One murder makes a villain, millions a hero. Numbers sanctify, my good fellow. – Charlie Chaplin
In my column of January 24th I used the figures from an exhaustive study of prostitution conducted by the government of New Zealand to estimate the number of prostitutes in the United States:
The only places in which any hard facts about prostitution can be uncovered are those in which our profession is entirely decriminalized, and there aren’t many of those; luckily, New Zealand took the trouble to study prostitution in depth in order to answer fanatics who predicted disaster when decriminalization was implemented there in 2003. In a survey done in 2005, researchers found that there were a total of 5932 prostitutes of all levels in New Zealand…given that this is the ONLY methodologically sound study available for any portion of the English-speaking world, it’s the best estimate we have for the United States or ever will have until and unless prostitution is fully decriminalized here and whores can therefore feel safe in answering such surveys. According to the 2006 census the population of New Zealand was 4,143,279, of whom approximately 2,082,049 were female; active, declared prostitutes (excluding part-timers, party girls, strippers, gold-diggers etc) were 5932 of those women or 0.285%. Since this jibes very closely with the standard 1% estimate of all women who prostitute themselves to one degree or another it seems very reasonable and we can therefore apply it to the American population as the best estimate we’re likely to get in the lifetime of anyone reading this. According to the most recent estimates (2009) there are about 155,600,000 women in the United States, which after applying the New Zealand estimate gives us a figure of 443,323 active, declared prostitutes in this country…
Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of a way to cross-check that figure by extrapolating from any other study. But last Friday (April 15th) I read an article on A.K. Smith’s blog and encountered this sentence: “There were an estimated 70,000 prostitutes in the US in 2009, based on a long-term study that showed about 23 prostitutes per 100,000 population.” Obviously that number seemed far too low, but I still got very excited and followed the link to the study, where I found this explanation of methodology: “Potterat et al estimated the annual prevalence of full-time equivalent prostitutes in the United States to be 23 per 100,000 population based on a capture–recapture study of prostitutes found in Colorado Springs, CO, police and sexually transmitted diseases clinic records between 1970 and 1988.” Bingo! Like nearly all American studies, this one was heavily tilted toward streetwalkers by its reliance on police records and those of STD clinics. Since streetwalkers are arrested at an enormously higher rate than escorts, and since prostitutes desperate enough to work without protection are also disproportionately found among streetwalkers, what Potterat and company were actually doing was to estimate of the number of streetwalkers in the United States rather than the total number of prostitutes. Not all streetwalkers are arrested in a given year, nor do most of them contract an STD, but that is balanced by the small percentage of arrested or infected escorts so I think we can accept 70,000 as a reasonable rough estimate of the American streetwalker population.
Now, as I wrote in my very first daily post, “The National Task Force on Prostitution estimates that, of the entire female prostitute community in America, only five to twenty percent are street walkers (that’s an average estimate of 12.5%, so let’s be generous and say 15%).” The figures provided by several other studies, including the New Zealand report linked above, are similar, so I’ve always used 15% as my standard estimate. Therefore, if my estimate of 443,323 American prostitutes is correct and 15% of that number are streetwalkers, that gives us 66,498 streetwalkers, which is awfully close to Potterat’s 70,000. Indeed, considering that the figure must contain at least some escorts and massage girls, it looks like my estimate is almost dead on the money.
These results are extremely exciting to me because they support the premise that we can reasonably use the New Zealand figures to make estimates about prostitution in the United States, and that means my estimate of 15,694 underage prostitutes, drawn from the same data, is also valid. Interestingly, this tends to show the Estes and Weiner’s original figures aren’t as catastrophically high as their misuse would make it seem; if we use their low-end figure of 100,000 young people “at risk” of sexual exploitation, remember that they define all female prostitution as involuntary and consider that so-called “trafficking” is the least common of their categories, that puts my estimate as 15.694% of their “at risk youth”, which seems very reasonable.
