Depends on what you mean by "free"

Maggie McNeill on celebrities, escorts, and why they don't just get it for "free" from their fans.

Creating hysteria with fake statistics

The Village Voice goes after Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, their celebrity charity consultants, a host of credulous big-name media organizations and a bunch of faux charities enriching themselves with government grants for promulgating essentially meaningless statistics regarding child prostitution in the US.

This sort of statistical foolishness is hardly new nor is it limited to attacks on the sex industry; indeed, it accompanies most every media scare, from upcoming ice ages to dangerous vegetables to Satanism.

Ashton Kutcher - I'd never heard of him but then I mostly stopped watching TV other than sports and elections in the early 1980s - responds to the Village Voice piece like a spoiled child rather than like, to pick a phrase, a real man. Maybe he needs a twitter consultant / editor too.

A better reaction would be for Ashton and Demi to apologize to the public and then to give some money to the American Statistical Association to fund their educational efforts. With a large enough donation, perhaps the ASA would even set up a special program called "The Ashton and Demi Program in Basic Statistics for Celebrities and Journalists."

All via Maggie McNeill.

Calling on the hotline ...

The sad story of the Danish government's hotline for men "addicted" to buying sex.

Key bits:

Four ministry employees, working six-hour shifts, two days a week, received an average of 1.4 phone calls per shift. And a significant number of those callers hung-up or didn’t say a word.

The fact is that a lot of men like to buy sex – and they aren’t interested at all in the government’s programme to change that.

Approximately one in ten Danish men over the age of 18 bought sex at least once – often many times – in the last 12 months. Yet of the approximately 200,000 Danish men who bought sex from prostitutes last year, only one in one thousand called the Social Ministry’s hotline.

Moreover, a campaign the ministry ran in 2008 to inform men about human trafficking in Denmark seemed to result in slightly higher number of young Danish men going to prostitutes and massage clinics.

The social affairs minister, Benedikte Kiær, nevertheless, reported in a council meeting that the hotline was “working well”.

Putting aside the obvious waste of money, and the misleading informal performance evaluation by the social affairs minister, the reported fraction of men purchasing sex in Denmark is much higher than comparable numbers in the US. This likely reflects several factors. The first is simply reporting differences. Purchasing sexual services is legal in Denmark and so, presumably, survey respondents are more likely to truthfully report it conditional on having done so. Second, demand may be higher in Denmark as well, both because such purchases are legal (making it less risky both in the sense of law enforcement troubles and in the sense of being ripped off) and because Danes are a much less religious bunch than Americans, so that the average psychic cost is likely lower.

It would be interesting to write down a model of the implications of legal sex work for the marriage market. It should affect the set of marriages that form, the division of rents within marriage, sexual behavior within marriage as well as the duration of marriages.

Hat tip: Lars Skipper

Rule of Law, Austrian edition

An arduous tale of legal abuse by local officials in an Austrian town. But there is a happy ending!

Hat tip: Lars Skipper

Harlot's dictionary

The Honest Courtesan defines terms. My favorite entry:

Swedish model: An insidious form of prohibitionism based upon the neofeminist premise that adult women are forever the equivalent of legal minors, neither able to consent to sex acts of which the state does not approve, nor held liable if they consent to those acts. Since men are fully competent adults, however, they are unilaterally liable just as they would be in statutory rape cases

Feminism should be about empowering women, not infantilizing them.

I also learned a new word, namely dysphemisms. How often does that happen when reading a blog?

Sex and the Super Bowl

This Time magazine piece regurgitates press releases from religious anti-prostitution activists and, in so doing, advances their favored themes, such as the conflation of adult and child prostitution and of adult prostitution with human trafficking.

The Honest Courtesan provides a thorough take-down of the entire genre.

Oddly, the Time reporter gets paid for doing what amounts to a junior high essay in its heavy borrowing from sources, lack of familiarity with the subject area and general lack of critical thinking, while the Honest Courtesan writes her blog for free. Could this have anything to do with Time's declining circulation?

