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Prostitution and the internet
More bang for your buck 鼓起你的腰包
How new technology is shaking up the oldest business
新技术是如何震动这项老买卖
Aug 9th 2014 | From the print edition of The Economist
译者：yangsalt
WARNING: We rarely feel the need to alert readers to explicit content. But our discussion of the online sex trade requires frank language, and some may find the topic distasteful.
警告：我们很少觉得有必要提醒读者里面有露骨内容，但是我们讨论在线卖淫时需要直白的语言，有些人会觉得这些话题不适。
FOR those seeking commercial sex in Berlin, Peppr, a new app, makes life easy. Type in a location and up pops a list of the nearest prostitutes, along with pictures, prices and physical particulars. Results can be filtered, and users can arrange a session for a €5-10 ($6.50-13) booking fee. It plans to expand to more cities.
Peppr这款新的应用，给想在柏林买春的人提供了便宜。输入地址就有大量妓女出现，附带照片、价格和身体细节。用户可以过滤结果，还能交5到10欧元（6.5到13美元）的定金来安排会面。这款应用打算扩展到更多城市。
Peppr can operate openly since prostitution, and the advertising of prostitution, are both legal in Germany. But even where they are not, the internet is transforming the sex trade. Prostitutes and punters have always struggled to find each other, and to find out what they want to know before pairing off. Phone-box “tart cards” for blonde bombshells and leggy se?oritas could only catch so many eyes. Customers knew little about the nature and quality of the services on offer. Personal recommendations, though helpful, were awkward to come by. Sex workers did not know what risks they were taking on with clients.
自从卖淫和发布卖淫广告合法以来，Peppr这款应用可以开放运作了。但即使在那些不合法的地方，网上性交易也照干不误。妓女和皮条客总是想法设法来找到对方，还希望在媾合前知道自己需要的信息。电话亭里的金发大胸的和长腿美女的“卖春小广告”只能抓住一定的眼球。顾客无法知道服务的质量和特点。朋友介绍虽然很有效，但是介绍起来总有点尴尬。妓公们也不知道顾客是否危险。
Now specialist websites and apps are allowing information to flow between buyer and seller, making it easier to strike mutually satisfactory deals. The sex trade is becoming easier to enter and safer to work in: prostitutes can warn each other about violent clients, and do background and health checks before taking a booking. Personal web pages allow them to advertise and arrange meetings online; their clients’ feedback on review sites helps others to proceed with confidence.
现在专门的网站和应用可以让买卖双方信息流通顺畅，更容易达成愉快的交易。性交易变得更容易做也更安全：妓女可以警告别的姐妹那些比较粗暴的顾客，还能在预定前调查背景和健康状况。个人网站可以让她们网上打广告，安排见面。她们客户在评论网站上的反馈给了其他人信心。
Even in places such as America, where prostitution and its facilitation are illegal everywhere except Nevada, the marketing and arrangement of commercial sex is moving online. To get round the laws, web servers are placed abroad; site-owners and users hide behind pseudonyms; and prominently placed legalese frames the purpose of sites as “entertainment” and their content as “fiction”.
即使像美国这类地方，除了内华达，卖淫并且为卖淫提供便利条件是不合法的，开发市场和安排性交易也在转向线上。为了避开法律，网站服务器都放在境外；网站站长和用户用化名；在显著地方放了法律声明说这个网站主要是做“娱乐”的，内容都是虚构的。
The shift online is casting light on parts of the sex industry that have long lurked in the shadows. Streetwalkers have always attracted the lion’s share of attention from policymakers and researchers because they ply their trade in public places. They are more bothersome for everyone else—and, because they are the most vulnerable, more likely to come to the attention of the police and of social or health workers. But in many rich countries they are a minority of all sex workers; just 10-20% in America, estimates Ronald Weitzer, a sociologist at George Washington University.
线上的转移让我们看清部分长期在黑暗中潜伏的性产业。因为站街女总是在公共场所揽活，所以她们总是吸引到政策制定者和调查者的注意。别人更讨厌她们，而且因为她们是最易受伤害的人群，她们更可能引来警察或者是社会和医疗工作者。但是在很多富裕国家，站街女只占性工作者很小的一部分；乔治华盛顿大学的社会学家罗纳德·韦策估计在美国这一比例只有10-20%。
The wealth of data available online means it is now possible to analyse this larger and less examined part of the commercial-sex market: prostitution that happens indoors. It turns out to be surprisingly similar to other service industries. Prostitutes’ personal characteristics and the services they offer influence the prices they charge; niche services attract a premium; and the internet is making it easier to work flexible hours and to forgo a middleman.
可以从线上获得数据的价值在于现在可以计算这个更大但是很少观察到的市场：那些室内性交易。结果这和其他的服务型行业很像。卖淫者的个人特点和她们提供的服务决定了她们的收费；特殊服务会额外收费；网络使她们有了灵活的工作时间并使她们不再需要中间人。
Websites such as AdultWork allow prostitutes, both those working independently and those who work through agencies and brothels, to create profiles through which customers can contact them. They can upload detailed information about themselves, the range of services they provide, and the rates they charge. Clients can browse by age, bust or dress size, ethnicity, sexual orientation or location.
