Lives of American sex workers revealed in unprecedented study
New study highlights lucrative nature of prostitution in America and says the internet has both facilitated it and made it harder to combat
A study about the world's oldest profession concludes that the lucrative underground commercial sex economy in each of eight large US metropolitan areas brings in anywhere from US$40 million annually to as much as nearly US$300 million.
The 340-page study by the Urban Institute, a policy research group, finds, not surprisingly, that the reach of the internet has facilitated prostitution and made it harder to combat. The report and its in-depth interviews with 73 convicted pimps and traffickers also challenges conventional wisdom on the illicit side of the sex industry.
Some pimps and traffickers actually had a business model they followed
"We often think about the commercial sex economy as a hustle, where there's no real thought or planning that's involved," said Meredith Dank, the lead researcher on the study funded by the Justice Department and released yesterday. "But we found … the opposite, that some pimps and traffickers actually had a business model they followed."
And business has been good. In seven of the eight cities, the sex trade had a combined estimated annual cash value of US$975.3 million, the study found. In Seattle, the US$112 million estimate for 2007 was more than double the 2003 estimate of US$50 million.
The study did not differentiate between forced and unforced prostitution, but it did have another surprise finding: the recruitment and pimping of women is no longer just a man's world.
"Some of the findings might ruffle some feathers in the end," Dank said. "One finding is that in some cases women are doing the recruiting of the pimps. Most people want to say all women are the victims and all men are the perpetrators. If we are really going to address this issue, I think it is really important to know the external factors and environmental factors that are pushing people into it."