Former prostitute out-researchers CNN ...

... and does so in only 90 minutes.

Via the Agitator.

Naughty teacher?

New York is all aflutter at the fact that former sex worker Melissa Petro revealed her shocking past on-line just after receiving tenure.

This little bit of excitement suggests a panoply of possible responses, here are some:

1) I thought New York was a rough-and-tumble bastion of secularism, not rural Alabama. Though I suppose this kerfuffle is of a piece with the resistance to the "mosque" near the World Trade Center site. Both are narrow-minded and illiberal.

2) New York has many thousands of teachers. Based on published estimates, probably two percent or so of the female teachers have had sex for money at some point. One could round this up on the grounds that New York is not rural Alabama, or round it down on the grounds that college graduates are less likely to have sex for money (do we know this?) but in any case Melissa Petro has dozens, if not hundreds of compatriots in the NY public school teaching corps. Has NYC gone to hell as a result? Are students setting up brothels during recess? Maybe this is not really a very big deal after all.

3) Sex work is legal in most developed countries. Maybe it should be here too?

4) Maybe the real issue is Melissa's highlighting of the lack of any rational justification for tenure for primary and secondary teachers. More broadly, if you have a system with tenure, Melissa's timing is clearly the optimal one. In academia, in my experience people who have gamed the tenure system by successfully concealing their type prior to tenure stop doing research immediately after getting tenure. Why wouldn't they?

5) In what sense is it worse for children to have a former sex worker as a teacher compared to, say, a teacher union organizer? I had a math teacher in junior high who broke her arm [sic] banging it on the car of a substitute teacher hired during a strike. Did she provide a good example to her students? Certainly she did not provide a good example of the life of the mind and the value of resolving disputes non-violently. Melissa, in contrast, provides a fine example of not paying attention to stupid laws and also of honesty.

Update on Danish sex workers

No takers yet on the offer of free sex to climate convention delegates by a group of Danish sex workers, but lest you think that environmentalists are a bunch of sexless droids who can't dance, there is this bit:

There were a couple of Danes who wrote to ask if they could have free sex because they were members of Greenpeace – but that’s not on,” smiles Susanne Møller.

Darn that fine print!

Hat tip: you know who

How not to protect your department from budget cuts

Ann Arbor's city government has some tough budget issues to deal with, as both property tax revenues and state revenue sharing are falling in the recession.

In such tough budget times, you might think that the Ann Arbor police would have something better to do than chasing down escorts on the internet.

Note too that annarbor.com helpfully passes along the names of the websites where the police found the escorts, just in case any of its readers might find those tidbits interesting.

Gropenhagen

The city government of Copenhagen is trying to get the climate delegates to focus on their work rather than on sex, or at least to focus on unpaid sex with each other or with horny enrviro-groupies rather than with Copenhagen's many sex workers.

The city council has contacted 160 hotels asking them not to arrange prostitutes for guests, reports Avisen.dk.

In collaboration with The Nest International – an anti-trafficking organisation – and tourist organisation Wonderful Copenhagen, postcards with the slogan ‘Be sustainable – don’t buy sex’ have been distributed to hotels as part of the campaign.

The prostitutes are fighting back by offering free sex to delegates.

Do remember that sex work is completely legal in Denmark.

Hat tip: not even worth saying.

Olympics

I have a very simple explanation as to why the Olympics went to Rio. My explanation relies on basic human desires.

Here is an article on Danish prostitutes flocking to Copenhagen for the meeting of the International Olympic committee.

Here is an article declaring the Rio the sexiest city on earth. Prostitution is legal there. Indeed, when I was in Rio for the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) meetings the year that Heckman won the Nobel prize, I can remember watching (subtle, but obvious enough even when observing only sporadically while reading papers and drinking beer) transactions taking place in the bar of the upscale hotel at which the meetings were held.

In Chicago, on the other hand, the Cook County sheriff is busy (like so many other public officials looking for ways into the headlines without actually doing their jobs) suing Craigslist. Good to know that there are not any other crime problems in Cook County that might call for the Sheriff's attention.

