Professional Documents
Culture Documents
apparently
dont
want
to
admit
to
a
welfare
clerk
that
they
have
a
dirt
floor
or
live
without
a
toilet.
Venkatesh,
knowing
that
traditional
survey
methods
dont
necessarily
produce
reliable
results
for
a
sensitive
topic
like
prostitution,
tried
something
different:
real-time,
on-the-spot
data
collection.
He
hired
trackers
to
stand
on
street
corners
or
sit
in
brothels
with
the
prostitutes,
directly
observing
some
facets
of
their
transactions
and
gathering
more
intimate
details
from
the
prostitutes
as
soon
as
the
customers
were
gone.
Most
of
the
trackers
were
former
prostitutes,an
important
credential
because
such
women
were
more
likely
to
get
honest
responses.
Venkatesh
also
paid
the
prostitutes
for
participating
in
the
study.
If
they
were
willing
to
have
sex
for
money,
he
reasoned,
surely
theyd
be
willing
to
talk
about
having
sex
for
money.
And
they
were.
Over
the
course
of
nearly
two
years,
Venkatesh
accumulated
data
on
roughly
160
prostitutes
in
three
separate
South
Side
neighborhoods,
logging
more
than
2,200
sexual
transactions.
The
tracking
sheets
recorded
a
considerable
variety
of
data,
including:
*
The
specific
sexual
act
performed,
and
the
duration
of
the
trick
*
Where
the
act
took
place
(in
a
car,
outdoors,
or
indoors)
*
Amount
received
in
cash
*
Amount
received
in
drugs
*
The
customers
race
*
The
customers
approximate
age
*
The
customers
attractiveness
(10
=
sexy,
1
=
disgusting)
*
Whether
a
condom
was
used
*
Whether
the
*
If
it
could
from
the
neighborhood
*
Whether
the
*
Whether
the
*
Whether
the
customer
was
new
or
returning
be
determined,
whether
the
customer
was
married.
employed.
affiliated
with
a
gang.
prostitute
stole
from
the
customer
customer
gave
the
prostitute
any
trouble,
violent
or
otherwise
sex
act
was
paid
for,
or
was
a
freebieiSo
what
can
these
data
tell
us?
Lets
start
with
wages.
It
turns
out
that
the
typical
street
prostitute
in
Chicago
works
13
hours
a
week,
performing
10
sex
acts
during
that
period,
and
earns
an
hourly
wage
of
approximately
$27.
So
her
weekly
take-home
pay
is
roughly
$350.
This
includes
an
average
of
$20
that
a
prostitute
steals
from
her
customers
and
acknowledges
that
some
prostitutes
accept
drugs
in
lieu
of
cash,usually
crack
cocaine
or
heroin,
and
usually
at
a
discount.
Of
all
the
women
in
Venkateshs
study,
83
percent
were
drug
addicts.
Like
LaSheena,
many
of
these
women
took
on
other,
non-prostitution
work,
which
Venkatesh
also
tracked.
Prostitution
paid
about
four
times
more
than
those
jobs.
But
as
high
as
that
wage
premium
may
be,
it
looks
pretty
meager
when
you
consider
the
jobs
downsides.
In
a
given
year,
a
typical
prostitute
in
Venkateshs
study
experienced
a
dozen
incidents
of
violence.
At
least
3
of