Workers’ Rights Won’t Fix the Sex Trade

August 30, 2023

By Communications Manager

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Arguments in support of the full decriminalization and legalization of the sex industry are becoming more popular. Some say that full decriminalization or legalization would protect “sex workers” and survivors of trafficking. The reality is that where the sex industry itself is made legal (or even “just” decriminalized), people whose bodies are sold—including the few who do so by free choice—experience no less trauma. Their lives and their power do not improve.

Societies that move toward full decriminalization and legalization see higher rates of trafficking, and people in the sex trade become more entangled in harm and violence as corporate power grows. Whether sex is bought in the street, at a legal brothel, in an upscale hotel room, or in the backroom of a strip club, people who profit from it always prioritize making money over preventing harm.

Labor Protections Won’t Make Sex Trade Safe

Some people freely choose to sell sex, but most say they started when they were minors, wanted a way out, and were harmed by it. One study conducted in the U.S. found that 68% of people who sell sex reported symptoms of depression, and 55% reported symptoms of anxiety. Another study in Canada found that they had higher rates of PTSD compared to the general population, with almost one-third of participants reporting symptoms consistent with a PTSD diagnosis. Research also shows that selling sex involves such repetitive exposure to trauma that PTSD is more common for people who’ve lived through it than those who have lived through military combat.

Worker protections, regulations, and corporate influence through legalization wouldn’t change these outcomes. In fact, it would bring more harm to survivors by putting profit over people’s lives. Bekah Charleston, a Nevada-based trafficking survivor of the state’s legal brothels, described that the purported “independent contractor” freedom in the legal brothels was anything but free: “Management required us to line up when someone arrived at the brothel. Once picked from the lineup, we would bring the sex buyer back to our room where he was allowed to do whatever he wanted with us. All of our rooms were wired for sound, which they tell people is for the safety of the women. That’s not the real reason. The brothel management listened to all our negotiations—not to ensure our safety, but to ensure that the women are not ‘blowing calls,’ cheating them or turning down customers. As much as they like to say you can turn down customers, that simply is not true.” 

“As much as they like to say you can turn down customers, that simply is not true.”

— Bekah Charleston, sex trade survivor of Nevada’s legal brothels

Conflict with Federal Discrimination Laws

The sex trade thrives by making sure marginalized people are available for exploitation by those with more power and privilege. Most often, sex buyers are white men with disposable income. People in the supply side of the sex trade are disproportionately women of color, LGBTQ+ folks, and/or immigrants—people who are commonly targets of discrimination in many areas of life, including employment.

Workers have a federally guaranteed civil right to be protected from pressure to have sex as a condition of their employment in America. This was not recognized by the Supreme Court until 1986 after lawsuits that were fought for and won by mostly Black women. By promoting a sex industry with “worker protections” and regulations, supporters of full decriminalization and legalization backtrack on this progress.

Legalizing the sex trade would create a two-tiered legal system: people who have the right to refuse sexual advances, and people who do not. Effectively our laws would say there are people whose rights and dignity are harmed by requests for sex acts and those in the sex trade for whom “work” is exactly what others have a right to bring lawsuits over. This divide would make conditions worse for marginalized people, ensuring they remain available for purchase by primarily white men, while more privileged people do not have to subject themselves to unwanted sex acts to survive.

Corporate Power Increases Harm

Full decriminalization and legalization would make the sex trade more harmful for survivors by expanding the industry. More men will seek to buy sex if it is legal. Corporations will see the demand for paid sex and seek to enter the market. From there, more people will be trafficked into the industry to meet that higher demand. This has already happened in countries with legal industries.

For example, Germany’s “brothel king” encouraged pimps to force women to sell sex in his brothels, and use violence to do so, as he was unable to meet the high demand for paid sex after legalization. At one time, Germany had “flat rate” brothels, that allowed buyers to pay one fee for unlimited sex acts, with a tagline of “Sex with all women as long as you want, as often as you want, and the way you want…” By closing time, women working in these clubs suffered from exhaustion and pain from such repetitive harm by buyers. The flat-rate brothel was shut down for human trafficking.

Legalizing the industry won’t protect workers or undo the poverty and violence most survivors are dealing with. It will, however, incentivize businesses to enter the market—imagine the money Amazon or Walmart could make with brothels. Corporations will work to increase demand and keep down labor costs, which will fuel the sex traffickers who provide supply just as it has done in Germany and other places. It will make the sex trade seem like what it has never been: harmless, acceptable, and inevitable.

Reduce Harm Through Partial Decriminalization

The best way to prevent further trauma to people in the sex trade is to reduce its size and harm. We can start by decriminalizing people who sell sex; a proven approach known as partial decriminalization or the Equality Model.   

Partial decriminalization lifts all penalties for those who sell sex while continuing to hold people who cause harm accountable. It focuses on survivors’ needs and experiences while recognizing the violence, racism, and gender inequity wrapped up in the sex trade. Public education also chips away at the stigma and calls out the trauma inflicted by sex buyers, pimps, and law enforcement. One of the most important reforms is the removal of persistent barriers to economic independence after leaving the sex trade: criminal records that bar survivors from employment. Partial decriminalization ends the justice system’s failed response of arresting and prosecuting people in prostitution. 

By redirecting focus from criminalizing and shaming sex trade survivors to providing trauma-informed social services and resources—such as affordable housing, economic opportunity, legal aid, and mental and physical health care—we can create successful paths out of the sex trade for people who want them. Offering these same supports to vulnerable people would also reduce the number of folks who’d ever have to start selling sex to survive.  