UA researcher: Legalize and regulate prostitution

A University of Arkansas study suggests educated, affluent women are making “rational” choices to become prostitutes, and governments should reconsider prostitution policies.

Jennifer Hafer, a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Arkansas, recently examined the various  “high-end” and “low-end” of legal and illegal prostitution. Prostitution is illegal nationwide except for a few counties in Nevada. And, according to Hafer, enforcing prostitution laws and regulations continues to create problems for communities and law-enforcement agencies.

Hafer was supported in her project by Amy Farmer, an economics professor who holds the Margaret Gerig & R.S. Martin Jr. Chair in Business in the department of economics in the Walton College of Business.

The model Hafer developed detailed the impacts and decisions related to women becoming high-end escorts, call girls, brothel prostitutes, streetwalkers or women who advertise prostitution on the Internet. According to a UA statement about the research, Hafer’s model “allowed her to examine the type of market a woman would enter and how variables such as morals, effort, health risks, stigma, earnings and the probability of getting caught in an illegal activity influence a woman’s decision.”

Findings from the model indicate women don’t necessarily become prostitutes to pay bills, buy drugs or other desperate measures. Instead, the study finds that “many” educated and affluent women “are making a rational decision to enter certain segments of the prostitution market.” The “streetwalking segment” is not, however, a choice made by educated and affluent women.

“Our model demonstrated that the prostitution market may be pulling educated women – these so-called ‘high-opportunity-cost’ women – out of the conventional labor market and the marriage market, in many cases,” Hafer noted in the statement. “The findings suggest that these women are not forced into the prostitution market but rather choose to enter it for many of the same reasons that people enter the conventional job market – money, stability, autonomy and even job satisfaction.”

Hafer’s findings include:
• Factors that influenced opportunity cost for a woman were education, training, access to both physical and social resources, access to the marriage market and family background variables such as type of household, the neighborhood one grew up in and education level of parents.

• High-opportunity-cost women – affluent and educated women with strong family backgrounds and access to resources – may be choosing to enter the high-quality illegal prostitution market, via a high-end escort service or through the Internet.

• Although legal markets are available, low-opportunity-cost women enter the illegal market because here are significant entry barriers to legal brothel prostitution. The barriers include licensing, which might include background and health checks, house rules that the women must follow, such as prohibition of drugs, and, perhaps most significantly, the fact that brothels are located only in Nevada, many miles away from a woman’s support network.

As to government policy, Hafer suggests brothel prostitution should be legalized and regulated. She advocates that regulation focus on safety and security measures for the prostitute and consumer.

“The major question concerning policy is what is the overall goal?” Hafer said. “Is it better for society to make prostitution illegal in all circumstances? Legalize prostitution subject to regulation? If the demand for prostitution is present, there will always be supply.”