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Should we keep prostitutes on the streets?
Getting the pros off the streets, it seems, turns them into careerists:
In the mid-1990s, changes to law enforcement strategies in New York City pushed many women working in the sex trade off of the streets and into the indoors. Increasing numbers of women began advertising sexual services in bars, over the Internet, and in print media, and conducting their work in their homes, hotels, and brothels. This study uses in-depth interviews and participant observation to examine the impact of this change on the life and work of women working in New York’s indoor sex trade. A critical finding is that as women move their work indoors, they begin to conceive of sex work as a profession and a career, rather than just a short-term means of employment. This “professional and careerist orientation” may have significant implications for the length of women’s tenure in sex work and ultimately, for their ability to exit the trade completely.
Here is the full paper, by Alexandra K. Murphy and Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on December 27, 2006 at 04:33 AM in Law | Permalink
Comments
How does this tie into exploitation? If they plan to be in the trade longer, that increases incentives to demand superior working conditions, as they'll be enjoying them longer, as well as makes them more valuable to potential employers...
Guh, what a weird way of thinking economics has brought to me.
Posted by: Kimmitt at Dec 27, 2006 5:27:15 AM
It really strikes me that this is a shift that would have happened anyway because of the Internet. Streets were just the most convenient place to find lots of men, and that's no longer true.
The Internet also made it possible for "niche" workers to find a customer base, increasing the expected returns to sex work for many who never would have been able to do so, also changing the ratios.
The study has a bit of a sample selection bias: it's hard to measure exit by only interviewing people who haven't exited.
Posted by: Ted at Dec 27, 2006 6:06:35 AM
But turning to use of the internet and entrepreneurship in general also builds the skill-set and paves the way toward other opportunities.
Posted by: liberty at Dec 27, 2006 8:56:53 AM
Predicting people's behavior based on in-depth interviews doesn't seem like an economist's recommended method of analysis. I'd say the conclusions about prostitutes' long-term behavior need to be taken very skeptically.
Posted by: y81 at Dec 27, 2006 9:26:24 AM
The internet also makes it easier for the customers to discuss the quality of goods ans services, increasing both by increasing the price for higher quality workers.
Posted by: Xmas at Dec 27, 2006 9:43:28 AM
I agree with the above comments. I haven't read the paper, but it seems that laying the blame at the feet of law enforcement is unwise. Presumably, there may also be a 'digital divide' issue, where some prostitutes can't afford to advertise on the internet.
Posted by: Klug at Dec 27, 2006 11:25:52 AM
Putting an ad on Craigslist hardly seems like too much of an initial investment. Maybe they have to cover the costs of the hotel room?
Hell, in the DC area women can't afford NOT to do sexwork.
Posted by: MK at Dec 27, 2006 2:36:38 PM
Working conditions improve, workers continue in the job longer. Are we
meant to be upset?
Posted by: Panza at Dec 27, 2006 3:51:24 PM
I think the point is not to become upset, but to simply note that regulations often have unintended (and sometimes perverse) consequences.
Posted by: fling93 at Dec 27, 2006 7:45:38 PM
Anybody here actually spend anytime on the "wrong" side of the tracks? Really. Anyone?
This is part of an ongoing series on this guy's book, and while it's very interesting, and I do plan on reading it, the topic of prostitution is not as frivolous as some one think.
My time in third world countries was not spent on academic junketts or trendy vacations, but with the Marines, and we tended to see the underside of the belly wherever we went.
Only in the poorest of countries does a person ever find an otherwise normal woman selling herself. Conditions can get so bad, that hey, it's only sex, and we gotta eat, over rides other normal instincts.
In more affluent countries, mentally healthy women do not sell themselves for sex. Even in the world of exotic dancers, the typical dancer carries with her a whole host of psychological problems, drugs are more common than not, they often seek out those who only abuse them, etc.
The point I'm making is not to moralize; a person ought to be free to be as immoral, amoral or whatever, as long as they don't adversely affect others.
But taking a realistic view of prostitution, there are obviously some serious social problems lying beneath the surface, and where such problems so abound, it is most likely that such behavior will in fact have a negative effect on the overall society; especially in this entitlement ridden, "victim-hood" world we live in now.
Posted by: Ray G at Dec 27, 2006 9:27:09 PM
"Only in the poorest of countries does a person ever find an otherwise normal woman selling herself. Conditions can get so bad, that hey, it's only sex, and we gotta eat, over rides other normal instincts."
