Miscellaneous

Police more likely to sleep with than arrest prostitutes

By Walter Olson, Ted Frank, and David Nieporent

The Venkatesh-Levitt paper on the economics of prostitution in Chicago shows that prostitutes are arrested about one out of every 450 tricks—but are forced to give "freebies" to police for about 3% of their tricks to avoid arrest.

On the one hand, I'm appalled at the utter corruption exhibited by law enforcement here, and wonder to what extent this illegal "perk" acts as a public-choice rationale for law enforcement to oppose legalization and regulation of brothels.

On the other hand, that 3% of labor extorted by the police is a heck of a better rate than the 30% or so tax rate various governments make me pay...

See also: Howley @ Reason; Balko @ Reason.

Full post as published by Overlawyered on January 14, 2008 (boomark / email).