Postscript: A.K. Smith’s article linked above goes in a very different direction from mine; she compares rates of prostitution arrests to rates of rapist arrests, with disturbing results that are well worth your consideration. Also, the study from which the “70,000 prostitutes” figure was drawn is one I’ve been trying to locate for a long time; it’s the study which disproves the nonsensical assertion that either estimates of male infidelity are too high or those of female infidelity too low by demonstrating that most male extramarital activity is conducted with whores rather than other men’s wives.
Another interesting number would be to estimate the total number of women WHO HAVE EVER worked as a prostitute. If there are 443,000 women actively working, and the turnover is say, every six months, then the percentage of women who have ever worked as a prostitute is much much higher than 2%.
I think there are an awful lot of college degrees out there and brand-new Ford Mustangs and Birkin bags and a whole fuck of a lot of hydro bills that were paid for by prostitution.
What would you estimate, Maggie? Based on your knowledge of turnover rates, how percentage of women have EVER, even once, worked as an escort/prostitute? Is this one of those dirty secrets that a huge minority of women are keeping?
Let’s shine some light here.
The standard estimate I’ve seen is that about 1% of modern Western women have officially prostituted themselves in their lives (i.e. directly taken cash for sex from men in whom they had no other interest), in other words about 3 or 4 times as many as are working at any given time. Now, if you want to count girls who have exchanged things of value for sex it’s obviously tremendously higher, as Emily says the vast majority.
Historically, in most pre-industrial societies roughly 5-10% of the female population were prostitutes. In Victorian London it was higher than in any other time and place in history; in 1886 the British medical journal The Lancet estimated that 6% of the female population were involved in street prostitution. Obviously the percentage of streetwalkers to all whores was much higher then, but even if it was a full 50% that means 12% of female Londoners were prostitutes at that time.
Well, it makes sense that the proportion of streetwalkers would have been higher in Victorian England; after all, Don Ameche hadn’t invented the telephone yet.
But one-eighth of female Londoners … !!! As my Hindu friends would put it, “Holy cow!”
The reason for such a high number in that time and place was twofold: 1) the incredible Dickensian poverty of much of the London population at that time; and 2) the very high demand produced by Victorian insistence that married women be as asexual as possible. Result: a lot of neurotic women, horny men and busy whores.
Coincidentally, tomorrow’s column mentions a few Victorian prostitutes…including one rather special one. 😉
Goes to show that you have no clue about the adult industry. Why would you assume we only have a 6 months run? I have been escorting since I was 18 and I am currently 46.
I seem to be the only one on this site that even know that indoor prostitution was legal in Rhode Island from 1979 till Nov 2009 when they criminalize all the sex workers and put them at risk, by taking away the same sanction and protection under the law given to all other citizens.
Charlie Chaplin was arrested for the MANN ACT which was supposedly the WHITE SLAVERY ACT. They claimed that back in 1907 foreign women were being smuggled into the USA and being forced to work in brothels. THESE PEOPLE MUST HAVE BEEN RELATED TO DR.FARLEY.
The real reason the created the MANN ACT was to stop white women from fraternizing with black men.
So in the 19th century we criminalize all the women who did not buy into the MARRIAGE GAME.
Maybe we should be hiring HOOKERS to TEACH HISTORY…)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Act
Mrs. Robinson, Andrea’s never been an escort but she’s definitely on our side. I think by “six month turnover” she means that the escort population in any given city changes every six months, not that the average escort only lasts six months. I used to own a service and I can tell you that there are a LOT of girls who only do a few calls and then quit.
I’ve written a few times about the decriminalization in Rhode Island; you can type “Rhode Island” into the search box at the top right of the page and it’ll give you the posts. 🙂
I had no idea that prostitution had been legal in Rhode Island at any time in the 20th Century until I came to this blog.
Thanks Maggie, that was a good read.
You’re very welcome. 🙂
Chaplin was also ordered to pay child support for a child that blood tests showed he wasn’t the father of (Joan Barry was the child’s mother). I think these ###*** were of the same mindset as the ###*** that later kicked him out of the US. There was 1 positive about the paternity trial: it lead to a change in California law that allowed blood tests to be used as evidence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Barry_(American_actress)
I didn’t know that, I will have to read up on it, but it’s very interesting, thank you.
