A window into contemporary prostitution

A few days ago I asked who (in aggregate, not individually) worked as escorts prostitutes for Deborah Jean Palfrey's "adult fantasy services" company. Evidently she tended to hire, among others, "university professors, legal secretaries, scientists, [and] military officers."

Today Ben Smith of the new-ish online political magazine Politico provides one possible clue courtesy of the Internet Archive foundation's Wayback Machine.

Here's the "DC Escorts Wanted" page from the 2002 version of Palfrey's "Pamela Martin & Associates" website:

Pamela Martin and Associates is a professional, adult/outcall agency, servicing the entire Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Currently, PM is seeking females only, with or without experience, for the position of escort/outcall. The following are required for employment consideration:

1. Minimum age 23 (no maximum)
2. Weight proportionate to height
3. Two or more years of college education
4. Must hold a day job or attend school regularly
5. Must own or have access to an automobile
6. Must have a cellular or car telephone

• Established in 1993, Pamela Martin and Associates is considered Washington's premier adult service.
• Entirely female managed, PM's philosophy is to develop an on-going and sound relationship of mutual respect and consideration, with each and every staff member.
• For those individuals without experience, regular guidance and assistance is offered, by seasoned professional (s).
• Excellent income and flexible hours allow for the position to be a wonderful "moonlighting" adjunct to daytime employment or needed funds to continue education. A repeat clientele of almost 75% ensures a "comfort level" unprecedented in the business.
• Physical safety issues are judiciously monitored, by management, while "on-call" and only those hotels, neighborhoods and areas deemed respectable are visited by PM personnel.
• Acting as an independent agent, an escort has the right of refusal, at any time, for any reason, when given an appointment. Additionally, professional and fair dispatch staff allows for the escort's nightly schedule to be conducted in a smooth and productive manner.
• Applicants need to contact, Julia, after 5pm, daily... (301) 231-5800

[See the whole page, lousy site design and all, here.

And while we're at it, here's the front (and only other) page from her 2002 site

• Pamela Martin and Associates is a professional escort/out-call service operating in the D.C. metropolitan area, with service to all surrounding suburbs and limited service to the 410 area code. Established in 1993, PM enjoys a reputation of being, undoubtedly, the best adult agency around, with an approximate, on-going repeat clientele rate of 65-75%.
• The staff is comprised of those individuals ages 23 and up, with two or more years of college education, who either work and/or go to school in the daytime.
• Rates are a flat $275 for a 90 minute appointment. No additional charges beyond this amount are expected or required.
• Open 7 days a week beginning at 5pm daily.
• Best selection and availability before 9pm each evening.
• Cash or traveler's checks only.

See that here.

Ok. So. Due in large part to the horrific toll serial killers have taken on shadow-landed and gray-area'd subsistence prostitutes in my region I've been advocating outright legalization of prostitution since beginning this blog.

But various credible reports suggest that subsistence/street prostitutes represent no more than 20% of the profession. Sure, you can't spend much time on the blogosphere without encountering perfectly self-aware middle-class prostitutes who, for all their visibility might still represent only another very narrow slice of the profession. But now there's Palfrey's site with its prerequisites: two years of college, day job, well into adulthood, car and phone; and its benefits: security monitoring, only reputable neighborhoods and hotels, right to refuse calls, "technical" support. Note further there were up to 15,000 client phone numbers in Palfrey's records so it's not like she or her employees were hurting for work.

So I've got a couple of questions: How accurate are the stories we tell ourselves about prostitution overall? You better believe that some women are trafficked big time -- at least out here on the West coast you hear about a major bust of a brothel full of enslaved women about once a month. And that life for many prostitutes is a precarious Hell, as evidenced by the likes of Green River murderer Gary Ridgeway who killed on the order of one hundred typically very young street prostitutes, is what brought the issue to my attention in the first place. But... but... but... then there are Palfrey's employees, and the employees of thousands and thousands of Yellow-Page-listed escort services just like Palfrey's.

So I'm left wondering, again, why exactly prostitution is a crime. Don't get me wrong, I understand perfectly why it's not socially beneficial in a society with so many layers of sexual inequality. But if strip clubs aren't illegal, and pornography isn't illegal, and if gambling is no longer illegal, and alcohol (for heaven's sake!) is legal, and 10,000 other equally social-infrastructure-fracturing enterprises that I don't want to have anything to do with (including, by the way, nearly all "escort" services) then how, exactly, do we benefit from keeping people like Palfrey and her employees working out of sight and under the table?

I mean, at the very least, if prostitution was legalized and regulated even to the extent that, say, fast food handlers are regulated, then wouldn't people less two-faced than Randall Tobias be better able to recruit them to halt the spread of infectious diseases? (The current policy of pretending you can ask even high-ranking officials to practice abstinence and faithfulness is a manifestly *not* going to succeed.)

I mean, at the very least, if prostitution was legalized and regulated even to the extent that, say, nail salon employees were regulated, then wouldn't authorities less two-faced than Randall Tobias and Ted Haggard (who also employed male "escorts") be better able to recruit them to help stamp out the plagues of trafficking and street-level pimps and others who rob, rape, rough up, and casually murder subsistence/street prostitutes?

I mean... if Palfrey was able to recruit them for her purposes, there's no reason to believe that, if their "moonlighting" work was legal, we couldn't recruit them for something socially worthwhile while we're at it?