413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

I hear [other sex workers] talking about the Internet when they’re on the stroll. They
claim they make $2,000–3,000 on the Internet, but [they’re] out here where [the johns]
only pay $10 That doesn’t make any sense. Why would they be out here (L2)
The reasons that Internet-solicited sex garners higher earnings vary, but likely have to do with the lasting
impact of crack use on the market and law enforcement approaches to sex work, as well as the structure of
street- and online-based dates themselves. As described above, sex workers on the streets are more prone
to drug addictions and more willing to take less money for sex work. Street-based dates are also more
opportunistic and service-based, which tends to involve lower prices. Online dates, in contrast, garner
higher prices in part because sex workers advertise their prices ahead of time, which forces johns to more
or less accept the requested prices and precludes substantial on-the-spot negotiation; because sex workers
are not as likely as street-based workers to be trading sex solely for drugs; because prices are often
duration-based rather than service-based; and because scheduling dates is more of a process during which
expectations can be set.
There is evidence that broader economic trends also affect the sex market’s pricing structure. Some sex
workers described the impact of the 2007–2008 financial crisis on sex workers’ earnings:
Interviewer: Prior to 2008, was there a peak in that there was so much demand—you
said it was out of control
Respondent: Well yeah, before the economy fell in 2008 … before that things were
always real good. (J4)
Moreover, six of the ten sex workers who began trading sex between the mid-2000s and present day—a
period of significant economic weakness across the country—stated that they did so because they did not
have, needed, or wanted a job. When asked to explain the decline in prices, a sex worker who worked in
Denver touched upon this reality:
Because the laws were getting so strict, and the economy, because a lot of the guys who
weren’t looking for work, because the girls were willing to do less, and [the sex workers]
would say well I don’t have a job, if I did I would pay more. But people were charging less,
even if they looked nice and smelled good. (J9)
Despite the ebbs and flows in pricing over time, demand for sex has always—and continues to be—
lucrative. Reflecting on their work over several years, the sex workers in our study described a persistent
ability to earn significant sums with certain—and sometimes regular—clients. One Denver-based street
worker, who began working in the late 1990s, described the spending habits of some of her wealthy
clients: “They were spending thousands, it would go for three, four, five nights. A bender. They would just
empty their wallets … Some were just in town for work; some came from a rich area” (J3). Although
harder to come by, clients continue to serve as reliable and lucrative sources of income for sex workers,
making sex work a viable vocation for many.
A Lifelong Career: Why Sex Workers Leave, Stay or Return to the Sex
Trade
Murphy and Venkatesh (2006), in their study of street-based sex workers in Chicago, found that many sex
workers now view their work as a profession and career rather than a temporary status in their lives and
are staying in sex work indefinitely as a result. While the authors found this was true mostly of sex
workers who transitioned from street work to indoor work, this study found that viewing sex work as a
career is true for some of the sex workers on the street, but certainly not all. Indeed, there are a variety of
reasons why sex workers either stay in the sex trade or leave.
Why They Stay
Sex workers stay in or return to the sex trade for largely economic reasons. Several of the sex workers
reported returning to the work even after leaving, primarily because they needed money: “[I] stopped in
2001. Put myself in a program … After 2001, I was still going out [to trade] and working” (K1). One sex
worker described it as her “only way to survive; I didn’t know how to have a job after that” (J3). Another
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