Based on personal knowledge from average women confessing to me, knowing I’m not going to judge, “huge minority” is an accurate phrase. Including a devoted Christian grandmother.
My personal experience. YMMV.
They took a survey and 30% of adult males in the USA have admitted to paying for sex sometime in their lfetime.
If 30% admitted it then most likely 50% have done it.
I bet 25% OF WOMEN HAVE TURNED A TRICK SOMETIME IN THEIR LIVES.
Yet you feel we are a huge minority..
Mrs. Robinson, I think Emily meant that the minority is a very large one rather than a tiny one.
Your guess of 50% is pretty close; Kinsey found that 70% of men admitted to having paid for sex at least once in their lives. Some recent surveys have produced lower numbers by asking the question the wrong way, i.e. “do you patronize prostitutes?” rather than “ever paid for sex?” because many men don’t see the women they paid as actual prostitutes (they might’ve been strippers, party girls, etc).
I’d like to see a world where any woman who wants to be a prostitute can be, but no woman is a prostitute through coercion or because it’s the only way to make ends meet. A world where every harlot is a harlot by choice, and I don’t mean a choice between prostitution or homelessness, or between hooking and a lifetime trying desperately to keep up with her debts.
And, of course, where those freely-working working girls do not face the dangers of stings, arrest, or being the victims of crimes because they can’t go to the police.
If anybody wants to write a song about this to the tune of “Imagine,” go ahead, but I don’t think I’m up to it.
If the sex workers were not trying to escape poverty they would not be escorting.
It is the only way they can make ends meet, and this is the main reason the adult indsutry will continue.
Nobody seems to care that all these women are in need of long term services and In 2010 we spendt 250 million l to arrest 80,000 people for prostitution. They could have housed 80,000 women and chidlren long term for 250 million..
I mean give any call girl the winning lottery ticket and see if she turns another trick
Our laws only PUNISH THE VICTIM who is only trying to escape poverty.
The homeless rate for women in RI has already increased by 20% this year alone, and the shelters are full, do they just expect these women to go live in the streets.
Give almost any woman (or man) holding down pretty any job the winning lottery ticket and see if she pushes another pencil, bags another grocery, digs another ditch, etc.
I wasn’t talking about millionaires, though. I was talking about people who do need to work for a living, but she has a choice between (legal) prostitution and other jobs which are just as legal, no more dangerous or strenuous, and which pay as much. Like, say, middle management OR being a call girl. Some women would choose call girl, and in the world I describe, she wouldn’t face arrest for that choice.
You think middle management pays the same as escorting, and how many women are in middle management? Keep in mind once a gal has a past conviction of prostitution, NOBODY WILL HIRE HER.
We recently had 2 teachers in the news, that were fired, one use to escort during college and the other one had done porn 16 years before and neither had ever been arrested.
Maybe we should look at the FACT that we have created laws to PUNISH WOMEN FOR BEING POOR.
You can see the the law is APPLIED differently depending on ones status, look at governor SPITZNER who was not prosecuted and now has his own show on CNN.
As a women, sex worker, when I got busted, things went a little different for me, as I was thrown in jail for 90 days and made to pay the state a 3720 fine, even though I was UNEMPLOYED, with no other income, and a single parent.
Its more like a MORAL WITCH HUNT, to SHAME people, because we do into agree with their RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, as MORALS are all based on religion.
Lets take a look at what its cost for a single mom.
I am 46 and have a 19 year old daughter who just finished high school and cosmetology school.
I pay 12,300 in rent a year
I pay 3,000 a year in student loans
I pay 1800 for daughters car insurance (on a used car)
Add groceries and utilities and we are up to 20,000 a year and that is without health care, and 1 out of 7 people in the USA are living in poverty, with a family of 4 living on less than 24,000.
Yet as an independent escort I can see one client a day for just a hour and make 6,000 a month, but then again I have to pay an additional 1000 a month in advertising, websites, and cell phones.
I spend my days screening clients to avoid law enforcement and serial killers. I have never had a strange man around my daughter in the 19 years I have been a mom. I am also not living off the system and receive no services from the government.
