Money, sex, danger and power - it's all in a days work for the typical sex worker. This book aims to provide a window into the world of sex workers, their customers, and the growing sex industry - in America and abroad. It is a collection of essays on sex work, its risks, and its political implications. The book includes studies on telephone sex workers, gay pornography, Nevada's legal brothels, prostitute's customers, police vice squads, actors in the porn industry, lap dancing in strip clubs, and street prostitution. It includes discussion of violence, HIV infection, and drug addiction, as well as legalization, commercialization and criminalization.

Money, sex, danger and power - it's all in a days work for the typical sex worker. This book aims to provide a window into the world of sex workers, their customers, and the sex industry - in America and abroad. It is a collection of essays on sex work, its risks, and its political implications.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-300) and index.

Why we need more research on sex work / Ronald Weitzer — Motivations for pursuing an acting career in pornography / Sharon A. Abbott — Smart girls who like sex: telephone sex workers / Grant Jewell Rich and Kathleen Guidroz — Gay male video pornography: past, present, and future / Joe A. Thomas — Why men seek out prostitutes / Martin A. Monto — Clients and call girls: seeking sex and intimacy / Janet Lever and Deanne Dolnick — Drug use, HIV, and the ecology of street prostitution / Judith Porter and Louis Bonilla — Victimization and the social organization of prostitution in England and Spain / Maggie O'Neill and Rosemary Barberet — From victims to survivors: working with recovering street prostitutes / Nanete J. Davis — The politics of prostitution in America / Ronald Weitzer — Power and control in the commercial sex trade / Wendy Chapkis — Controlling lap dancing: law morality, and sex work / Jacqueline Lewis — Inside Nevada's brothel industry / Kathryn Hausbeck and Barbara G. Brents — Police and prostitution: vice squads in Britain / Catherine Benson and Roger Matthews.