Sociology of Sex Work

Abstract

Sex work, often called prostitution or the world's oldest profession, has also been described as the oldest form of oppression. It is widely vilified but remains an active, thriving market across the globe. The social implications of sex work are far-reaching and debate surrounding the issue has expanded to moral, ethical, economic, political, and public health forums. Sex work affords unskilled individuals an opportunity to make a living wage. While there are economic benefits of sex work, the less tangible costs are high. Sex workers suffer inordinately from addiction, low self-esteem, and violence. In the eyes of many, sex work is immoral and degrading, and contributes to the spread of disease.

Overview

There are few subjects that draw a wider range of reactions than sex work. Like its close relative pornography, sex work is a polarizing issue. Sex work is the act of engaging in sex acts in exchange for some form of compensation, usually money. It is not entered with the intent of procreation. As such, one could also consider sex work "the act of rendering... non-reproductive sex against payment" (Edlund & Korn, 2002, p. 183). The terms more commonly used until the start of the twenty-first century, prostitution and prostitute, are controversial. Some groups, regarding these terms as stigmatizing and pejorative, prefer the terms "sex work" and "sex worker" (Masenior & Beyrer, 2007).

The acts sex workers perform and the contexts in which they work and survive are far from homogenous. Table 1 illustrates the different types of sex work and the varying and general conditions and contexts for each.

Is Sex Work Really Lucrative? Representative data on how much sex workers earn is not easy to obtain—transactions are mostly made on a cash basis and subject to tax evasion and under-reporting. However, overwhelming evidence shows that sex work is a lucrative profession, especially when compared to the wages that unskilled workers command in the other professions available to them. In general, individuals who become sex workers would likely be relegated to low-wage service sector jobs if they were to enter the traditional workforce. Although men and transgender individuals also engage in the paid sex industry, there has been more focus culturally and academically on female sex workers.

Research on wages earned from the early twentieth century determined that "no practicable rise in the rate of wages paid to women in ordinary industries can possibly compete with the wages which fairly attractive women of quite ordinary ability can earn by prostitution" (Ellis, 1936, p. 263, quoted in Edlund & Korn, 2002). At the time, sex work was viewed as easier and less oppressive work than other forms of income available. Modern studies—including one of welfare mothers in the late 1990s—showed that sex workers earned more than other individuals of comparable levels of skill and education. Some researchers hypothesized that sex workers earn higher wages because of the inherent risk of their work. However, though not all types of sex work carry the same risk, the pay premium remains the same across all types of sex work (Edlund & Korn, 2002).

Career Longevity. Sex workers earn more when they are young, an inverse of the usual career progression, which typically rewards experience and tenure. Since earning potential declines with age, sex work is usually a short-term career when compared to other career choices. However, short-term opportunities in sex work put individuals at risk of never acquiring skills that pay a living wage outside of sex work (Edlund & Korn, 2002).

Further Insights

Entering & Exiting Sex Work. Sex work is a multibillion-dollar business that employs millions of individuals worldwide. The profession is low skill, labor intensive, predominantly female, and well paid (Edlund & Korn, 2002). One of the major challenges for sociologists when studying sex workers is the difficulty reaching such a "hard to access" population. Nevertheless, researchers have taken some steps toward better understanding why and how individuals enter sex work.

The overwhelming reason that individuals enter sex work is for economic gain. Sex work is much more lucrative than the other types of work for which unskilled individuals are qualified. However, this factor also means that most sex workers will exit the profession when they find alternative means to financial security. For most individuals, leaving sex work is rarely ever the result of a single decision. Rather, leaving sex work is usually a process that unfolds over time. The cycle of entry, exit, and re-entry is not an uncommon path for individuals struggling to overcome many of the factors that have precipitated their entry into sex work (Dalla, 2006).

Globally, economic conditions and lack of opportunity for women are major factors contributing to women's entering and remaining in sex work. Even the threat of disease, such as HIV/AIDS, is not sufficient to keep women out of this work (Dalla, 2006). Violence is also endemic in the sex industry regardless of the type of venue: massage parlors, strip clubs, dance clubs, or escort services all carry risks. The visibility of violent acts is greater at street-level sex work, but the violence is pervasive throughout the industry. Drug addiction and unemployment are, again, a recurring theme that continues to surface in the lives of these women (Patterson, 2007). Though these studies in the late 1900s and early 2000s focused on the preelance of females in the sex work industry, modern studies continually find a higher prevalence of male sex workers than previously recognized.

