Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30498916›Full record

ArticleArchives of sexual behavior2019

"The Prostitution Problem": Claims, Evidence, and Policy Outcomes.

Cecilia Benoit, Michaela Smith, Mikael Jansson, Priscilla Healey, Doug Magnuson

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Archives of sexual behavior, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
23citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Sex, Gender, and Diversity in Sex Work Research.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025
    Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Review
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Men Who Pay For Sex: Prevalence and Sexual Health.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2022
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Harm Reduction and Decriminalization of Sex Work: Introduction to the Special Section.Sexuality research & social policy : journal of NSRC : SR & SP · 2021
    Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Cecilia BenoitCanadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, 2300 McKenzie Ave., Victoria, BC, V8N 5M8, Canada. cbenoit@uvic.ca.
Michaela SmithCanadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, 2300 McKenzie Ave., Victoria, BC, V8N 5M8, Canada.
Mikael JanssonCanadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, 2300 McKenzie Ave., Victoria, BC, V8N 5M8, Canada.
Priscilla HealeySchool of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Doug MagnusonSchool of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Prostitution, payment for the exchange of sexual services, is deemed a major social problem in most countries around the world today, with little to no consensus on how to address it. In this Target Article, we unpack what we discern as the two primary positions that undergird academic thinking about the relationship between inequality and prostitution: (1) prostitution is principally an institution of hierarchal gender relations that legitimizes the sexual exploitation of women by men, and (2) prostitution is a form of exploited labor where multiple forms of social inequality (including class, gender, and race) intersect in neoliberal capitalist societies. Our main aims are to: (a) examine the key claims and empirical evidence available to support or refute each perspective; (b) outline the policy responses associated with each perspective; and (c) evaluate which responses have been the most effective in reducing social exclusion of sex workers in societal institutions and everyday practices. While the overall trend globally has been to accept the first perspective on the "prostitution problem" and enact repressive policies that aim to protect prostituted women, punish male buyers, and marginalize the sex sector, we argue that the strongest empirical evidence is for adoption of the second perspective that aims to develop integrative policies that reduce the intersecting social inequalities sex workers face in their struggle to make a living and be included as equals. We conclude with a call for more robust empirical studies that use strategic comparisons of the sex sector within and across regions and between sex work and other precarious occupations.

Indexed as

Socioeconomic FactorsFemaleHumansMaleSex WorkSex WorkersPolicy responsesProstitutionProstitution-gender inequalitySex workSocial inequality

Identifiers

PMID30498916

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.