ALISON BASS is an award-winning author, journalist, and professor. A long-time medical and science writer for the Boston Globe, Bass now teaches journalism at the Reed College of Media at West Virginia University. Her previous nonfiction book Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial won the National Association of Science Writers' Science in Society Award in 2009.
"Bass . . . shows our current approach to commercial sex in the
U.S. is dangerous, disingenuous, and an utter failure. . . . Bass
illustrates how ending prohibition on consensual commercial sex
between adults could reduce rates of HIV and violence against women
while also better serving those who are coerced or forced into
selling sex."-- "Reason"
"In her book Getting Screwed: Sex Workers and the Law, Bass surveys
the history of laws regulating prostitution in America and abroad.
In the past and today, Bass finds, sex workers have been
marginalized by stigma that portrays them as immoral, dangerous,
even diseased figures. But while the stigma hasn't changed, the
laws have--in many cases, from the point of view of the sex worker,
for the worse."-- "Pacific Standard"
"With gripping narrative, the book reminds readers that sex workers
are just as human as anyone else -- only working a job deemed
shameful and made dangerous by the very policymakers who pledge to
protect all constituents."-- "The Artery, WBUR"
She makes a strong case for broad decriminalization with limited
regulation while assessing the effectiveness of other solutions in
place, including brothel-only legalization in Nevada, the temporary
loopholes in Rhode Island law, the criminalization of clients in
Sweden and Germany, and Canadian laws that prohibited communication
about prostitution but not the act itself. The book provides a
solid overview of the legal ramifications of sex work, and builds
compassion for those at the heart of the issue."-- "Publishers
Weekly"
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