Street-level sex work poses a different set of challenges for individuals wishing to exit sex work. Street-level sex workers contend more often with the following factors:

• Lack of treatment for substance abuse and mental health problems;
• fewer opportunities to secure legal work that pays a living wage;
• fewer educational opportunities; and
• a higher risk of re-entry due to a lack of treatment, educational, and employment opportunities (Dalla, 2006).

It is difficult to obtain accurate data about the entry-exit process, but numerous cycles of exit and re-entry appear to be common. Rochelle Dalla's research regarding the exit/entry process of street-level sex workers found that:

• Residential treatment centers were shown to provide a means for sex workers to exit the profession and treat substance abuse issues in a safe, supportive environment.
• Counseling sessions from therapists or parole officers were credited with providing information and direction for sex workers.
• The support received from significant relationships with parents, siblings, and spouses was key to a successful exit, too, as was the studied individual's desire to raise their children in a positive environment.
• Achieving distance from destructive influences was also key, as was finding employment that pays a living wage.
• Affiliation with a religious institution (church) emerged as a prominent and positive influence in helping sex workers leave the profession. As their time out of the sex industry increased, reliance on their church communities for inspiration and support increased and use of formal services slowly diminished (Dalla, 2006).

Dalla's research focused on street-level sex workers, whose experiences can be very different from those engaged in other types of sex work. Additionally, her research is complicated by the fact that her sample size was relatively small. Because of this, her findings cannot be said to represent the experiences of all street-level sex workers. Further research on the factors influencing street-level sex workers' desire to leave sex work will require larger sample sizes and more frequent collection of follow-up data.

The Economics of Sex Work. At the annual meeting of the American Economic Association in New Orleans in January 2008, preliminary results of a study of the economics of street sex work were discussed. The study, titled "An Empirical Analysis of Street-Level Prostitution," was authored by Steven Levitt, an economics professor at the University of Chicago, and Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociologist at Columbia University. Their research combined official arrest records with data on 2,200 transactions that Venkatesh collected in cooperation with female sex workers in three Chicago districts. The findings offer a contemporary view of the paid sex market in a major US city:

• Nearly 50 percent of all transactions happened on 0.3 percent of street corners. The authors contended that because sex workers and clients need to be able to find each other easily, geographic concentration is likely more important for sex work than for other services where traditional marketing channels are used.
• Sex workers earned $25-30 per hour, or four times what they could expect to earn in a legal job.
• A 10 percent increase in the number of families on public assistance in a given neighborhood increased the number of sex workers in that neighborhood by 50 percent.
• Sex workers were more likely to have sex with a police officer than to be arrested by one. The authors estimated that 3 percent of the transaction's sex workers engaged in were done for free to avoid arrest (Levitt & Venkatesh, 2007).

The average work week for a sex worker was thirteen hours and netted her $340.00 on average (Levitt & Venkatesh, 2007). In one Chicago neighborhood, pimps received 25 percent of the sex workers' earnings regardless of whether they set up the transaction (Levitt & Venkatesh, 2007). Findings revealed that many workers under-reported their number of transactions and overall earnings to keep more money for themselves.

In the case of sex work, indications are that as population clusters increase, business also increases. Levitt and Venkatesh (2007) found that over the July 4th holiday, business increased by 60 percent with only a 30 percent increase in prices. A flexible supply chain accommodated the increase in demand in the following ways:

• Regular sex workers worked longer hours.
• Sex workers were recruited from outside the area.
• Temporary sex workers took advantage of the increased business and higher wages.

One controversial finding was that sex workers do better with pimps—they work fewer hours and are less likely to be arrested by the police or preyed on by gang members. The drawback from an economic standpoint is that pimps are limited in their ability to find customers and therefore operate on a smaller scale (Levitt & Venkatesh, 2007). The overall findings by the authors indicate that the paid sex industry is much like other businessespricing strategies are mirrored by other industries and not unique to the paid sex industry (Levitt & Venkatesh, 2007).

