Flora:
Sorry-what do you mean by structure? Do you mean the legal framework? If so I favour decriminalization-a few of my reasons are outlined in the reply to Buffy.
I don?t believe that the Nordic model (where prostitution is legal but the client criminalized) works-despite the claims of the Swedish government-it is really a political gesture saying that the purchase of sex is unacceptable. My view is that while I may not like the purchase of sex, provided there are women who will supply sex for reward and that there are men who will purchase it, it is best done in an environment that looks after the safety of the women. From my extensive analysis I think that a decriminalized environment is better.
One of the stated aims of the Nordic model is that it will reduce demand-no demand no prostitution. While it is true that immediately after the legislation was passed street prostitution decreased (later to return to almost its original level-the same happens in other countries when the police vigorously enforce anti-kerb crawler legislation). However only a small proportion of Sweden?s sex workers work the street (it is rather cold there), most operates indoors and there is no evidence that has decreased. I don?t want to go into an extensive analysis of the Nordic situation (for which I am sure you will be grateful-but if pressed I can) but will try to deal with the other points you raise.
By abuse do you mean physical and verbal abuse? Or drug abuse? Or abuse as a child which is often claimed to be an antecedent to prostitution? No matter-these are dealt with extensively in the reports that I cite-if you would care to be more specific I will find you the page numbers as I know you are adverse to reading evidence-and will lable it as pimp-punter propaganda-even if it is published in the peer reviewed literature.
But here is some to start with. In the Danish report levels of violence are broken down by sector (street, brothel , private worker) presented in table 10.2 page 232. What it shows is that levels of physical abuse depend on the sector-street work being the most dangerous (59% of street workers were not physically abused in the previous year while 96% of brothel workers were not physically abused) showing indoor work is safer.
Coercion is dealt with table 8.1 p161 of the Danish report the category is ?felt forced by another? Overall 4% felt forced-and these were mainly Street prostitutes where 26% felt forced.(It has to be remembered that in Denmark a large proportion of street prostitutes are foreign-a lot from Africa-the situation in other legislations such as NZ or Australia or the UK is different-the majority of street workers are native born)
Drug abuse is dealt with in the same table-overall 8% worked to fund a drug habit-this was almost entirely due to street workers 54% of those worked to fund a drug habit.
Mental problems are described in a section beginning pg 209 in the Danish report. Overall 65% have no self-reported symptoms of psychological symptoms-once again it is street workers who bear the brunt.
As for psychological damage (do you mean long term or current? Or both?) the Danish report in the qualitative interviews has example of ex-prostitutes who have symptoms (such as cleaning frenzy) and many ex-prostitutes who have no symptoms (pgs 211-213)
Similar (although quantitatively different data) is available for NZ (decriminalized) and Australia (different states have different legal regimes for prostitution-Queensland and Victoria and Capital territories operate a legalized system, NSW a decriminalized system, Western Australia is criminalized. If you would be more specific I can provide chapter and verse for your queries.