recognizing their union still cannot file joint federal tax returns or have their marital status recognized by the federal government. The tide may be turning, however; President Obama has called the law unconstitutional and, in February 2011, he directed the Justice Department to stop defending it against lawsuits challenging it as unconstitutional.

Same-sex marriage is still illegal in the vast majority of the country, but polls show support continues to rise; last year for the first time a majority of Americans said they were in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. The same-sex marriage movement is gaining momentum, and the next several years will no doubt see many more legal challenges and protests over this hotly contested issue.

So, how do the numbers break down? Will legalizing prostitution solve the problems caused by black market prostitution, or create new problems? Should morality even be part of the discussion?

Here’s a look at the facts:

The Numbers

It’s difficult to know exactly how many people are or have been prostitutes, especially in areas where it is illegal, but it’s estimated that there are around 40 million prostitutes worldwide. Thailand is home to the most booming sex industry, bringing $35 billion per year to its economy, whereas in the U.S., taxpayers are stuck for $200 million per year in jail and court fees for prostitution busts. In some countries, prostitutes aren’t considered criminals, but their customers are. In the U.S., anyone involved in prostitution can be arrested, though statistics show that the prostitutes themselves are arrested 90% of the time, while only 10% of arrests are those who use them.

Pro-Legalizing Arguments and the Statistics That Betray Them

Proponents of legalized prostitution argue that a woman should have the right to make a living using her own body, and that legalizing the industry would allow prostitutes to enjoy proper healthcare, work in a safer environment with legal protection against abusive customers and pimps, and boost the economy through taxes. On paper, the arguments are sound, but the reality of prostitution tells a different story. A survey of 169 female prostitutes in the Chicago area showed that the average age at which they turned their first trick was 14, 75% had been abused as children, 58% have been assaulted, 20% carry STDs, and a whopping 92% would quit if they could afford to. Perhaps the assaults and the STDs would be improved by legalization and close regulation, but the numbers indicate that prostitution is rooted in abuse and tragedy, and that few would choose to be prostitutes if they didn’t have to.

Prostitution in Other Countries

In countries other than the U.S., prostitution comes with problems whether it is legal or not. In most countries where it is illegal, the black market sex trade booms anyway, usually to the detriment of the women and girls who are forced into sex work. In countries where it is legal and regulated, smuggling and sex trafficking are a major problem. In Bangladesh, for example, prostitution has limited legality, while pimping and brothel ownership are both legal—and yet, estimates of underage girls being sexually exploited there range from 10,000 to as many as 29,000. Legal prostitution in less corrupt countries, such as Belgium, which has highly-regulated, technologically advanced brothels (think fingerprint scanners and ID numbers), appears to be less problematic and is the gold-standard for proponents of legalization. However, even countries with seemingly successful legal prostitution attract smugglers supplying girls to other places.

Types of Prostitution in America

The word “prostitute” tends to conjure a picture of a scantily clad street-walker, and these are the type most often busted by law enforcement. However, much prostitution in the U.S. occurs through escort services and spas or massage parlors acting as a front for sex services. If you’ve ever been to Vegas, you may have seen signs for escorts or gentlemen’s clubs that are clearly shilling for johns. Nevada is the only state with legal prostitution, but all big cities have similar businesses advertising openly.

Escort services are careful to only advertise social companionship, though it’s understood that sexual encounters are often a part of the deal. Escort businesses protect themselves by remaining separated from any private arrangements that the escorts may make with individual clients. Law enforcement turns a blind eye, preferring to focus on the more visible street prostitutes.

Massage parlors are such obvious fronts for prostitution you would think they’d all be closed down by now, but they are proliferating throughout the U.S. with estimates as high as 90% of massage parlors offering sex in some areas. Like escort services, these establishments advertise openly, but avoid specific references to sex. The sheer number of them makes enforcing prostitution laws to raid and shut them down a nearly impossible task.

Recent history of suing over an STD goes back to the 1980s, when the courts established that if an individual has a sexually transmitted disease, is aware of it, and is sexually active, that person has the duty to inform any sexual partners. While some lawyers argued the right to privacy superseded the duty to inform, in 1984 a California appellate court ruled that public health concerns trumped the right to privacy in cases of sexually transmitted diseases.

Historical & Famous Cases

In 1986, it made the news when actor Robin Williams was sued by a former girlfriend for allegedly infecting her with the herpes virus. That case was eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed sum, in 1992. In 1987, a landmark ruling found that Jane Maharam, then 56, had the right to sue her former husband Robert, also 56, on her claim that  he did not tell her he contracted herpes. The court ruled that people have consensual sex have a legal duty to inform each other about their sexual health.

More recently, in 2004 David Gest argued that the fact Liza Minnelli didn’t tell him she had herpes until after they were married was essentially fraud, which invalidated their prenuptial agreement. In 2006 NFL quarterback and convicted felon Michael Vick settled a herpes case out of court for an undisclosed amount. Sonya Elliott claimed she tested positive for herpes after having sex with Vick in 2003, and said Vick first denied having herpes but later “apologized profusely” for failing to tell her he was infected. And last year, a bizarre “anonymous” case was filed, alleging that an unnamed “A-list celebrity” gave a sexual partner herpes. The plaintiff, who filed anonymously and has not even been identified by gender, is suing for $20 million, claiming sexual battery, intentional as well as negligent “infliction of emotional distress,” and fraud.

