so the other day i said something about how i was surprised that in the 1920s american prostitutes most often chose prostitution out of fear of starvation, while in the 2000s, american prostitutes most often chose prostitution to support an addiction to recreational narcotics.

so as to head off anyone suggesting that this is related to my perception, and not indeed a reality, here are some statistics:

"between june and december, 1919, the new york city police department arrested 6,579 prostitutes. upon release, 23% of them were determined to have familial, spousal, or legal occupational support, to avail themselves of the basic requirements for survival. the rest were confined to half-way houses." ~ kandall, women and prostitution in the united states, 1850-1920

as opposed to 1999, when a study by phillips-plummer (drug use and prostitution) based on interviews with 1208 prostitutes arrested in new york city found that 87% of them used illicit narcotics other than marijuana, that 59% of them used over a hundred dollars of crack cocaine a week, and that 31% of them had a household income between 15,000 and 24,999.

so how much do you have to raise someone's standard of living before they'll stop selling themselves to pay for more? is it possible to reach a star-trek like utopia where everyone has enough to live happily, and only works to better themselves and society? or would, even then, we still have legions of prostitutes wanting a bit more?

an interesting figure (though an irrelevant one, i think) is that prostitution arrests by the nypd in 1999 were 5,582. less than the number in 1919, yet the population has to have grown tremendously since then. does this indicate tacit approval of prostitution in nyc?