413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

Main Findings from this Chapter Include:
Entry into commercial sex market: Sex workers started trading sex on the street for a wide variety of reasons,
including economic need; homelessness; the encouragement of family members, friends, and acquaintances; a desire for
social and emotional acceptance; as a natural continuation of other forms of commercial sex work, such as stripping and
dancing; and to support substance use. For many, a combination of these reasons served as the impetus to begin trading sex.
Changes in commercial sex market over time: The street-based sex market underwent a significant transformation
between the 1970s and present day, in large part due to the dramatic effects that the crack epidemic in the mid-1980s
through the 1990s had on the sex economy. In particular, the rates and earnings of sex work, the conditions of the streetbased
sex market, and the dates themselves changed substantially.
Pricing: There is evidence that broader economic trends affect the sex market’s pricing structure; some sex workers
described the impact of the 2007–2008 financial crisis on sex workers’ earnings.
Risks: There are many risks to engaging in the commercial sex market, including: law enforcement and the threat of
detection; client unpredictability; violence, rape, and death; sexually transmitted diseases and other health hazards; and the
risks involved with drug use and dependency.
Current UCSE: The concomitant influences of widespread crack use, changing law enforcement approaches to sex work,
and the increasing use of the Internet to solicit sex work have shaped the modern-day sex market. Today’s street-based sex
market consists of johns who pay less and are more violent; sex workers who either voluntarily or reluctantly charge less
for their work; deeply rooted drug addictions; and law enforcement crackdowns that are pushing sex work off the streets,
to new areas or online. Street-based sex work in particular has become more dangerous, more prone to detection, and less
lucrative.
Definitions
As discussed in the terminology section in chapter 2, we use the term sex worker in a manner consistent
with Murphy and Venkatesh (2006), to denote anyone (female, male, or transgender) who exchanges
sexual intercourse (including oral sex) for money or some other material good (e.g., food, shelter, drugs).
This chapter focuses on street-based sex workers who traded sex acts primarily in the outdoor sex
market—in places such as public spaces, cars, hotels and motel rooms—and a few who traded online, but
who also worked in or with a number of other venues and establishments (such as strip clubs, massage
parlors, and escort services) at some point in their careers. Of the 36 sex workers whose experiences
inform this chapter, seven worked with a pimp for a short period of time. Pimp-sex worker relationships
are discussed more in depth in chapters 5–7.
Literature
Existing literature provides useful information on the operations of the street-based sex market and the
experiences of those trading sex. Previous research has made important contributions to our
understanding of sex workers who worked during particular periods of time and in specific cities across
the United States, including Chicago (Raphael and Shapiro 2004), San Francisco (Farley and Barkan
1998), New York City (Fullilove, Lown, and Fullilove 1992; Maher and Daly 1996; Murphy and Venkatesh
2006; Thukral et al. 2005; Thukral and Ditmore 2003), Atlanta (Sterk, Elifson, and German 2000), and
Colorado Springs (Potterat et al. 2004). A small set of researchers has begun to explore the role of the
Internet in the commercial sex market (e.g., Cunningham and Kendall 2011).
To date, few studies of transgender sex workers have been undertaken (Weitzer 2009). Extant literature
reveals that transgender sex workers may be drawn to sex work because it offers an accepting community
and a source of employment void of the discrimination these individuals frequently face in the
mainstream job market. Transgender sex workers, however, are often subjected to harassment and
mistreatment by law enforcement and exposed to heightened health risks, primarily HIV/AIDS infection
and extreme physical violence (Boles and Elifson 1994; Prestage 1994; Thukral and Ditmore 2003; Valera,
Sawyer, and Schiraldi 2001). Transgender sex workers are integrated in street-based sex markets and
216