PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Cunningham, Scott
AU  - DeAngelo, Gregory
AU  - Tripp, John
TI  - Did Craigslist’s Erotic Services Reduce Female Homicide and Rape?
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.0619-10270R3
DP  - 2023 Aug 11
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 0619-10270R3
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2023/08/02/jhr.0619-10270R3.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2023/08/02/jhr.0619-10270R3.full
AB  - Sex workers have historically faced harm from clients. However, sex workers have claimed that Internet platforms, such as Craigslist erotic services (ERS), reduced that violence. Using the staggered rollout of ERS for identification, we find that it is likely that ERS reduced female homicides by between 12 and 18 percent and (reported) female rape offenses by between 7 and 9 percent. We hypothesize that this was due to more transactions occurring indoors, better screening efforts, and more efficient matching. Our results suggest that some Internet platforms may mitigate the historical risks sex workers have faced.