像“成人工作'这一类网站，既接受独立卖淫也接受来自代理和妓院的卖淫，并提供顾客可以联系买春的资料。她们可以上传更详细的资料，她们提供的服务范围越多，收费也越多。顾客可以按照年龄、胸、穿衣尺寸、种族、性取向和地点来分类浏览。
Other websites garner information from clients, who upload reviews of the prostitutes they have visited with details of the services offered, prices paid and descriptions of the encounters. On PunterNet, a British site, clients describe the premises, the encounter and the sex worker, and choose whether to recommend her. Such write-ups have enabled her to build a personal brand, says one English escort, Michelle (like many names in this article, a pseudonym), and to attract the clients most likely to appreciate what she offers.
其它的网站搜集来自顾客的信息。顾客把他们得到的服务，付的钱和遭遇详细的上传到网上。在一个叫做PunterNet的英国网站上，顾客会描述经营场所，遭遇和性工作者，还会告诉你她是否值得推荐。这些评论会为她建立个人品牌，一个叫米歇尔(化名，下同)的英国妓女说道。
TrickAdvisor
耍把戏的顾问
We have analysed 190,000 profiles of sex workers on an international review site. (Since it is active in America, it was not willing to be identified for this article. A disclaimer on the site says the contents are fictional; we make the assumption that they are informative all the same.) Each profile includes customers’ reviews of the worker’s physical characteristics, the services they offer and the price they charge.
我们分析了来自一家国际评论网站的190000份性工作者资料。（因为此网站也在美国活动，所以他们不愿意公开名字。网站上的声明说道此网站的内容纯属虚构，我们就假设这和真实的信息一样吧。）每份资料都包含了顾客的评价，她们的身体特点，提供的服务和收费价格。
The data go back as far as 1999. For each individual we have used the most recent information available, with prices corrected for inflation. Some of those featured may appear under more than one name, or also work through agencies. The data cover 84 cities in 12 countries, with the biggest number of workers being in America and most of the rest in big cities in other rich countries. As this site features only women, our analysis excludes male prostitutes (perhaps a fifth of the commercial-sex workforce). Almost all of those leaving reviews are men.
数据可追溯到1999年。每一份资料我们都选用近期的信息，考虑了通货膨胀。有一些人可能不只一个名字，还可能同时通过代理工作。数据覆盖了来自12个国家的84个城市，来自美国的最多，还有很多在其他富裕国家的大城市。因为这个网站只介绍女性，我们的分析就不包含男性性工作者（可能占了性交易劳动力的五分之一）。留下这些评论的几乎都是男人。
The most striking trend our analysis reveals is a drop in the average hourly rate of a prostitute in recent years (see chart 1). One reason is surely the downturn that followed the 2007-08 financial crisis. Even prostitutes working in places that escaped the worst effects have been hit. Vanessa, a part-time escort in southern England, finds that weeks can go by without her phone ringing. Men see buying sex as a luxury, she says, and with the price of necessities rising it is one they are cutting back on. Even when she offers discounts to whip up interest, clients are scarcer than they were. In places where the job market slumped, the effect is more marked (whether prostitution is legal may affect prices, too, but the wide variation between American cities shows that this is not the only factor). The cost of an hour with an escort in Cleveland, Ohio, where unemployment peaked at 12.5% in 2010, has tumbled.
我们的分析发现，最显著地趋势是近几年来平均单位时间收费的降低（见表一）。一个原因肯定是07-08年金融危机导致的下滑。即使那些影响 没那么大的地区，卖淫也受了影响。Vanessa，一个英格兰南部的兼职妓女，发现她的电话可以好几个星期不响。他们觉得买春是奢侈品，她说，当必需品价格上涨时，他们会先削减买春开支。即使她降低价格吸引人注意时，顾客还是很少。就业严重下滑的地方，效果更明显（卖淫是否合法也会影响价格，大量美国城市间的不同显示，这不是唯一原因）。俄亥俄的克里兰夫，失业率在2010年到达了12.5%，买春一小时的花费暴跌。
Large-scale migration is another reason prices are falling. Big, rich cities are magnets for immigrants of all professions, including sex workers. Nick Mai of London Metropolitan University has studied foreign sex workers in Britain. He has found that as they integrate and get used to the local cost-of-living, their rates tend to rise. But where the inward flow is unceasing, or where the market was previously very closed, immigrants can push prices down.
大量的移民是价格下跌的另外一个原因。大的富有的城市对所有专业的移民都有巨大的吸引了，这其中包括了性工作者。英国伦敦城市大学的 Nick Mai 研究了来英国的外国妓女。他发现当她们完成了整合，适应了当地的生活消费，她们就开始涨价了。但是不断涌入的地方和以前市场封闭的地方，外来人员还是会使价格降低。
Since the European Union enlarged to include poorer eastern European countries, workers of every sort have poured into their richer neighbours. By all accounts prices have been dropping in Germany as a result of the arrival of new, poor migrants, says Rebecca Pates of the University of Leipzig. Sally, a semi-retired British escort who runs a flat in the west of England where a few “mature” women sell sex, says English girls are struggling to find work: there are too many eastern European ones willing to accept less.