So I have found I rather spend 1 hour a day with a man, who is willing to PROVIDE FOR ME rather than be FORCED INTO MARRIAGE for security, and end up some man’s BITCH.
Every women deserves to negotiate for sex the way she choices to, and still expect the same sanction and protection under the law as everyone else.
As a women if I am on match.com and meet a guy for coffee that turns out to be a STALKER, I can call the cops and they will help me, HOWEVER if I am a women who meets a man on escort.com, he can beat, rape and murder me, and I can not report it without being PROSECUTED.
Its real easy to tell People to go get a job, when the unemployment rate has been over 12% for years and even when we had jobs out there, they do not pay a decent wage.
How the heck can anyone live on 8 to 10 bucks a hour working at walmart. They couldn’t afford to live in a box and eat sandwiches.
Why should the poor just go without health insurance, education, shelter and food.
I just watched on the news the other day where they arrested a women because she was homeless and lied about her address to get her kid in college, and they claim because she lied she STOLE HIS TUITION.
We should be ASHAMED at our lack of humanity.
a) I agree with all or most of what you just said. I am on your side.
b) So cool your jets a bit, ‘kay? 😉 I don’t want you to have to face the danger of arrest, and I want you to be able to avail yourself of the same law enforcement I can avail myself of. I want you to be able to escort, but not have to. I want you to be able, if you want to or have to escort, to be as safe as that greeter at Wal*Mart.
Thanks for the quote from “Monsieur Verdoux”! COOL! Chaplin is 1 of my heroes. I think he was gorgeous (if there were time travel…wink) and what he accomplished after the childhood he had was amazing. He was a WINNER who didn’t take the easy way out into self-pity, bitterness, not trying, etc. He could have easily done that. Instead he took the harder way and changed the world for the better. “Verdoux” was a movie ahead of its time and I’m very glad I got to see it on the big screen in the 1980’s.
We should watch it. It can’t be any more morbid than the Pink Panther movies, or Il Monstro, and I rather liked some of those.
I used to have it on tape. I haven’t replaced it yet on DVD, but we could rent it. A warning: it’s very dark comedy (which I love)…wink…and it’s great you want to give it a chance.
Heck, you’re willing to give Quest for Fire a go.
Hey Maggie, that reminds me: I’ve got another movie to suggest for your filmography. It’s one in the morning, so I’ll have to drop it on you later. It’s one of those soft-core European things.
Maggie,
This was genuinely fascinating. Your grasp on the numbers is excellent.
Thank you, Gorbachev! I agree with our enemies that numbers are important, except that I believe in getting the CORRECT numbers and they just want the highest numbers possible.
It does not matter how many sex workers there are. The point is they CLAIM we are all forced and we are taking away the womens right to CHOICE for herself.
law enforcement can not police 1% of the adult industry on a good day.
30% of males in the USA have admitted pay for sex at sometime in their lives.
Yet women only admit it after they are arrested and then many of them claimed they were forced, after they police publicly humiliate them.
So it doesn’t matter if there is a million hookers on each block world wide the question is WHAT RIGHT DOES THE STATE HAVE DICTATING WHAT CONSENTING ADULTS DO IN PRIVATE.
Playing with statistics is a dangerous game, for all kinds of reasons. Consider the following.
If 5% to 20% of prostitutes are streetwalkers, then between 1 in 20 and 1 in 5 are streetwalkers. If you want to take an average then 1 in 12 or 13 is a streetwalker. Therefore, approx 8% are streetwalkers (approx half your number of 15%). But, bear in mind that, in a range so wide as 5% to 20%, any assumption must be risky.
Also, a gentle suggestion: when you quote a number to 3 decimal places of accuracy (15.694%) you might be technically correct but in the broad scheme of things your answer is based on assumptions and data that is nowhere near as accurate. More credible to say: ‘around 16%’; even that is pushing it. As they say, just saying.
As for the New Zealand study, before using their numbers as a benchmark, it would be good to try to establish some cultural equivalence between them and the US. That they are English speaking is not enough. Knowing some New Zealanders, my perception is that there is a big dfference.
