Violence and Legalized Brothel Prostitution in Nevada

Abstract

This article examines violence in legalized brothels in Nevada. Debates over prostitution policies in the United States have long focused on questions of safety and risk. These discourses inevitably invoke the coupling of violence and prostitution, though systematic examinations of the relationship between the two are sparse. This article explores the issue of violence in the Nevada brothel industry. By drawing on interviews with prostitutes, managers, and policy makers, this article examines both prostitutes' perceptions of safety and risk and brothel managers' practices designed to mitigate violence. Discourses relate to three types of violence: interpersonal violence against prostitutes, violence against community order, and sexually transmitted diseases as violence. The authors conclude by arguing that the legalization of prostitution brings a level of public scrutiny, official regulation, and bureaucratization to brothels that decreases the risk of these 3 types of systematic violence.

Strategies and Challenges in Preventing Violence Against Canadian Indoor Sex Workers

“…6,13,30,31 The lack of guidelines also prevents conditions from being placed on client behaviors concerning substance use, condom practices, and terms of payment. 10,29 Sex workers are left to rely on intuition and potentially dangerous practices, unlike other sectors of labor afforded protections through occupational health and safety regulations. Unfortunately, workers' intuitions and strategies are often developed over time and from experience, which can include violent encounters.…”

“…Greater engagement and uptake of public health and occupational health and safety principles are also required. Evidence from Nevada 10 and Australia 30,31 illustrates the effectiveness of guidelines about working conditions, personal and protective equipment, workplace violence, workers' substance use, and workers' compensation in brothels. Current regulations are often limited to the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and to sex workers.…”

“…[5][6][7][8] Legal policies of criminalization or quasicriminalization, for example, are directly correlated with oversights in police protection 9 and limiting workers' ability to implement safety measures, including hiring security personnel. 10 The poverty, housing instability, and limited economic power of some sex workers further exacerbate their risk. [11][12][13] In Canada and other industrialized nations, much of what is known about workplace violence concerns sex workers situated within street-based marketplaces who experience severe poverty, mental illness, and addictions.…”

Decriminalization of Prostitution: The Soros Effect

“…Between 1998 and 2002 researchers (Brents and Hausbeck, 2005) interviewed 40 prostituted women in Nevada's legal brothels, and surveyed an additional 25. They found continual apprehension of violence, and that "the persistent fears associated with disease and violence clearly can take their toll" (Brents and Hausbeck, 2005, p.289).…”

“…The reported rate dropped in the year 2012 to 27.4, when the decriminalizing law had already been repealed, a lower rate than it was in the years 2004 and 2005 when prostitution was legal indoors (Brooks & Hughes, 2014). Second, the ACLU brief cites a research paper (Brents and Hausbeck, 2005) that reportedly found that legalized prostitution in Nevada reduced violence and fear of abuse as compared with non-legal venues. A reading of this article does not justify the use made of it by the ACLU.…”