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Thread: Brothels in a Slump over Online Hookups - relates to MyRedBook bust

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    Default Brothels in a Slump over Online Hookups - relates to MyRedBook bust

    from

    (snip)"The world's oldest profession is showing its age: Nevada's legal brothels have taken a hit from the explosion in online sex hookups, and many have been forced to shutter their doors.

    Of the 36 brothels sprinkled across Nevada in 1985, just 19 remain in business, Bloomberg reports. In addition to a sluggish recovery to the recession and rising fuel costs (many customers are truckers), most brothels are challenged by the ease with which any woman can advertise her services on the Internet.

    "A brothel is an intermediary," Scott Peppet, law professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told Bloomberg. "It's pulling together women so it's easy for buyers to find them." But the online world now satisfies that need, Peppet said.

    Research has shown that about 1 percent of men in the United States visit prostitutes in a given year, and about 16 percent of U.S. men have visited a prostitute at some point in their lifetime. Men who buy sex do so for a wide range of reasons: Social acceptance of prostitution in some cultures makes it more likely for men to seek out prostitutes, and for certain "johns," the illicit nature of prostitution is part of the appeal.

    A recent study finds that a significant portion of men who regularly pay for sex are married, white, earn more than $120,000 per year and have graduate degrees. The researchers concluded that there's little evidence to suggest that hiring a prostitute is inherently deviant or linked to psychological problems.

    The Nevada brothels that remain open have been forced into the uncomfortable position of offering reduced rates and other incentives. "I offer a lot more specials and discounts and incentives for people to come in to see me," said Taylor, a sex worker at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch outside Carson City, Nevada. "People are looking for deals."(snip)


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    (snip)While the Internet has revolutionized all sorts of industries over the past 20 years, its effect on the world of prostitution has been especially dramatic. Street walkers and their handlers are still around, but an increasing number of tech savvy escorts have bypassed their pimps and have taken to the Web, where they've seen not only a surge of interest in their field, but a perceived lower risk of arrest.

    Today's high-end sex workers typically have their own websites and even advertise their services on easily found online guides, with names like Eros and Slixa. It's a sophisticated business that operates in plain sight. While law enforcement officials still conduct stings, Justice Department records show arrests for prostitution in the U.S. dropped by nearly 50 percent from 1990 to 2011, falling from 111,400 to 57,345. (The statistics do not break down arrests between street walkers and online escorts.)

    What constitutes a high-end sex worker? It's a variety of factors. Many online sex workers command prices of $500 per hour and up, and on average, see substantially fewer clients than prostitutes on the street. Scott Cunningham, an associate professor of economics at Baylor University, said they also tend to engage in safer sex practices and often have repeat customers.

    With the recent high-profile arrest of an alleged prostitute in the death of Google executive Forrest Timothy Hayes, the sex worker industry has circled its wagons, with many organizations declining to comment. But there have been several academic studies on the industry's transformation that show the mindset of today's escorts.

    Cunningham notes that the migration to online by the escort industry has helped mainstream the profession. That, in turn, has led to an increase in the number of women who become sex workers.

    "In our recent survey of sex workers who advertise on the Internet, respondents were asked to rate their risk of arrest on a scale from 1–10 with 1 being lowest risk of arrest and 10 being highest," he wrote. "The average response was 3.91, with more than 31 percent rating the risk of arrest at a 1 or 2.5."

    But make no mistake: Escorts who advertise and make appointments via the Web are just as illegal as any other form of prostitution.

    Cunningham notes police in general have been less inclined to go after Web-based escorts, since the costs of such operations are higher than a street roundup. He cites a 2008 analysis by the Cook County (Illinois) Sheriff's Office, which estimated the average cost of arresting one Internet-facilitated sex worker to be $674.

    Officials are hardly turning a blind eye on the process, though. On June 25, the FBI and IRS shut down MyRedBook.com — a popular site for escorts to advertise their services. The site was said to have more than 40,000 listings for various erotic services when it was shut down, though many of those were likely duplicate listings for escorts.

    And crackdowns that big are raising fears that authorities could be renewing their focus on the escort business.

    "I think right now [sex workers] are a huge target because there has been a lot more pressure from various conservative organizations," said Sabrina Morgan, a rights advocate for the sex worker industry. "This is something that has been building steam for several years."

    Today's escorts rely on sites like the now-shuttered MyRedBook and The Erotic Review, which receives 500,000 to 1 million unique visitors per month, to raise awareness and advertise their services. Eros, for example, charges anywhere from $100-$400 for escorts to run an ad, depending on location.

    In addition, many escorts have their own promotional Web pages where prospective clients can learn more about them and set up appointments. For those sex workers who do not have Web design skills, there are several online services — like EscortDesign and EscortBook — that, much like WordPress, offer easy-to-create templates that can create a professional-looking site in minutes.

    That gives sex workers who advertise their services online more independence, too. Ninety-three percent of Web-based escorts classify themselves as "independent," compared with the 40 percent to 80 percent of street walkers who work under a pimp, says Cunningham.

    And the more sophisticated and well-designed an escort's site is, the more it helps their bottom line.

    "If a prostitute invests in her web site's copy editing, professional photographs, or video, this may signal to potential customers her quality, education level, or income (and thus popularity or success in the market)," University of Colorado law professor Scott R. Peppet said in a research paper. "Such signals matter: evidence suggests, for example, that sex workers proficient in English can charge higher prices and are more likely to attract customers, and that prostitutes willing to reveal an accurate picture of themselves command higher prices." (snip)

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    Default Re: Brothels in a Slump over Online Hookups - relates to MyRedBook bust

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    Thanks for the link Melonie! This article was super interesting.

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Brothels in a Slump over Online Hookups - relates to MyRedBook bust

    ^^^ indeed I found it interesting ... and not all that surprising ... that the top demographic for online escorts are married white males who earn $120k+ per year !!!

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