Writer: Amanda Peterson
Editor: Simran Khanuja
December 7, 2023
In nearly the entirety of the United States, sex work is illegal. The only exception is licensed brothels in Nevada. Nonetheless, sex work persists throughout the entirety of America. Sex work should be decriminalized because the illegality of the profession endangers sex workers.
The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) were passed in 2018 as an attempt to protect sex workers. With titles such as these, it made it difficult for Congress to deny the acts. In reality, these acts have been proven to cause more harm than good. FOSTA-SESTA attempted to shut down websites that facilitated sex trafficking, specifically Backpage.com. While the laws were successful in ending these websites, they only pushed traffickers further into the depths of the dark web. Law enforcement with years of leads on sex traffickers were locked out of any information they had from the websites, and can now only access the dark web through an invite. In addition, removing access to the internet limits the screening and advertising ability of sex workers. According to sex work advocacy groups, the death and missing rates of sex workers have only increased (Tung, 2020). Legislation such as this, meant to improve the lives of sex workers by illegalizing aspects of the profession, has only made it worse.
The illegality of sex work also puts sex workers at an increased risk of violence. Since the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is not available to sex workers, it puts employees in a clearly inferior position. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “22 percent of the 250 female sex workers surveyed in Baltimore, Maryland reported physical or sexual violence by client in the past three months” (2020, p. 5). With the criminalization of sex work, people involved do not have the same access or ability to screen clients, therefore putting them at a higher risk of violence. The vulnerable status of criminalization also puts sex workers at increased risk of sexually transmitted infections and diseases because those in control are not mandated to screen for STIs. Furthermore, the inferior position they are forced into often makes them unable to ask a client to wear a condom (2017). Additionally, out of fear of being arrested and violence from police, sex workers are typically reluctant to call authorities. The criminalization of sex work endangers employees because it restricts outlets to set boundaries and receive help.
Furthermore, in police interaction with sex workers, the police perpetuate violence against sex workers. Sex workers have reported constant instances of intimidation, sexualized stop-and-frisks, physical force, and more forms of sexual violence by police. Sexual coercion was the most commonly reported instance of sexual violence, claiming a sex worker can get out of legal trouble by providing sexual favors (Murphy-Stanley, 2022). Transgender sex workers are at a particularly high risk of violence due to criminalization. Of transgender sex workers who have had interactions with the police, 89.2% reported experiencing at least one type of harassment or violence (Stenersen et al., 2022). When the only choices are to be arrested or provide intimate services to law enforcement, sex workers are really only given one option.
When sex workers do face sexual assault, their experiences are often illegitimized. When the #MeToo movement gained momentum, sex workers stated that they were left out of the campaign. It is theorized that since sex workers' jobs are to sell sex, someone in this profession cannot be sexually assaulted: “How can you sexually assault a whore?” (Cooney, 2018). The idea of “whorephobia” perpetuates throughout society and upholds the idea of sex workers as less than someone not in the profession. This simply gives another reason to promote decriminalization because of people’s lack of knowledge about consent within sex work and the demonization of women in the field. In reality, “whorephobia” affects all women negatively. The label “whore” is often coined by women and said to other women, yet this word upholds stereotypes and stigmas formed by the patriarchy. It limits women’s autonomy, as well as other sex workers (Ralston, 2021). The hope is that with the decriminalization of sex work, stigmatization will diminish. When sex work is criminalized, sex workers’ experiences with sexual assault are deemed unbelievable and unworthy of attention.
It is true that many sex workers join the profession because of their vulnerable position in society or poor life circumstances. This therefore raises the question of if their work can be seen as consensual due to their inferior position in society and subordination to the buyer. While this may be true, it does not take away from the fact that decriminalization will help the safety of sex workers. In a 2017 study on Rhode Island’s period of decriminalization, female gonorrhea rates decreased drastically by about 40% and reported rape also decreased by around 30%. In addition, there is no clear correlation between sex work and sex trafficking (Gordon, 2017). The benefits of decriminalization are clear. While a common concern regarding changing the laws surrounding sex work is that it will lead to an increase in sex trafficking, there is simply not enough evidence for this to be deemed true.
The decriminalization of sex work is necessary to protect the safety and well-being of those in the profession. Due to failing legislation, sex workers are at increased risk of physical violence, violence perpetrated by police, and sexual assault. Whorephobia and the inferiority of sex workers only further these points. The solution to these issues is the decriminalization of sex work because it will give an outlet for sex workers to report violence and give them the capacity to protect themselves more effectively.
References
Cooney, S. (2018, February 13). Sex workers say they’re being left out of the #MeToo
movement. Time. https://time.com/5104951/sex-workers-me-too-movement/
Gordon, E. (2017, August 4). Prostitution decriminalized: Rhode Island’s experiment. WHYY.
Improving awareness of and screening for health risks among sex workers. ACOG. (2017,
Is sex work decriminalization the answer? what the research tells Us. American Civil Liberties
Union. (2020, October 21). https://www.aclu.org/report/sex-work-decriminalization-answer-what-research-tells-us
Murphy-Stanley, A. (2022, August). The paradox of salvation: Police-perpetrated sexual
violence against sex workers in the United States. CUNY Academic Works. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_etds/248/
Ralston, M. (2021). Rape culture and slut-shaming. Slut-Shaming, Whorephobia, and the
Unfinished Sexual Revolution, 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780228007982-001
Schaffauser, T. (2010, June 23). Whorephobia affects all women | Thierry Schaffauser. The
Stenersen, M. R., Thomas, K., & McKee, S. (2022). Police Harassment and Violence against
Transgender & Gender Diverse Sex Workers in the United States. Journal of homosexuality, 1–13. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2022.2132578
Tung, L. (2020, July 10). Fosta-Sesta was supposed to thwart sex trafficking. instead, it’s
sparked a movement. WHYY. https://whyy.org/segments/fosta-sesta-was-supposed-to-thwart-sex-trafficking-instead-its-sparked-a-movement/
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