Although
prostitution itself is legal in Great Britain, that country's 1959 Street Offenses Act prohibit public solicitation
to prevent public annoyance. However, many groups feel it does not fairly penalize men who solicit prostitutes, and really aims to eradicate a profession that neither can nor should be eradicated. Several organizations in England and Wales seek to liberalize or overturn laws restricting it. These groups of call girls and prostitutes argue that many prostitutes are poor women merely supporting their families, and that the Government fosters what it claims to prohibit. Moreover, prohibitive laws, it is maintained, do not protect prostitutes, but merely drive them underground into a criminal society. Laws against
solicitation are also linked with increasing control of
prostitution by organized crime and a proliferation of call girl networks. Finally, as the family and sexual mores break down, restricting prostitutes is seen as a way of limiting women's independence.