TY  - BOOK
AU  - Gertler,Paul J.
AU  - Shah,Manisha
TI  - Sex work and infection: what’s law enforcement got to do with it?
SN  - 00222186
AV  - HB73 JOU 
PY  - 2011///
CY  - Chicago
PB  - University of Chicago Press
KW  - AIDS
KW  - Brothels
KW  - Cities
KW  - Condoms
KW  - Fixed costs
KW  - Government regulation
KW  - Infections
KW  - Occupational licensing
KW  - Police
N2  - A number of countries are pursuing the regulation of sex work to decrease the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and to reduce the probability of a generalized human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome epidemic. We study the effects of enforcing licensing regulation laws on sex worker STI rates, using nationally representative sex worker data from Ecuador. We find that increasing enforcement in the street sector significantly decreases STIs. However, increasing enforcement in the brothel sector increases the probability of a sex worker ever being infected with any STI. Increasing enforcement in the street shifts some sex workers from the more risky street into the less risky brothels and increases street prices, reducing the overall number of street clients. As a result, overall infection rates decrease. In contrast, increasing enforcement in the brothel sector can exacerbate public health problems by inducing some unlicensed brothel sex workers into the riskier street sector
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1086/661634
ER  -