Evidence suggests sex work may be lucrative for male sex workers as well. In Economics, Sexuality, and Male Sex Work (2017), economist Trevon D. Logan studied online male escorts and found they earned $227 per hour on average (cited in Weitzer, 2018). Sex involving condomed male sex workers commanded a higher price than sex without condoms, which sociologist Ronald Weitzer (2018) noted is the inverse of pricing among female sex workers with male clients. Logan also stated that male sex workers tend to eschew the use of pimps, a claim disputed by Weitzer. While escorts were among the higher paid male sex workers, Zip Recruiter reported in 2023 the average annual salary of all male sex workers was $40,321, or around $19 per hour.

Viewpoints

Politics & Public Health. In 2003, President George W. Bush used his State of the Union address to outline his intention to tackle the global HIV/AIDS epidemic with a spending plan called the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); as of 2016, the US government reported having committed over $70 billion to PEPFAR. Later in 2003, Congress passed the United States Leadership Against Global HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act, also known as the Leadership Act or the Global AIDS Act. Linking sex work and sex trafficking to the spread of HIV, the act called for a worldwide effort to stamp out sex work.

With passage of the Global AIDS Act, Congress designated seven US government agencies as "primary" implementing agencies with oversight of the government funding. Among the agencies was the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Under the Global AIDS Act, grant recipients then had to meet two requirements (often called the Anti-Prostitution Pledge) to qualify for federal funds:

• Grantees had to publicly endorse policies that explicitly opposed sex work and sex trafficking, and
• exhibit certification of compliance with the "Prohibition on the Promotion and Advocacy of the Legalization or Practice of Prostitution or Sex Trafficking" (Masenior & Beyrer, 2007).

Put simply, the US Global AIDS Act barred the use of federal funds to "promote, support, or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution." Organizations receiving US Global HIV/ AIDS funding also had to adopt specific organization-wide positions opposing sex work ("Legal and Policy Restrictions on U.S. Global AIDS and Trafficking Funding," 2005). A 2005 directive issued by USAID required that funding for AIDS programs be given only to those organizations—both American and foreign—with policies explicitly opposing sex work and sex trafficking ("Legal and Policy Restrictions on U.S. Global AIDS and Trafficking Funding," 2005).

Many nongovernmental agencies (NGOs) that relied on federal funding saw the US restrictions as a groundless ideological attempt to control public health policies (Masenior & Beyrer, 2007). The Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) mirrored these NGOs' opinions by declaring that "such funding restrictions follow other similar—and increasing—efforts to force organizations working in public health to comply with ideological litmus tests that often run counter to both public health practice and human rights standards" ("Legal and Policy Restrictions on U.S. Global AIDS and Trafficking Funding," 2005)

On behalf of one grantee, the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins University was asked to undertake an independent review of the scientific evidence on strategies that effectively reduce rates of HIV among sex workers (Masenior & Beyrer, 2007). One finding was that the "merging of the terms 'prostitution' and 'sex trafficking' in the Global AIDS Act is not accepted as standard language or practice by the scientific literature on HIV/AIDS or by international agencies with HIV prevention programs" (Masenior & Beyrer, 2007, p. 1159). The Johns Hopkins review found no guarantee that did not explicitly oppose "sex trafficking" as well as unilaterally condemn child sex work (Masenior & Beyrer, 2007). From a human rights standpoint, trafficking of persons for any reason is a criminal offense with sex trafficking considered to be one of the most damaging aspects of human trafficking. However, many agencies receiving grants recognized sex workers as consenting adults who sell sex of their own volition. Some of these agencies even supported sex workers' demand for workers' rights (Masenior & Beyrer, 2007).

These agencies argued that sex workers benefit from education, contraception, and basic health services, and stood to suffer from the "conflation" of sex trafficking and sex work. They saw the Global AIDS Act as a threat to public health initiatives as it forbade grantees from providing any of these services to sex workers (Masenior & Beyrer, 2007).

Five organizations filed suit over the law's restrictions in 2005, and the case eventually went before the Supreme Court, which in June 2013 overturned the Anti-Prostitution Pledge requirement. The court agreed with the plaintiffs that the law violated their First Amendment right to free speech with respect to sex work.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, sex workers were in much higher danger of contracting the illness compared to other occupations, but most could not afford to no longer have an income, putting their health and those who patronized sex workers. Monkey pox was also a concern for global sex workers in the early 2020s.