Probably the reader can connect the dots from there.

As to the Obamas, they should not have been there if Chicago was not going to win, and whether or not Chicago was going to win is something that the administration should have known about in advance. This is not a big deal in the scheme of things, but it is not a signal of competence either.

Hat tip (on the Denmark piece): Lars Skipper

Update on Rhode Island prostitution

Rhode Island's legislature is now busy trying to define prostitution. Their description manages to make sex sound like not very much fun.

Thought question 1: Would the current wording rule out bride prices? How about dowries?

Thought question 2: Can one pay someone to "stimulate by hand" if the intention is only to be able get to sleep? How would the intention be determined?

Hat tip: volokh conspiracy

Prostitution in Rhode Island

It turns out that Rhode Island accidentally legalized certain forms of prostitution about 30 years ago. Now the Rhode Island legislature is on the path of making it illegal once again. If you poke around on the web a bit you will find various editorials that make the usual arguments that prostitution is bad because bad things happen to prostitutes when prostitution is illegal, therefore prostitution should be illegal.

Today, though, I want to make a point about the media, rather than about editorialists or about the illiberal and narrow-minded souls that dominate the Rhode Island legislature. The AP story linked to above begins:

Rhode Island could soon end a dubious distinction of being the only place outside certain counties in Nevada where indoor prostitution is legal.

This piece is offered up as a news story, not an editorial. Now, in fact, prostitution is legal in quite a few places other than certain counties in Nevada. Those places are in other countries. Perhaps AP reporter Ray Henry forgot about other countries. Some Americans do seem perplexed by the idea that other countries are allowed to exist, apparently without even having to ask our permission. One of those other countries where prostitution is legal (in more or less the same form as it presently is in Rhode Island) is the bastion of sin, degredation and politeness known as Canada. Parts of Canada are actually closer to Rhode Island than those counties in Nevada. Perhaps the AP should hand out world maps as part of its hiring package?

A broader consideration of how the legal status of prostituion varies across countries shows that at present Rhode Island has the "dubious distinction" of being in the same category as Canada, the United Kingdom, most of Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Germany and Norway, among others. However, once it again bans all forms of prostitution, Rhode Islanders can hold their heads high knowing that they have joined the company of such beacons of learning, tolerance and progress as Afghanistan, Albania, Cuba, Iran and Iraq.

I think the AP takes home an F on this one, for both providing a misleading context for its story and for labeling opinion as news.

Markets in everything

Not one but two instances of young women selling their virginity.

One is a California co-ed, the other a Romanian woman studying in Germany. Putting aside why anyone would want to pay for what I recall as being rather awkward and painful, why are the prices so different? The difference in attractiveness is not large to my eye, and I can imagine, depending on the relative weights assigned to different attributes such as looks and intellect, that one could prefer either one of the two capitalist virgins (or, at this point, former virgins).

The tax rate on earnings from sex work in Germany seems awfully high given that one could make a case for substantial positive externalities from happier, less horny and less stressed men and from a reduced spread of STDs, where the latter would come about if sex workers are more careful about not catching things than are, say, women picked up in bars (and if this is the relevant margin rather than, say, going it alone). Estimating the social optimal tax rate on sex work (under an assumption of legality) would make an interesting exercise for a gradual student.

Legalize freedom

Nick Gillespie pens a fine op-ed in the NYT on the theme that the government should legalize and tax drugs, gambling and prostitution. Well, yeah.

The commenters at the reason blog are all in a tizzy about Nick saying something nice about FDR and talking positively about tax revenues and such but in my view Nick is right on target. He is doing the amazing trick (for a libertarian) of actually trying to change the minds of people who do not already agree with him, specifically NYT readers most of whom will hold the commonplace views that FDR was a great president and that more tax revenues are a good thing.

I am, though, professionally obliged to point out that while the drug, gambling and prostitution prohibitions surely generate large deadweight losses, transfers to cops are not among them, not because such transfers do not occur, they surely do. Rather, transfers are just that, transfers, and not deadweight losses.