The main problem I have with all the numbers is lack of definition of categories, and you pick up on this with the Colorado Springs numbers. Andrea also makes a good point about ‘active’. In my view, a category called ‘prostitute’ is far too broad to be useful in any analysis.
PS: I have a degree in statistics and it is child’s play to make some numbers that support whatever message you want to convey. In no way am I suggesting that you are doing that although your ‘opposition’ certainly do. Perhaps take a little care so as not to give others an opportunity to vilify your numbers.
I definitely do not have a degree in statistics, but I’m really not trying to establish anything off-the-wall here. The 15% figure is also very close to that used by the English and French Collectives of Prostitutes and is supported in the New Zealand figures.
As I explained in my first post on the subject there is really no point in establishing any cultural similarity between them and the US for the simple reason that theirs are the ONLY valid statistics available anywhere in the world, so it’s not like I can pick between theirs and someone else’s. I might point out, however, that both nations are former English colonies established far from the mother country and both have governmental traditions based in English common law.
I know this is 3 years late, but math is timeless:
“If 5% to 20% of prostitutes are streetwalkers, then between 1 in 20 and 1 in 5 are streetwalkers. If you want to take an average then 1 in 12 or 13 is a streetwalker. Therefore, approx 8% are streetwalkers (approx half your number of 15%).”
Nope. (1/20 + 1/5)/2 = 1/8, or 12.5%, just as Maggie said, and the same result you get from averaging the percentages (since they’re the same numbers in different forms). Averaging the denominators is *not* how you average fractions.
As they say in NLP, communication is the response you get.
I think there’s one group of women left out of that — single women.
You’re right, of course; I was just going for effect in that sentence. 😉
Here’s the full explanation: the study didn’t differentiate between single and married people; it was basically attempting to explain why men in surveys nearly always report more sexual partners than women. Some had theorized that even in anonymous surveys women might be reluctant, but the difference was consistent over several decades even when social mores changed. I remember when this study was first announced and the researchers basically said, “all along people have been trying to prove the difference was not real instead of trying to explain it”.
Simply put, if most of the “extra” sex partners of men (in general) are whores, then it stands to reason most of the “extra” sex partners of the subgroup married men are also whores.
I think this is because women will not tell the truth when they survey them.
We have spend way too Much time SHAMING PEOPLE over their personal choices.
Men tell me all the time that now a days women give it up by the 3rd date. A average man can walk into a nightclub and tell a girl she is pretty and offer to buy her dinner and drinks, and this women will take him home and have unprotected sex with him, while her small children are in the home, and THESE WOMEN WANT TO CALL US WHORES.
This type of behavior is not only legal, its seems to be sociably acceptable.
Why is it OK for a women to be a slut, and just give it away to strangers, but if a women is a whore and charges for her time, refusing to let men waste her time, we all then have issues.