Morality. Like CHANGE, many agencies and advocates consider the anti-prostitution pledge to be just another example of the "legislation of morality." Federal funding restrictions for HIV/AIDS are viewed by some to curtail what is perceived as immoral behavior. In the view of sociologist Ron Weitzer (2006) of George Washington University, these efforts amount to "moral crusades." Weitzer explains,

"Moral crusades arise in reaction to a perceived social problem, which they [the perceived problem's opponents] define as an unqualified evil; participants see their mission as a righteous enterprise whose goals are both symbolic (attempting to redraw or reinforce normative boundaries) and practical (aiming to crack down on evildoers and/or provide relief to victims" (2006, p. 33).

On the topic of sex work, a surprising alliance has formed between conservative Christian groups and radical feminist groups. Both groups are vehemently opposed to all forms of sex work—though for very different reasons. For religious conservatives, sex work is a sign of moral decay and family breakdown (Weitzer, 2006). For radical feminists, sex work is a symptom of male domination, exploitation, and violence against women, whether women willingly enter the profession. As one organization, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, proclaimed on its website, "All prostitution exploits women, regardless of women's consent. Prostitution affects all women, justifies the sale of any woman, and reduces all women to sex" (Weitzer, 2006).

Feminist Perspectives. However, not all feminists agree with this view. While radical feminists tend to see sex work as necessarily exploitative, liberal feminists tend to adopt a more laissez-faire attitude. Table 2 provides a rough overview of how radical and liberal feminists approach the topic.

The Economics of Sex Work. A review of the sociological aspects of sex work would not be complete without looking at the demand for the services. In 2002, economists Lena Edlund and Evelyn Korn published a controversial study called "A Theory of Prostitution."

In the study, Edlund and Korn (2002) argued that women enter sex work as an alternative way to gain the economic rewards and security that are primarily provided to women through marriage. For the purposes of their paper, Edlund and Korn (2002) argued that a prostitute sells nonreproductive sex, or "commercial sex," whereas a wife sells reproductive sex (i.e., sex plus children). According to Edlund and Korn (2002), "prostitution has an unusual feature: it is well paid despite being low skill, labor intensive, and, one might add, female dominated. Earnings, even in the worst-paid type, may be several multiples of full-time earnings in professions with comparable skill requirements" (p. 182). The authors suggested that these high earnings may be because sex workers cannot be wives and wives cannot be sex workers, sex workers need to earn a higher wage than they would through other work to compensate for the loss of the earnings that are afforded to other women through marriage (Edlund & Korn, 2002).

Marriage and sex work are largely incompatible for a woman, Edlund and Korn (2002) argued, because men prefer wives to be faithful. This faithfulness, the authors argue, guarantees that any children born into the marriage are the husband's and guarantees the husband's parental rights. While some sex workers are married, the terms of marriage are likely to be less favorable than they would be for others, Edlund and Korn (2002) claimed.

Married men constitute a small number of clients but represent a large "bulk" of demand for sex workers, Edlund and Korn (2002) argued. However, even though married men have access to low-cost, nonreproductive sex through their wives, they still seek out sex workers for paid sex. The fact that many men will pay for sex when they can presumably have it at "no cost" is not well understood, though Edlund and Korn (2002) offer a few theories:

• That women may be as equally inclined as men to seek out sex partners, but the opportunities they lose through social stigma dissuade them from actively pursuing extramarital sex.
• Men prefer to marry younger women, but since there are more older men than there are younger women, there are limited opportunities for them to marry a younger woman. If a man cannot marry a younger woman, he may marry an older woman but seek out younger women for sex.
• Since fidelity is expected from young, married women and a strong social stigma is attached to sex work, men will seek out young sex workers even at a high cost.

The study touched off a major controversy in academic circles. One critic especially took issue with how the authors' work implicitly assumed women and sex to be commercial goods. "The paper [A Theory of Prostitution] was remarkable....because it considered wives and whores as economic 'goods' that can be substituted for each other. Men buy, women sell," Noer (2006, para. 3) stated. Additionally, the authors assumed that all women were, or would become, either wives or sex workers. Noer (2006) again took issue with the study, writing that "the assumption that there is no 'third way' between wife and whore is problematic, if not outright offensive" (para. 15).

