That's because when the industry becomes more legalized it becomes easier to catch the real bad actors. Rates of arrest and conviction go up because sex workers, traffiked or not, can cooperate with the police without fear of getting busted themselves. This has absolutely happened to trafficking victims. They go to the police and then themselves get charged. Sometimes, the pimps and traffickers get off (no pun intended) because the sex workers' testimonies aren't considered trustable because they worked as sex workers....
This is a good point that I haven't heard mentioned before. It will be interesting to see what the longer term numbers materialize as in countries that legalize it.
That singular issue seems like a more addressable one , even if it is causative to some extent due to legalization, than the myriad of others that appear to pop up when it's kept illegal.
2.8k
u/Milkshake__Mayhem Blue Mar 01 '23
Studies have shown that it actually increases human trafficking