Criminal Acts?

In general, lawsuits over STDs fall under tort law, in which one person’s act–whether intentional or not–causes injury to another person. If a tort has occurred, the person committing the act can be held liable for monetary damages. Unfortunately for most plaintiffs in STD cases, these sorts of lawsuits can be expensive to pursue and nearly impossible to prove. As with the cases cited above, herpes has a relatively short incubation period, so it can be easier to prove who had the disease first. Other STDs often have long periods of time with no symptoms, and it can be difficult to prove negligence or intent–or even which partner first transmitted the disease.

When the STD in question is HIV or AIDS, courts have taken a different view. Thirty-seven states have statutes that allow for criminal prosecution of anyone who knows they are infected with HIV and doesn’t disclose this information to a partner. While in many states it’s a misdemeanor punishable by a fine or brief prison sentence, some states have made it a felony. California’s “willful exposure law” makes it a felony that can send the defendant to prison for up to eight years.

The legal definition of a “crime of passion” is one in which one party commits a crime—usually murder or assault—in a sudden fit of passionate rage or jealousy, such as what you might feel if you walked in on your beloved in the throes of “sexy time” with someone else. The broader cultural definition includes crimes of jealousy and rage even after the fact.

This Valentine’s Day, whether you have a date or will be at home with your DVR, consider yourself lucky you aren’t involved with one of these people:

The Jealous Astronaut

NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak enjoyed a torrid, two-year affair with coworker William Oefelein until 2006, when he ended the relationship. Oefelein then took up with an engineer named Colleen Shipman, which sent Nowak into a jealous rage—never mind the fact that Nowak was already married to someone else with whom she had three children. Rather than stalking her ex on Facebook like the rest of us, she decided to go after his new paramour, supplied with a black wig, latex gloves, pepper spray, a BB pistol, a hooded trench coat, ammo, rubber tubing, garbage bags, a knife, and a drilling hammer. She drove 900 miles to confront Shipman at Orlando airport, where Shipman had just arrived on a flight from Houston.

Whatever Nowak was planning didn’t pan out—Shipman reached her car before Nowak struck, and, despite having been pepper-sprayed, was able to summon the police, who arrested Nowak. Though several charges were brought against Nowak, including attempted kidnapping, burglary of a conveyance with a weapon, and battery, she only served two days in jail and a year of probation. She was dishonorably discharged and, predictably, her marriage ended as well.

The Buttafuoco Affair

Who could forget the infamous Joey Buttafuoco and his underage “Long Island Lolita” girlfriend, Amy Fisher? Seventeen-year-old Fisher couldn’t stand to share her hunk of a man with his wife, Mary Jo, so in a fit of teenage drama, she had a friend drive her to the couple’s house, where she attempted to confront Mary Jo. When Mary Jo told her to bug off, Amy Fisher shot her in the head, damaging Mary Jo’s hearing in one ear and leaving her face partially paralyzed. The story didn’t end well for Fisher, who was not only the butt of many late show jokes, but also the subject of several terrible made-for-TV movies and sentenced to seven years in prison for attempted murder. Joey Buttafuoco himself did six months for statutory rape.

The Belgian Sky-Divers

In 2006, a Belgian sky-diving love triangle went terribly wrong when a 38-year-old woman plunged to her death after her parachute didn’t open. It seems that a male member of the sky-diving club was simultaneously having an affair with the married mother of two and a 26-year-old woman with a history of mental issues. The younger woman cut the ropes of her competition’s parachute, causing the older woman to crash into the ground at 120 mph.

The Jealous Veterinarian

In 1973, a 50-year-old Italian gentleman named Tranquillo Allevi received a sample bottle of an aperitif with an invitation from the maker of the drink. When he partook of the sample, he dropped dead of strychnine poisoning. As it turns out, the man’s wife was sleeping with three other men, one of whom was a very jealous veterinarian. The vet had injected a huge quantity of the poison—enough to kill 500 men—through the bottle’s cork with a syringe. He was caught when police traced the typewriter he used to fake the invitation.

The Chat Room Murderer

In 2005, Thomas Montgomery, a 46-year-old married father struck up a chat room flirtation with Jessi, an 18-year-old with the screen name “Talhotblond.” He told her he was also 18, and a Marine bound for Iraq, sending her photos of him from when he actually was a young Marine. Montgomery became obsessed with the girl and the cyber relationship intensified until one of Montgomery’s daughters intercepted an instant message from Jessi and told her mother. When Jessi found out her online boyfriend was actually a 46-year-old family man, she ended the relationship, but then took up with a coworker of Montgomery’s, 22-year-old Brian Barrett.

The relationship with Barrett and Jessi also became very intense, and they carried out their cyber-love in the same chat room where Montgomery and Jessi had met. Montgomery was consumed with jealousy and obsessed with Jessi—so much so that, when he found out Barrett was driving to North Carolina to meet Jessi in person, he snapped. Montgomery shot and killed Barrett with a military rifle in the parking lot outside of their workplace.

When police rushed to Jessi’s house to make sure Montgomery didn’t kill her too, they found the most bizarre part of the story. “Jessi” was actually Mary Shieler, a middle-aged woman who used photos of and pretended to be her own daughter, the real Jessi, without the girl’s knowledge. Unfortunately, despite the murder and her part in the events that led to it, prosecutors were unable to charge Shieler with any crime.