自从欧盟开始纳入贫穷的东欧国家，各种劳动力就开始涌入它们的富有的邻国。人们都说德国价格的下降是新来的贫穷移民的结果，莱比锡大学的 Rebecca Pates 说到。Sally是一个半退休的英国妓女，她在英格兰西部经营着一家公寓。在那里有一些”成熟“的姑娘在卖春。Sally说到英国女孩都在想方设法找工作：有太多东欧人要钱少。
Twenty years ago most prostitutes in Norway were locals who all aimed to charge about the same, says May-Len Skilbrei, a sociologist at Oslo University. Today, with growing numbers of sex workers from the Baltic states and central Europe, as well as Nigerians and Thais, such unofficial price controls are harder to sustain.
20年前，挪威大部分卖淫的是当地的，收费都差不多，奥斯陆大学的社会学专家May-Len Skilbrei说到。现在随着大量地来自波罗地州、中欧、尼日利亚还有泰国的性工作者的加入，这种非官方价格的控制很难维持。
Inexperience is another reason newcomers to prostitution may underprice themselves, at least at first. Maxine Doogan, an American prostitute and founder of the Erotic Service Providers Union, a lobby group, learnt her trade from a woman who worked for years in a brothel in Nevada, the only American state where prostitution is legal. The older woman taught her what to regard as standard or extra, and how much to charge. When Ms Doogan started out, in 1988, standard services (vaginal sex and fellatio) cost $200 an hour, the equivalent of $395 today. But some of those starting out now still charge $200, she says, or offer extra services, including risky ones such as oral sex without a condom, without charging an appropriate premium.
没有经验是新来的人收费低的另一个原因，至少第一次是。Maxine Doogan，一个美国的娼妓同时也是性服务提供者联盟这个游说组织的创始人，从一个来自内华达的老女人那里学的如何做生意（内华达是美国唯一一个卖淫合法的州）。那个老女人教给她什么是标准服务，什么是额外服务还有怎么收费。Doogan女士开始做了，1988年，标准服务（普通的交和咬）一小时200美元，相当于现在的395美元。但是那些刚开始做的现在还是收200美元，她说，还会提供额外服务，其中有些带有危险性，比如咬的时候不带安全套且不额外收费。
The shift online has probably boosted supply by drawing more locals into the sex trade, too. More attractive and better-educated women, whose marital and job prospects are therefore better, are more likely to consider sex work if it is arranged online. Indoor sex work is safer than streetwalking, and the risk of arrest is lower. Rented flats or hotel rooms are more discreet than brothels, so family and friends are less likely to identify the new source of income. Anonymity becomes a possibility, which lessens the fear of stigma. Creating an online profile separates the decision to take up the work from parading for punters.
线上的转移也可能会因为吸引更多的当地人参与交易来极大地促进增长。如果可以线上安排工作的话，更多迷人的受过良好教育的妇女会参与性工作，她们的婚姻和工作会因此前景更好。室内交易比在大街上溜达安全，被逮捕的可能性也低。租来的公寓或者宾馆房间都比妓院不引人注目，所以家人和朋友都不会知道新收入的来源。匿名成为了可能，减少了蒙羞的担心。在网上创建一份资料是与决定为招揽顾客而游走不同的。
Meanwhile, broader social change may be reducing demand—and thus, prices. Free, no-strings-attached sex is far easier to find than in the past. Apps such as Tinder facilitate speedy hookups; websites such as Ashley Madison and Illicit Encounters, adulterous ones. Greater acceptance of premarital intercourse and easier divorce mean fewer frustrated single and married men turning to prostitutes.
同时，更加广泛的社会变化可能会造成需求的减少，因此导致了价格的变化。自由的，不带附加调价的性交易远比以前好做多了。像Tingder这一类应用以及Ashley Madison 和Illicit Encounters这一类成人网站可以方便快捷的使她们找到皮条客。对婚前性行为和易离婚的更加能接受意味着很少有单身或者已婚男人去买春。
Dearer for johns
电影johns里的尤物
Our analysis shows how a prostitute’s hourly rate varies according to the nature of the services she provides and her reported physical characteristics. As in other bits of the economy, clients who seek niche services must pay more. Sex workers who offer anal sex or spanking earn on average $25 or $50 more per hour, respectively (see chart 2). Those who will accept two male clients at once or do threesomes with another woman command a larger premium.
我们的分析显示出每小时的收费是如何根据她提供服务的类型和被描述的身体特点不同而改变的。再别的生意中，特定服务是要加钱的。提供爆菊和打屁股的性工作者平均一个人多收25到50美元一小时（见表二）。那些接受双飞或者加个别的女性来3p的要高多的钱。
（未完待续）
From the print edition: Briefing
本文仅供翻译交流不代表译者或者发布者同意文中的说法
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