By Manisha Shah

The illegal market for sex in the United States generates significant economic activity yet remains understudied due to its illegality and clandestine nature. This paper synthesizes existing empirical evidence
documenting aspects of market structure, impacts of regulation, and notable changes over time. Criminalization, while intended to suppress the market, often exacerbates harms by displacing activity
underground, increasing violence against sex workers, and elevating disease transmission risks. Natural experiments, including decriminalization episodes in Rhode Island and policy shifts in Europe, reveal that decriminalization can reduce sexually transmitted infections and violence against women. Additionally, technological shifts-particularly the rise of online platforms due to the internet-have reshaped market organization. These findings challenge conventional legal and moral frameworks and underscore the need for evidence-based policymaking to guide effective regulation of sex markets.

The illegal market for sex in the United States generates significant economic activity yet remains understudied due to its illegality and clandestine nature. This paper synthesizes existing empirical evidence documenting aspects of market structure, impacts of regulation, and notable changes over time. Criminalization, while intended to suppress the market, often exacerbates harms by displacing activity underground, increasing violence against sex workers, and elevating disease transmission risks. Natural experiments, including decriminalization episodes in Rhode Island and policy shifts in Europe, reveal that
decriminalization can reduce sexually transmitted infections and violence against women. Additionally, technological shifts-particularly the rise of online platforms due to the internet-have reshaped market organization. These findings challenge conventional legal and moral frameworks and underscore the need for evidence-based policymaking to guide effective regulation of sex markets.

by Jo Phoenix

Debates about prostitution law often pivot around two broad approaches. One favours full decriminalisation, arguing that removing all criminal penalties for selling and buying sex empowers women and improves safety. The other, sometimes called the “Nordic model,” criminalises the purchase of sex while decriminalising the seller, aiming to reduce demand and shift policing away from women. Ash Regan’s Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill, now defeated in the Scottish Parliament, followed the Nordic model. It proposed to decriminalise soliciting and loitering while criminalising the purchase of sex, alongside providing statutory support for women in prostitution. The Bill offered an opportunity to examine how this approach could function in Scotland and what it might mean in practice for women in prostitution. On 29 October 2025, I gave oral evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Criminal Justice Committee in support of Ash Regan’s Bill. For nearly two decades, I opposed the Nordic model of criminalising the purchase of sex. My opposition was not based on fixed political slogans like “sex work is work” or “prostitution is all male violence”. In my research, I have always held both truths in view, because women describe prostitution as a way to make money while also recognising it as sex-based violence and victimisation. I avoid abstract debates about consent. These debates skim past poverty, tend towards a facile interpretation of constraint and choice, and are not capable of holding in view the relentless realities of male violence and how this shapes women’s and girl’s ‘choices’. I initially opposed criminalising buyers because more urgent problems demanded action. Having studied Ash Regan’s Bill and the evidence base, my view has changed. Despite major legal and policing reforms over the last 15 years, some of the most intractable harms of prostitution and male violence remain unaddressed. While no law can remove all risks, the Nordic model, as reflected in this Bill, represents a realistic policy approach whose implementation could make things a little better for women caught up in prostitution.