Jump to navigation. Last year, the U. Department of Justice released a landmark study on the American sex industry. Commissioned by the DOJ, it set out to collect nationwide data on the underground sector for the first time, focusing on eight major American cities, including Denver, San Diego, Dallas and Seattle.
Researchers spoke with hundreds of sex workers, pimps, local police, federal agents and others. Among their findings: Seattle may host the fastest-growing sex industry in the United States. There is some debate over that ranking, as the study does not include major West Coast markets such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Nearly every other target city saw its sex economy stagnate over that period. These operations are located in small buildings, strip malls and other low-rent locales. Their exteriors seem not designed to attract customers, with understated neon signs and drawn curtains. Across the Puget Sound area, erotic massage parlors have progressively become more abundant.
The DOJ study indicates their numbers have nearly doubled in the region over recent years. Functioning as legitimate businesses, they offer massages or spa treatments.
Websites such as EroticMP. The exact entities behind the parlors remain tough to peg, however. The parlors are managed by older women almost exclusively, and the study hints at connections to China, Vietnam and Korea in the form of money transfers, and potentially to organized crime in those countries. The evidence of nationwide networks within the United States is even stronger, researchers note.
