by Alison Bass | Nov 21, 2016 | human trafficking, law enforcement, pimps, prostitution, public health, sex trafficking, sex work, trafficking, Uncategorized, underage prostitution, websites
The arrest of the CEO of Backpage, a website for sex work ads, as he stepped off a plane in Houston October 6, made headlines. Carl Ferrer, 55, was arrested on a California warrant and charged with pimping by the California Attorney General’s office. Two other...
by Alison Bass | Jun 15, 2016 | human trafficking, law enforcement, prostitution, sex trafficking, sex work, trafficking, Uncategorized, underage prostitution
Last Friday, the police chief of Oakland, California, resigned amid a growing scandal involving a number of his police officers who had sex with an underage sex worker while their supervisors looked the other way, according to reporting by the East Bay Express. The...
by Alison Bass | Jun 6, 2016 | pimps, prostitution, public health, sex trafficking, sex work, trafficking, Uncategorized, underage prostitution
Jimmy Carter is the latest persona to jump on the End Demand bandwagon. In an op-ed piece for The Washington Post, he called for making the purchase of sex illegal. Unfortunately, the former President’s argument is based on erroneous information and a naïve moralistic...
by Alison Bass | Apr 13, 2016 | antidepressants, antipsychotic drugs, clinical trials, conflicts of interest, drug marketing, FDA, pharmaceutical industry, prostitution, sex work
After my first nonfiction book, Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial, was published, a number of readers told me that the book would make a great movie. (It’s written as a narrative and tells the true story of two...
by Alison Bass | Jan 27, 2016 | human trafficking, law enforcement, prostitution, public health, sex trafficking, sex work, Uncategorized
In early January, law enforcement in the Seattle area shut down a popular website used by sex workers to advertise their services and by customers to review sex workers. Police also raided a number of luxury apartments in Bellevue where women were allegedly selling...
by Alison Bass | Jan 7, 2016 | Crime, law enforcement, prostitution, public health, sex work
One of the questions I am often asked by journalists who interview me about my book, Getting Screwed: Sex Workers and the Law is: Do you think society’s attitudes toward prostitution will ever evolve to the point where lawmakers might actually introduce legislation...