413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

confront risks that are similar—albeit perhaps amplified—to those faced by other streetwalking sex
workers.
Street-based sex workers of all gender identities become involved and stay in sex work for a myriad of
reasons, including: economic necessity, substance abuse, homelessness, family and peer pressure,
coercion (by pimps, johns, or others), childhood trauma (leading to a heightened risk of running away and
other risky behaviors), and social acceptance. Many individuals first start trading sex as a continuation of
other forms of commercial sex work, such as stripping and dancing, and many work in a variety of venues
and establishments (including online) in the sex industry throughout their careers, sometimes leaving it
altogether for periods of time (Covenant House 2013; Jeal and Salisbury 2007; Murphy and Venkatesh
2006; Perkins and Lovejoy 2007; Shively et al. 2008; Thukral and Ditmore 2003; Thukral et al. 2005).
Past research has found that many street workers, including many of those informing the discussion in
this chapter, do not work with pimps at all or for substantial portions of their careers (Dalla 2000;
Thukral and Ditmore 2003). 67
Researchers have found that street work offers sex workers some desirable conditions. It allows non-pimp
controlled sex workers, also referred to as independent sex workers, the relative freedom to shape their
schedules and choose their dates. Independent sex workers may also experience less violence than pimpcontrolled
sex workers, who are pressured to date frequently to earn certain amounts of money for their
pimps (Norton-Hawk 2004). Street work can also be a relatively stable source of income and present few
health risks if proper contraception is used (Harcourt and Donovan 2005; Thukral and Ditmore 2003;
Whelehan 2001).
Past research has shown that street-based sex workers are confronted with a unique set of challenges and
hardships that their indoor counterparts do not face (Church et al. 2001; Harcourt and Donovan 2005;
Jeal and Salisbury 2007; Plumridge and Abel 2001; Porter and Bonilla 2000; Seidlin et al. 1988; Weiner
1996; Whittaker and Hart 1996). Those who trade sex primarily on the street are considered to “occupy
the lowest rung on the commercial sex ladder” because they “make the least money, are more likely to be
drug-addicted, subjected to violence, and otherwise distressed” (Shively et al. 2008, 4; also see Sanders
2005 and Scott and Dedel 2006). In a study of 115 outdoor and 125 indoor sex workers in the late 1990s,
Church, Henderson, Barnard, and Hart (2001) found that outdoor sex workers were younger; began sex
work at younger ages; were more likely to have started sex work to pay for drugs (as opposed to basic
economic needs); experienced much higher levels of physical violence from clients; and regularly used
heroin, opiates, crack cocaine, and other illegal substances. These circumstances have led researchers to
conclude that “street-based sex workers generally endure more marginal situations, including unstable
housing and other problems related to substance dependency” (Thukral and Ditmore 2003, 28).
The relationship between street-based sex work and drug use has been well documented. In an
ethnography of female drug users in low-income neighborhoods in New York City between 1989 and 1992,
Maher and Daly (1996) found that women played a greater role in the underground drug economies in the
late 1980s and early 1990s, as they graduated their drug use from heroin and powder cocaine to crack
cocaine. Because this expanded drug market was still male-dominated, it did not provide these drugaddicted
females with opportunities for substantial income generation. Instead, as the researchers found,
sex work provided one of the few reliable sources of earning potential for these women.
Although not all sex workers sell sex to support drug addictions (Sterk et al. 2000), a number of studies
have found significant evidence of what Fullilove, Lown, and Fullilove (1992) deem the “sex-for-drugs
bartering system” used by substance dependent sex workers (Barry 1996; Fullilove et al. 1992; Inciardi,
Lockwood, and Potteger 1993; Maher and Curtis 1992; Sterk and Elifson 1990; Thukral and Ditmore
2003; Thukral et al. 2005). As this chapter will discuss, it is not necessarily the case that crack cocaine (or
other drug) addictions preceded sex work; for some sex workers, substance use began during dates with
67 It is important to note that it is unknown how many individuals currently work for a pimp or worked for one in the past The goal
of this study is not to estimate that number.
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