Sex Work

• Author: Sarah Finley
• Pages: 761-786

SEX WORK

EDITED BY SARAH FINLEY

I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761

II. DEFINITION OF PROSTITUTION UNDER STATE LAWS . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

A. SEXUAL ACTIVITY OR CONDUCT . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

B. COMPENSATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767

C. INTENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768

III. CRIMES RELATED TO PROSTITUTION .......................... 768

A. PATRONIZING A PROSTITUTE . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768

B. PANDERING AND PROCURING ........................... 770

C. HEALTH AND SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . 771

IV. DEFENSES TO PROSTITUTION CHARGES ........................ 772

A. RECOGNIZED DEFENSES . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772

B. DEFENSES NOT RECOGNIZED ........................... 773

V. LEGAL MODELS OF REGULATION AND DECRIMINALIZATION . . . . . . . . . . 774

A. PROSTITUTION IN NEVADA ............................. 774

B. OTHER LOCAL REGULATORY EFFORTS . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776

VI. CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES .................................. 776

A. FREEDOM OF SPEECH ................................ 777

B. DUE PROCESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778

C. EQUAL PROTECTION ................................. 779

VII. ARGUMENTS AND EFFORTS FOR DECRIMINALIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780

A. DEBATE OVER DECRIMINALIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781

B. LEGAL EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE DECRIMINALIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . 784

C. SEX WORK IN THE LGBTþCOMMUNITY .................. 785

VIII. CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786

I. INTRODUCTION

Sex work

1

has a long and lucrative history in the United States (U.S.) and

around the world. Today, the multi-billion-dollar commercial sex industry

1. “Sex work” is preferable to the term “prostitution,” which both “describes and condemns.” Sylvia A. Law,

Commercial Sex: Beyond Decriminalization, 73 S. CAL. L. REV. 523, 525 (2000) (“The primary meaning of the

word [prostitute] has a sexual connotation, historically describing women who offer sexual services on an

indiscriminate basis, whether or not for money, and more recently, the offer of sex for money . . . . Further, the term

‘prostitute’ conflates work and identity. Women who sell sex for money typically have other identities, that is,

daughter, mother, athlete, musician, et cetera.”) (internal citations omitted). Throughout this Article, when referring

to individual actors, the term “sex worker” will be used except where “prostitute” is required for legal or historical

accuracy. “Prostitution” and “sex work” will refer to the exchange of sexual acts for pay, as opposed to the “sex

work industry,” which refers to a broad range of sexual services including pornography and phone and Internet sex.

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encompasses a wide range of sexual services—some legal and others not—

including pornography, stripping, phone and internet sex, and sexual services

obtained in brothels, massage parlors, through escort services, or on the street.

2

Until the nineteenth century, prostitution was generally legal in the U.S. and

flourished in large cities.

3

Sex work remains criminalized in nearly every state,

4

though it continues to have an entrenched and visible presence throughout the

country. In the past quarter century, and particularly since the COVID-19 pan-

demic,

5

the U.S. has witnessed a dramatic growth in the commercial sex industry,

with an increase in the privatization of commercial sex services.

6

Internet tech-

nology led to a rise in phone sex, Internet sex, and escort services, allowing more

Americans to purchase pornography and sexual services from private spaces than

before.

7

While increased privatization shields customers from police surveillance

and arrest, it has not led to safer working conditions for all sex workers.

Often, police do not consistently enforce prostitution laws except against the

most visible sex workers; these are typically street sex workers, who are dispro-

portionately low-income workers, women of color, transgender people, and

immigrants.

8

See S.F. Task Force on Prostitution, Final Report (1996), https://perma.cc/XRN2-Y3Y3 (last

visited Oct. 31, 2021) (analyzing twelve months of prostitution-related arrest reports in San Francisco,

California, in the Law and Law Enforcement section); see also Juhu Thukral & Melissa Ditmore,

Revolving Door: An Analysis of Street Based Prostitution in New York City, URB. JUST. CTR., 34–47

(2003), https://perma.cc/H73P-FDWF. For a discussion of how criminalization and disparate

enforcement affects sex workers, see Janet Halley, Prabha Kotiswaran, Hila Shamir, & Chantal Thomas,

From the International to the Local in Feminist Legal Responses to Rape, Prostitution/Sex Work, and

Sex Trafficking: Four Studies in Contemporary Governance Feminism, 29 HARV. J.L. & GENDER 335,

337–38 (2006). See also Mary Joe Frug, A Postmodern Feminist Legal Manifesto (an Unfinished Draft),

105 HARV. L. REV. 1045, 1054 (1992) (explaining how the “legal terrorization” resulting from the lack

of legal protections for sex workers contributes to their control and exploitation by pimps).

Street sex workers are among the most vulnerable in the industry to

robbery, rape, murder, arrest, criminal prosecution, and police harassment and

brutality.

9

Weitzer, supra note 2, at 4; see also Move Along: Policing Sex Work in Washington, D.C., ALL .

FOR A SAFE AND DIVERSE D.C. 17 (2008), https://perma.cc/ZZT6-HGBF [hereinafter Alliance] (citing a

survey of street sex workers, among whom 90% had experienced violence such as rape, kidnapping or

attempted kidnapping, assault, or robbery, and almost 50% had been treated badly when attempting to

Some indoor sex workers—including low-income workers in brothels

2. See generally SEX FOR SALE: PROSTITUTION, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE SEX INDUSTRY (Ronald

Weitzer, ed., 2d ed. 2010) (providing an overview of the sex industry including chapters dedicated to

pornography, stripping, strip clubs, telephone sex work, legal prostitution, customers of prostitutes, sex

tourism, and sex trafficking).

3. Timothy J. Gilfoyle, Prostitution, in THE READER’S COMPANION TO AMERICAN HISTORY 875, 875–

77 (Eric Foner & John A. Garraty eds., 1991).

4. Nicole Bingham, Nevada Sex Trade: A Gamble for the Workers, 10 YALE J.L. & FEMINISM 69, 69

(1998).

5. Gabrielle Drolet, The Year Sex Work Came Home, N.Y. TIMES (Apr. 10, 2020) (noting that

“OnlyFans reported a 75% increase in overall new sign-ups — 3.7 million new sign-ups [in the month of

March, 2020], with 60,000 of them being new creators”).

6. Weitzer, supra note 2, at 1.

7. Stewart Cunningham, Teela Sanders, Jane Scoular, Rosie Campbell, Jane Pitcher, Kathleen Hill,

Matt Valentine-Chase, Camille Melissa, Yigit Aydin, & Rebecca Hamer, Behind the screen:

Commercial sex, digital spaces and working online, 53 TECH. IN SOC’Y 47, 47 (2018).

8.

9.

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