This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Saturday, July 31st, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

New York has tried to adopt a kinder, gentler way of tolerating sex work.

They just arrest the customers now.

Caitlin Bailey runs the Old Pro Project and Advocacy Group for sex workers we talked

about why New York got it half right. You and I have discussed in previous episodes of the

Cato Daily Podcast various models of how sex work is exists as a legal matter.

And New York, of course, famous for its prostitutes.

Multiple TV shows have been made about this.

And so New York has done something interesting, which is that it

is decriminalized part of prostitution. So what is that? What have they done?

Great question. We are still trying to figure it out, but the short answer is, is that they are trying to implement what's known as end demand.

So by quote unquote decriminalizing half the transaction,

the provider side, they still maintain aggressive criminalization and policing of the buyer demand side.

So just to understand what this looks like in other contexts, this would be like only going after drug users.

Correct.

This would be like only sending men to register for the draft, which we do.

Correct.

So what is the problem that advocates of this particular model, what problem they believe

that is being solved.

So the underlying assumption here is that every act of prostitution is an act of paid rape.

And so policy makers here believe that by arresting and aggressively policing the demand side of prostitution

...