413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

Substances
Participants felt that the substances they used and came to rely on posed a threat to their well-being and
their lives. One respondent from Dallas described a series of overdoses and a particularly traumatic
incident involving drug use: “I've overdosed at least 20 or 30 times. My sister’s heart exploded off cocaine,
so I stopped doing that” (M4). Others explained the threat posed by drugs with unknown components. A
woman from Denver noticed that the drugs in the mid-to-late 2000s changed; she stated that the drugs’
quality “would go down” and that they were “mixed with stuff” (J3). One sex worker noted that the riskiest
component of her work was the possibility of not having enough drugs to sustain her. She noted, “I’m
going to tell you the truth. Not being able to have my drug was the scariest thing. That was what kept me
doing what I was doing. I didn’t care if it was risky or not” (D15).
Law Enforcement Detection and Interactions
For a substantial number of individuals, the threat of detection by law enforcement and law enforcement
interactions was viewed as a key risk to their work. According to these respondents, this was especially
true in the 2000s. Many described encounters with law enforcement officials, especially those working
undercover. A respondent from Washington, DC described an incident with officials she believed to be
undercover agents: “Three months ago, I went to a hotel room and saw and undercover outside in the car,
so I didn’t go in the room; I left. This guy said he would pay $200. When I pulled out, I got tons of phone
calls—they were trying to get me!” (L5). Some, like a Denver-based sex worker who traded sex in the mid-
1990s through the mid-2000s, viewed encounters with law enforcement officials as the primary risk while
conducting sex work. This woman stated that law enforcement “treat you shitty.” She went on, “They
would manhandle me a bit, put the cuffs on real tight. Last time wasn’t so bad. They just gave me a
citation” (J11). The following section will explore and document changes in law enforcement efforts to
discover and control sex work over time.
Sex workers face constant threats to their physical and emotional well-being while conducting their work.
This section has explored these many risks, which include hazards to sex workers’ health, the possibility of
violent interactions with clients and situations of robbery, dangers involved with substance use and
dependency, and the potential of law enforcement detection and interactions.
The Effects of Law Enforcement Approaches to Sex Work Over Time
In the 1990s and 2000s, street- and Internet-based sex work became a focus of law enforcement efforts to
eradicate street crime (Ditmore 2009; Marzulli 2002). As a result, sex workers increasingly came into
contact with the criminal justice system and some portion of street-based sex work was displaced to
indoor or online spaces or to different areas in urban environments (Murphy and Venkatesh 2006;
Shively et al. 2008; Thukral and Ditmore 2003). Interviews with sex workers in this study who worked in
cities across the country confirmed these trends. Twenty individuals (56 percent) noted that they had
been arrested and/or sentenced on charges related to their sex work. Fifteen respondents (42 percent) in
our sample stated that they were caught, but not always arrested, by undercover law enforcement officers
at some point in their lives.
Interactions with the Criminal Justice System and Law Enforcement Officers
Sex workers cycle in and out of the criminal justice system numerous times throughout their careers.
More than half (56 percent) of those in our sample stated that they had received a warrant, been warned,
arrested, and/or sentenced on charges related to their sex work. A sex worker from Denver had been
arrested three times for her sex work and served 30 days in jail after at least two of the three arrests. One
respondent noted that she had at least 14 cases involving sex work. Another stated that at least 20 of the
30 felony convictions she received involved sex work charges; this woman had been to jail seven times
and to prison nine times. A few sex workers explained that they had received a number of arrests and/or
sentences involving both their sex work and drug use.
Sex workers were asked to describe their encounters with law enforcement. Many detailed neutral or
positive experiences. A 33-year-old from Denver stated, “They [police officers] treat you okay. If you have
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