This is an excellent book on a deeply important topic. It combines the best social scientific analysis with rigorous, clear philosophical insight. The way governments respond to sex workers and sex buyers has profound effects on the status of sex workers and on public health and safety. Though Flanigan and Watson disagree about the optimal policies regarding sex work, together they demonstrate that complete criminalization-as found throughout most of the United
States-is deeply harmful and unjust. This book serves as a model both for how informed policy debates should work.
Lori Watson is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at University of San Diego and affiliate faculty in the School of Law. She specializes in political philosophy, feminism, and legal philosophy. She is co-author of Equal Citizenship and Public Reason: A Feminist Political Liberalism (Oxford University Press, 2018) and Debating Pornography (Oxford University Press, 2018).
Jessica Flanigan is an Associate Professor of Leadership Studies and Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law at the University of Richmond where she teaches ethics and critical thinking. She is the author of Pharmaceutical Freedom (Oxford University Press,2017) and articles that address the ethics of paternalism, enforceable rights, and economic justice.