Prostitution in the United States

Prostitution is illegal in the vast majority of the United States as a result of state laws rather than federal laws. It is, however, legal in some rural counties within the state of Nevada. Additionally, it is decriminalized to sell sex in the state of Maine, but illegal to buy sex. Prostitution nevertheless occurs elsewhere in the country.

The regulation of prostitution in the country is not among the enumerated powers of the federal government. It is therefore exclusively the domain of the states to permit, prohibit, or otherwise regulate commercial sex under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, except insofar as Congress may regulate it as part of interstate commerce with laws such as the Mann Act. In most states, prostitution is considered a misdemeanor in the category of public order crime–crime that disrupts the order of a community. Prostitution was once considered a vagrancy crime.

Currently, Nevada is the only U.S. state to allow legal prostitution – in the form of regulated brothels – the terms of which are stipulated in the Nevada Revised Statutes.

There are ten counties that theoretically allow brothel prostitution, but four of these counties (Churchill, Esmeralda, Humboldt, and Mineral) currently have no active brothels. Only these six counties currently contain active legal brothels: Elko, Lyon, Nye, White Pine, Lander & Storey.^[1]

All forms of prostitution are illegal in these seven counties: Clark (which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area), Washoe (which contains Reno), Carson City, Douglas, Eureka, Lincoln & Pershing. Street prostitution, "pandering", and living off of the proceeds of a prostitute remain illegal under Nevada law, as is the case elsewhere in the country.

According to the National Institute of Justice, a study conducted in 2008 alleged that approximately 15-20 percent of men in the country have engaged in commercial sex.^[2]

As with other countries, prostitution in the U.S. can be divided into three broad categories: street prostitution, brothel prostitution, and escort prostitution.