The XX Factor: What women really think.

Sex Work and Violence

Rosa, for me the age-old dilemma you pose comes down to three statistics. From Venkatesh: Street hookers in Chicago experience an average of six incidents of physical abuse a year. Higher-end prostitutes in New York experience an average of two. Not much better, really. Also this today, from Nicholas Kristof: "The American Journal of Epidemiology published a meticulous study finding that the 'workplace homicide rate for prostitutes' is 51 times that of the next most dangerous occupation for women, working in a liquor store. The average age of death of the prostitutes in the study was 34."

This doesn't settle the legalization question, because these stats are from our ban-blanketed country (except for parts of Nevada). But I agree with Kristof that it makes the Swedish model of prosecuting only johns very intriguing, because after that law passed, the incidence of prostitution in Stockholm plummeted and so did trafficking.