1 of the reasons I came to this board was to show there’s women who don’t practice the evil dating game rules and who also have what I call sex only friendships. I’m 1 of them and call myself a “wild woman”. There’s other names for us which CAN include slut. From the time I thought of having these friendships, I resolved to keep them as money free as possible. I would date my friends only 1 time before having sex and that was on purpose. A few I talked to on the phone a few times and after that I asked them over without meeting them 1st. I know: bad judgment to say the least. However, I QUIT doing that the last time I had a sex only friend (and it was only 1 the last time I practiced this) and will never do it again. What’s ironic, though, is I met 1 of my favorite friends I saw regularly this way. Anyway, I personally hate prostitution, but am for decriminalizing it. I don’t say this to fit in, look good, etc. I mean it. But, I never wanted a cent from anyone specifically for sex and am very thankful the question never came up. On the dates I had, sometimes I paid for everything. Other times we did Dutch treat or they paid for all. Also were times we just had the free ice water at the restaurant and/or bar. All of these were fine with me and a lot of the choice depended on our financial situations at the time. I wanted to purposely break that ###*** where it’s ONLY OK if the man pays for all. ###*** that. I paid for the condoms at all times along with lubricant, etc. I wanted to practice my own form of “free love”. I did this for a # of years and still have the permission to do so from my fiance. If we don’t want to see anyone that’s OK, too. I’ve chosen not to see anyone for almost 8 years now. There’s several reasons for this. We also have strict rules for what we do/don’t do when we act on this. We agree to be honest about what’s going on or not going on at ALL times. Personally, I wouldn’t have an arrangement without an “honesty policy”. Or a relationship for that matter! I’ve never had an STD. A few times I didn’t use a condom. That’s completely my fault. But, that hasn’t happened again and never will happen again. I got tested for all STD’s including AIDS to be sure of my status. When I did this stuff there weren’t any kids around and it was all behind closed doors. I don’t have children. I’ve heard/read about this “3rd date” mentality a lot and personally find it very sad. It looks like ANOTHER dating game rule. Just what was needed (eyeroll). I imagine there’s women who give into the pressure to follow this rule. I imagine it’s in the same neighborhood of making fun of women who want to wait to have sex until marriage. It hasn’t been until the past few years that I was “ready” to “come out” with my wild woman status. This blog has been a great help for me to do that. A big part of why I waited so long was because of the fear I’d be called names, hated, etc. I wanted from day 1 to come out with all this eventually. My goal’s been accomplished in the past few years. I’m proud I’ve purposely broke the dating game rules (I do that also in my relationship with my fiance). I did things sexually the way I did also to not be part of mindsets, etc. that have disgusted me since the time I was a teenager. Thanks for listening.
I admire your courage for COMING OUT WITHOUT letting society SHAME YOU.
All women deserve the right to CHOICE, when they have sex, with who and for what, without becoming a 2st rate citizen, as long as they are ADULTS.
What does to government get to DICTATE our sexuality ?
[…] In my April 15th post, I estimated the number of current prostitutes in the U.S. at 70,000. Maggie McNeill kindly offered another set of statistics that put the number much higher, about 440,000. So in […]
http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/the-pro-rape-coalition/#comment-6824
The reason I don’t see the anti-prostitution advocates actually giving a damn for actual prostitutes as they claim is this:
if they lose their sex jobs, what will they do? Will the advocates give them nice cushy jobs doing something that pays the bills?
Hardly.
When they’re prostitutes, they need to be saved from the Evil Men (who also happen to, ahem, be married to the advocates). But when they’re just poor and not in the sex trade, they’re just a bunch of skanky hos who can die in the street.
I mean, they’re just poor people then.
They don’t want to do anything for poor people.
What you’re saying reminds me of anti-abortion people who DON’T put their money where their mouth is. Disgusting! But, there’s also anti-abortion people who do practice what they preach (thank God). Some do help the pregnant women. It’s very sad that any people in a group working for a cause don’t put their money where their mouth is.
And an even fewer number will not only help the pregnant woman, but will help that baby AFTER it’s born. Thank God for the few who will.
Hey people, that baby doesn’t suddenly become worthless just because it isn’t in the womb anymore.
Exactly, and its much easier to get donations for the spca or starving kids in other countries than it is for women right here in the USA.
But we also have federal laws that prevent any organization from getting a federal grant if they do not totally oppose all forms of prostitutions, so Basicilly we have a law that says YOU CAN”T HELP HOOKERS.
AGAIN WE SHOULD BE ASHAMED, that we do not have 1 politician that has the balls to stand up and PROTECT WOMEN, and create changes in our current laws.
If there is a “write your congressman” campaign, I’ll certainly write. I think poverty relief should be like doctors: you can help whoever needs it, and you have confidentiality. If you’re helping with food and such, you shouldn’t have to say even in court who you’re helping and whether she was a hooker or whatever.
Dear mrsrobinson2010, please check out Congressman Ron Paul. He’s been for decriminalization of prostitution for years. I have a strong feeling he isn’t the only US politican out there who’s for it also. He’s also for decriminalization of drugs. I don’t know if you’re interested in the issues with the Federal Reserve, but if so, he’s done a huge amount of wonderful work exposing the Reserve.