In the United States, sex work is illegal except for in a few select counties in Nevada. However, in recent years there has been an increase in activism to change the way we as a society view sex workers. Both the buying and selling of sex are illegal; however, pornography and even the purchasing of pornography is still completely legal. The legal status of sex work in the United States is meant to be protecting the vulnerable but, in reality, is creating additional dangers for those involved. In order to productively discuss sex work, one must take morality out of the picture. One may not agree with sex work morally, but that does not make it less of a profession. Sex work is labor because it is a service that people pay for. Its legality has no effect on this. The morality argument also further perpetuates the belief that police are the saviors of these situations, when in reality that is far from the truth.
The primary problem with sex work being a crime is that it bars sex workers from employment benefits and rights. Sex workers are unable to receive healthcare through their jobs, which is especially important in the case of sexually transmitted infections. They are unable to apply for unemployment as they are never technically employed. Most jarringly, they have no rights against discrimination based on sex, religion, sexuality, race or gender. Once again, even if you do not morally agree with sex work, they are still human beings who deserve our respect.
It is no secret that the law is corrupt, and the laws surrounding sex work are no exception. Police commonly trick sex workers into committing the crime and then arrest them. It is not specifically illegal for a police officer to engage in sexual intercourse with a sex worker during a sting operation. A sting operation is an operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime and is commonly used to catch sex workers. During a sting operation in an Arizona massage parlor horrifically named “Operation Asian Touch,” there were 17 instances of a police officer engaging in sexual acts with the employees. According to Arizona law, those officers did nothing wrong. In reality, they abused their power over a vulnerable group of women simply because they could. This case also highlights the fact that the illegality of sex work is an intersectional issue. Between 2016 and 2018 almost every person arrested for sex work in New York was a person of color. Also in New York, sex workers have been arrested for possessing an instrument of crime, or a condom. Rather than discourage people from participating in sex work, it only discouraged them from using a condom.
The Nordic Model, also referred to as the End Demand, Partial Decriminalization or the Equality Models, has been utilized in some form by Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Ireland and Canada. This model criminalizes the buying of sex but not the selling of sex. In this situation, clients can be arrested but the actual sex worker will not be. While this is a step in the right direction, it is far from ideal. In this situation, the clients purchasing the service are still committing a crime, which makes them less likely to want the service. When they do, the clients are nervous and want to move quickly and only meet sex workers on the street. This prevents sex workers from properly vetting their clients beforehand, which opens them up to the same unsafe situations that exist when it is illegal.
The total legalization route has been used by Amsterdam and some parts of Nevada. In this model, sex work is completely legal with sex workers either working in brothels or as independent contractors. This is the preferred model by many advocates; however, it is not the preferred method by many sex workers. If a sex worker works in a brothel, the brothel takes 50-60% of their earnings. This model creates a monopoly, meaning that there isn’t enough competition in the market to lead them to create a competitive employment market.
The best model for the legal status of sex work is the decriminalization model. This model has been used by New Zealand, and they incorporated sex workers into the policy-making process. This model removes criminal penalties for both the buying and selling of sex. Sex workers can choose to either work for themselves or for a brothel. If they choose to work for the latter, the brothel must maintain certifications guaranteeing that their workers are over the age of 18 and practice safe sex. The key part of this method is that sex workers have fundamental rights such as healthcare, are covered by workplace protections and can go to the police without the fear of being arrested.
Whenever legalizing sex work is brought up in policy talks, it tends to be connected to the discussion of human trafficking. There is a common belief that sex work allows for human trafficking. However, it is incredibly difficult to get accurate statistics on the number of people forced into sex work, and many organizations, which tend to be religiously affiliated, throw around numbers that are not accurate. In 2018, the Fight Oline Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) was passed banning online ads that advertised sex trafficking. While this may seem like a positive law, it actually made it harder for law enforcement to find victims of human trafficking. On many sites where sex work was advertised, the company worked closely with police to report instances of sex trafficking and lead police to the perpetrators. While the law did ban ads for human trafficking, it also banned ads for consensual sex trafficking. This made it very difficult for sex workers to vet their clients for their own safety. In the three years after FOSTA was passed, it only worked once. Alternatively, when sex work is illegal victims of sex trafficking are hesitant to reach out to police out of fear of being charged with a crime. Indeed, human trafficking occurs likely more than is known, but instead of helping actual victims, time and resources are being pushed to criminalize those participating in consensual sex work. Human trafficking is real and it is heartbreaking, but equating those who are forced into sex work and those who consensually choose to participate does neither group justice.
The current situation in the United States is treating sex workers as less than human and denying them their basic human rights. Whether or not you morally agree with sex work, they are still a section of our labor force and deserve the same rights as any other worker in the United States. The illegality of sex work pushes sex workers into unsafe situations, and when those unsafe situations lead sex workers to be harmed, they are unable to report the assault to the police. Sex work has been a part of society since early Sumeria, around 2400 BCE, and it is time for sex workers to be recognized in the United States.