World War II raised concerns about soldiers’ venereal health that prompted the U.S. These reformers used the emergency of World War I to close the regulated brothels, pushing America’s sex markets into clandestine spaces and empowering pimps to manage women’s sexual labor. Fears of sexual slavery emerged in the 1910s and led to a concerted attack on the brothels by progressive reformers. By mid-century American cities had adopted a policy of tolerated red-light districts where brothels thrived as part of urban sporting culture. Selling sex was profitable and allowed some women a path towards economic independence though sex work had its risks of venereal disease and violence. These women turned to working as prostitutes on a casual or steady basis due to the sex segregated labor market that paid women perilously low wages, or due to family disruption like paternal or spousal abandonment, or limited opportunities within their home life.

Concentrated in large population, and unable to afford the comforts of marriage, these men composed a reliable pool of customers for women who sold sex. This data collection consists of the verbatim questions and responses in 107 data files from the following groups of individuals who were interviewed: (1) international and United States women who had been or were in the sex industry in the United States, (2) law enforcement officials who had experience and expertise in sex-industry related cases or immigration, (3) social service workers who provided services to women in prostitution or might have come into contact with women from the sex industry and those providing services to immigrant populations, and (4) health care workers who provided services to women in prostitution or who may have come into contact with women in the sex industry.Ĭommercialized sexuality became a prominent feature of American urban settings in the nineteenth century as young men migrated far from the watchful eyes of family as soldiers and laborers. Telephone and personal interviews were conducted with people who had experience with or knowledge of sex trafficking in the United States. This study was the first to research both contemporary international and domestic trafficking of women for sexual exploitation in the United States and to include primary research information from interviews with trafficked and prostituted women in the sex industry.

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