This depends on how you define prostitute, after all the Japanese are famous for their "compensated" dating and in most Sino-cultures and Korea, Cambodia, etc. it is normal to hire girls to sit with you during karoke and at bars. I might add that in Bangkok (where bar girls often just have flings with patrons sans cash) that the industry is regulated and many of the women are clean and quite nice on the other hand China where it's band the women seem to be dirty, diseased, and just plan disgusting the same goes for Korea. All of the south east asian countries (except maybe Japan) have prostitute in ample amounts (on my way to FedEx in Taipei the other day a young woman in a booth asked if I wanted to go on a date). It seems like accepting prostitution and dealing with it's health problems improves the conditions of the women dramatically, I'll also second that the internet has changed prositution, there are ample American websites for finding mates and I might add that these websites give women a choice of clients and makes it easier for them to refuse potential clients.
Posted by: andrew jones at Dec 28, 2006 7:19:56 AM
You brushed up against my point actually.
Where prostitution was more of a need, more normal women were apt to practice it. Legal or not.
Where society offered more alternatives, the women tended to be on the psychological fringes. Even exotic dancers in the US tend to come from broken backgrounds, drug use is heavy, many of them were molested at younger ages, etc.
Men tend to think that, because somewhere in their fantasy world, they wouldn't mind being the center of lustful attention from countless women, that women must also think like this, or at least some of them. The ones we wouldn't take home to mom.
But women don't think like that, not normal, psychologically healthy women.
And again, I am not moralizing. If Suzy or Lucy or whomever want to sell their bodies, on the surface of it, I'm all for individual rights down to the last "dance."
But knowing that the world of prostitution, bar-girls, and dancers is mostly made up of very psychologically unhealthy women, and our current entitlement system tends to allow such a high level of personal irresponsibility, I'm very skeptical of the notion that legalized prostitution would not create larger problems for the society at large in the long run.
The reason I asked how many around here have actually walked on the wrong side of the tracks, is that you just can't know certain things without going there, literally and figuratively.
I know from experience, that you'll be hard pressed to find sex for hire in Japan. Not that you can't find it, but it is uncommon. In Korea, it is easy, but still common relative to the Philippines. The farther down the economic ladder you travel, the more accessible sex for hire becomes, and the more normal the women tend to be.
But those women have fewer choices. Where women have many more choices, and yet still choose such a life, you'll find the women are not at all psychologically healthy.
As for physical health, of course legalization would be a benefit there as it would regulate the workers. You could ask to see their "card" or whatever.
Posted by: Ray G at Dec 28, 2006 10:18:32 PM
And no, I did not travel all around Asia looking for sex for hire. I have spent some time in Asia, as a young man who was often prone to partying, but the girls I ran with were just the normal kind of girl you could find at any regular nightclub here stateside.
And then in my early 20s, still getting on with my starving artist routine, I worked in bars as a bouncer, and a bartender, and I saw enough that I ought to qualify for a sociology degree.
Posted by: Ray G at Dec 28, 2006 10:25:43 PM
It could be that the illegal status (and resulting lack of safety) of prostitution is what leads psychologically unhealthy women to pursue it. I would imagine that legalization would result in police caring more about the welfare of these women (who would no longer be criminals) and more likely to result in the creation of some sort of licensing scheme (not necessarily government run) to signal the health of the women to consumers.
These, combined with the fact that the occupation would no longer be as stigmatized as it is now, would probably draw more healthy women, and in turn, these women would be likely to win out in competition versus those who didn't take as good care of themselves. Just like drug legalization would make shady drug dealers a thing of the past.
After all, I don't think it's the psychological fringe that go into it in Amsterdam. But this just my idle thinking on the topic, though. I haven't done any research or anything.
Posted by: perfectlyGoodInk at Dec 29, 2006 2:41:07 PM
About the effects of legalisation: a phd theis published in fall 2005 showed that the average nude dancer in Montréal ( Québec, Canada) was 25, had completed her Cegep degree( cegep is the compulsory community college between high school and university in Québec), was psychologically normal and that the main lure for getting customers was the amount of smiles.
Given that nude dancing is way more explicit in Québec than elsewhere in the western world, it may show that if the work is legal,socially accepted and protected by law enforcement instead of being per-(and pro-)secuted, you can attract a better class of worker and attain better working conditions.
Posted by: jacques at Dec 30, 2006 4:29:00 AM
The chief aim of policy towards sex work should be the enhancement of the safety and welfare of sex workers. The secondary aim should be preventing the coerced entry of sex workers into the industry, and efforts to persuade and help at-risk youth to find other means of support and ways to complete their education. The tertiary aim should be
facilitating the exit of sex workers into other industries, if they so desire.
Sex workers out working the streets are subject to robbery and violence, and are thus forced to pay pimps protection money. That factor alone vastly outweighs any increased tendency of streetwalkers to exit the industry. Indeed, it is probably the physical danger and lower earnings of streetwalking that is responsible for driving women out of the industry faster. It is fundamentally evil to prefer subjecting women to physical danger because it might deter them from continuing to practice sex work; that is simply no way to think about public policy.
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