Prostitution on Craig's List: the saga continues

Craig's list is going to drop their "erotic services" section, which will become "adult services" with all of the ads vetted in person by little Craigslisters. The pretext is that this will somehow make it harder for pathological types to find people to murder.

No doubt the next time someone uses a car they purchase on Craig's list in a crime they will change the name of the section of the website in which cars are sold and start monitoring those ads all by hand as well.

And how about that Richard Blumenthal, attorney general of the great (but very small) state of Connecticut:

The "erotic services" section will end within seven days and be replaced with a new section called "adult services" where every advertisement will be manually reviewed by Craigslist staff, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement.

In April, Blumenthal had asked Craigslist officials to eliminate photographs in the "erotic services" and similar sections of the site, hire staff to screen ads that blatantly violate Craigslist rules and offer incentives for people who flag and report prostitution advertisements.

I am sure that the residents of Connecticut are happy to know that the most imporant issue facing their attorney general is salacious pictures on Craig's List as apparently Mr. Blumenthal has already dealt successfully with all the murders, rapes, arsons, robberies, assaults and political scandals in Connecticut that might otherwise occupy his valuable time.

Methinks Mr. Blumenthal is more interested in press coverage and higher office than actually doing his job (which, of course, makes him quite typical for a state attorney general).

Hookernomics

The Economist's new lifestyle magazine Intelligent Life interviews a high-end escort (not really a hooker despite the title) and opines on the economics of the industry. I think they actually get the economics wrong by underestimating the amount of quality information that is available via internet reviews but the piece is interesting nonetheless.

Hat tip: marginal revolution

More on prostitution in Ann Arbor

Nothing sells a local newspaper like stories about the sex industry. When I taught at Western Ontario, the London Free Press would cover every detail about then-mayor Diane Haskett's fascination with strip clubs and massage parlors, things that clearly interested her much more than, say, local economic development.

In the past few days the Ann Arbor News has had two more stories about prostitution in our fair city, one detailing the arrest of a former U-M undergraduate who was finding customers on Craig's List and one general story about prostitution and the internet.

As an Ann Arbor taxpayer (and taxes are not low in Ann Arbor), I was particularly struck by the claim in the second story that

"We are not actively scouring Craigslist," said Ann Arbor Deputy Chief Greg Bazick. "It is a prioritization of resources."

Despite the claimed lack of "prioritization" for on-line prostitution, in response to the complaint that generated the first story, the A2 police organized a sting operation at a local hotel, something that, between the staff time involved, the payment for the room and the rest, surely cost the city a couple of thousand dollars. Add in the costs generated in the remainder of the legal system as the case plays out and you likely reach $5000 or more.

To help the A2 police next time they receive a complaint that some current or former UM student is trying to make some quick money, I offer the following alternative suggestion as to how to respond:

Send the person making the complaint an email suggesting that if they do not like prostitution, perhaps the "erotic services" section on Craig's List is a place they should avoid.

I expect that this response would cost the city less than $10.

On the relationship between guilt and punishment

The Smoking Gun shares mug shots of 18 women arrested on charges of prostitution in a "clean-up" by police in Tampa prior to the Super Bowl this Sunday. Smoking Gun obtains the pictures from the website of the local county sheriff, which apparently posts them as a matter of routine. My sense is that many other counties do this as well, with some also posting pictures of clients arrested for soliciting.

This seems deeply wrong to me. Particularly in the case of prostitution, where there may be no penalty other than a night in jail and another notch on the arrest record, the posting of the picture in a public space be a major component of the punishment for the "crime" (and leaving for another day the wisdom of making such voluntary transactions into crimes to begin with). And yet the punishment is done prior to the person having a trial or admitting guilt.

This ordering of punishment and conviction flies in the face of the legal principal that we all learn (from watching police procedurals) of "innocent until proven guilty". If that principal applied here, then the pictures would be posted after the determination of guilt, not before.

So, shame on the county sheriff of Hillsborough County Florida.