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LurkingPenguin

And also:

> 8% reported legal trouble

> 8% reported being arrested

> 16% reported physical assault

> 17% reported contracting a STD

> 29% reported being stolen from

> 41% reported sexual assault

So no doubt the rates are in part a reflection of the risks providers take in the course of offering their services.

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And no doubt the risks decrease as the hourly rate increases.

I'm not sure that's true. There are wealthy, powerful men who can pay any hourly rate for sex and who are practically above the law in many parts of the world. It would be a mistake to assume that some of them wouldn't assault an escort in the not inaccurate belief that they can do whatever they want with impunity.

> I'm not sure that's true.

It is backed up by the author's analytics, though. Perhaps there are valid criticisms about her sampling methodology and the sample size at the very high end, but it's a good start.

I did not make any such assumptions, and I did not say it’s zero risk, I simply said that the risks are likely to decrease as hourly rates go higher.

> 17% reported contracting a STD

I wonder if any money is worth having an extreme risk of getting a deadly virus.

What you quoted does not really imply you are at an extreme risk of getting a deadly virus.

At 17%, if you do it a long period of time you definitely get it. Even if it isn't deadly virus, you get something nasty and most likely permanently.

I find it a bit surprising that 17% report STDs while only 9% report not using a condom at all. I would have expected causality.

Do you think condoms are always 100% effective at preventing all STDs?

No, but I'm surprised because 8 points of difference is a frigging lot.

9% of the workers reported never using a condom and a further percentage only use them sometimes. I suspect those are the majority of the 17% with an std.

Actually none of the zero-condom users reported getting a STD. My theory is that zero-condom users tend to be much more exclusive and to have fewer clients, or to do this closer to part-time?

"even if it isn't a deadly virus" is the relevant part here

Without looking at the numbers at all I'm pretty sure that number can be ignored almost completely. It's all but guaranteed to be vastly underreported, but fortunately none of the common STDs are deadly. HIV and hepatitis are both rare in Western countries and syphilis can be cured with antibiotics.

And HIV can be treated effectively nowadays. It's certainly not a death-sentence.

For those with access to healthcare and regular checkups a typical STD is usually not deadly, including HIV.

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