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clients, served as a coping mechanism for the work and—once addicted—made it difficult for many to
leave the trade (Dalla 2000; Graham and Wish 1994; Potterat et al. 1998; Thukral and Ditmore 2003).
Some studies have documented the effect that widespread crack cocaine use in the mid-1980s and 1990s
had on the lives of low-income sex workers and the street-based sex market. Researchers have shown how
the work became less lucrative, more violent, and more competitive and that sex workers and the johns
became younger. Maher and Daly (1996, 484) summarize the impact of pervasive crack use: “The [sex]
market became flooded with novice sex workers, the going rates for sexual transactions decreased, and
‘deviant’ sexual expectations by dates increased, as did the levels of violence and victimization.” The sex
market also lured both younger and older individuals who were becoming, or had become, drug
dependent (Cardwell 2002; Thukral and Ditmore 2003). As a result, these addictions ultimately depleted
many sex workers’ earnings (Thukral and Ditmore 2003; Thukral et al. 2005). As this report will show,
these trends persist to this day.
Previous research documents the especially egregious levels of violence experienced by sex workers. Such
violence has led scholars to deem the work the “most dangerous occupational environment in the United
States” for women (Potterat et al. 2004, 784). Potterat and colleagues derived this conclusion from the
results of their 30-year study of nearly 2,000 sex workers; in that study, they identified the following most
common causes of death among sex workers: homicide, suicide, substance-related problems, HIV
infections, and accidents. In a separate study, Brewer and colleagues (2006, 1101) found that female sex
workers have the “highest homicide victimization rate of any set of women ever studied,” and that
homicide rates among sex workers, johns, and pimps increased between the late 1980s and early 1990s. It
has been found that street-based sex workers are subjected to higher levels of physical violence by pimps,
clients, and others than other types of sex workers (Farley and Kelly 2000; Raphael and Shapiro 2004),
and that everyday street-based sex work presents constant threats of rape, assault, mental and verbal
abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and robbery (Campbell et al. 2003; Farley et al. 2004; Kurtz et al.
2004; Moses 2006; Shively et al. 2008; Thukral and Ditmore 2003; Wood et al. 2007).
Sex workers also face the threat of law enforcement detection, which grew in the 1990s and 2000s when
law enforcement efforts to control street crime increased across the country (Ditmore 2009). In New York
City, for example, efforts such as “Operation Clean Sweep” sought to improve quality of life by targeting,
in part, street-based sex workers (Marzulli 2002). Jurisdictions across the country began to rely on police
raids and undercover efforts to eradicate sex work. Because of these strategies, street-based sex workers
faced—and continue to face—a heightened risk of arrest, summons, and tickets (Shively et al. 2008;
Thukral and Ditmore 2003). As a result, sex workers cycle in and out of the criminal justice system with
great frequency (Thukral and Ditmore 2003). These approaches have also displaced street-based sex work
to indoor spaces, streets not as aggressively targeted by law enforcement, and online (Murphy and
Venkatesh 2006).
The increasing use of Internet-based sex work in recent years on sites such as Backpage and Craigslist has
altered the street-based sex market. The Internet has allowed sex workers to advertise services to a larger
clientele and organize dates that are not as easily detected by law enforcement (Scott 2002; Soothill and
Sanders 2005). Cunningham and Kendall (2009) found that in a single month in New York City, nearly
1,700 ads for sex services were posted online each day. Richtel (2008) found that within one month’s
time, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 unique visitors viewed TheEroticReview.com, a website where
clients review their experiences with sex workers. Beyond serving as a tool for establishing and reviewing
dates, the Internet’s accessibility and ease of use in facilitating the sale of sex is luring sex workers into the
sex trade who may otherwise have never entered; displacing streetwalking sex workers in their 30s and
40s (but not necessarily other age groups); causing the market for commercial sex to expand; and
reducing the need for pimps (Cunningham and Kendall 2011; Kolker 2013). However, as Cunningham and
Kendall found and as our study shows, not all who trade sex are using the Internet.
In drawing on the experiences of sex workers who traded sex in the street- and Internet-based sex
markets in cities across the United States between the 1970s and present day, this study expands upon the
trends explored in research studies, including the influence of substance use and dependence, the
strategies of law enforcement, and the rise of the Internet. This study also creates a new focus on the
operation and makeup of the underground commercial sex market over the course of three decades, with
a particular emphasis on documenting the changes in the market over time.
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