But while controversial, Edlund's and Korn's assumptions are not new among economists. As Noer (2006) notes, "Economists have been equating money and marriage ever since Nobel Prizewinner and economist Gary Becker published his seminal paper "A Theory of Marriage"...[which concluded that] mate selection is a market, and marriages occur only if they are profitable for both parties involved" (Noer, 2006).

Later research on men who pay for sex indicates that "many clients seek much more than a sexual release and also prioritize communication, companionship, and finding someone to 'connect' with emotionally" (Weitzer, 2018, p. 1516). Those desires can translate into longer-term paid relationships, a phenomenon known as the "girlfriend effect" with female sex workers or the "boyfriend effect" with male ones (Weitzer, 2018).

By the 2020s, New Zealans, Germany, Greece, and Denmark adopted rather liberal views on sex work, which benefited the health and well-being of those in the sex work industry. The Supreme Court of India began recognizing sex work as a profession rather than as a criminal offence in 2022. Despite these shifted views, concerns remained over the potential for exploitation in the industry, as well as safety, and health (J. R., 2022). Further exemplifying the change in attitude toward sex work in the twenty-first century, Mitzelman explores the decision of the so-called Duke Porn Star, who began working in pornography to pay for her Duke Law School tuition, as loans did not fully cover the cost (2018). This woman's decisions defied stereotypes of sex workers, showing a new, and perhaps modern, view of the profession.

Conclusion

Attitudes about sex work have long vacillated between condemnation and laissez-faire (Edlund & Korn, 2002). Individuals enter sex work for several reasons, but for most, financial necessity plays a large role. Despite its risks, sex work pays well compared to the other work for which unskilled individuals are qualified and, once entered, can be difficult to exit. Billions of dollars are spent on sex work across the globe annually, and demand for commercial sex does not appear to be waning.

Terms & Concepts

Anti-Prostitution Pledge: Conditions built into the Global AIDS Act that require grant recipients to publicly oppose sex work and sex trafficking to be eligible for federal funds.

Christian Fundamentalism: A branch of evangelical Christianity that, among other beliefs, affirms the Bible's inerrancy and endorses conservative social attitudes.

Commercial Sex: The sale of sex for money. This term does not make a distinction between trafficked sex workers and voluntary sex workers.

Patriarchal Family: A type of social organization in which families are headed by a male and title is typically traced through the male line.

The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR): Announced in 2003, President George W. Bush's plan to tackle the global HIV/AIDS epidemic with a $15 billion-spending package.

Madam: A woman who manages a prostitute's sex transactions for a percentage of the take of the transaction.

Pimp: A man who manages a prostitute's sex transactions for a percentage of the take of the transaction.

Radical Feminism: A branch of feminism that opposes the patriarchal family system as one that leads to the oppression of women under male domination.

Street-Level Sex Work: A type of sex work in which sex workers solicit clients on the street. Sex workers at this level are subject to the lowest wages, highest rate of disease, and most dangerous working conditions.

Trafficking: Refers to the buying, selling, and moving people or goods in an illegal manner.

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Suggested Reading

Brewer, D., Dudek, J., Potterat, J., Muth, S., Roberts, J., & Woodhouse, D. (2006). Extent, trends, and perpetrators of prostitution-related homicide in the United States. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 51, 1101–1108. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=22476270&site=ehost-live

Meshkovska, B., Siegel, M., Stutterheim, S. E., & Bos, A. E. R. (2015). Female sex trafficking: Conceptual issues, current debates, and future directions. Journal of Sex Research, 52(4), 380–395. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=102275998&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Minichiello, V., Scott, J., & Callander, D. (2013). New pleasures and old dangers: Reinventing male sex work. Journal of Sex Research, 50(3/4), 263–275. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=86010321

Morality gets a massage. (2007, May 28). Nation, 284, 3. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=25017200&site=ehost-live

Sex isn't a spectator sport. (2006). Christianity Today, 50, 20–21. Retrieved March 11, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=22573159&site=ehost-live

Smith, M., Grov, C., Seal, D., & McCall, P. (2013). A social-cognitive analysis of how young men become involved in male escorting. Journal of Sex Research, 50, 1–10. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=22880726