IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/110505.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Estimating the Prostitution Population in the Netherlands and Belgium: A Capture-Recapture Application to Online Data

Author

Listed:
  • Azam, Anahita
  • Hendrickx, Jef
  • Adriaenssens, Stef

Abstract

Evidence-based risk-prevention policies for people involved in prostitution require that reliable population estimates are built. This study proposes a methodological framework and novel data source for measuring their population in regions where the internet plays a predominant role in the industry. We derive single registration capture-recapture population estimates using the Zelterman approach. The resulting estimates for the Netherlands and Belgium are lower than previous rough estimates. We find that relative to the overall population of the two countries, the proportion of sex workers are roughly identical despite differing legal environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Azam, Anahita & Hendrickx, Jef & Adriaenssens, Stef, 2021. "Estimating the Prostitution Population in the Netherlands and Belgium: A Capture-Recapture Application to Online Data," MPRA Paper 110505, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:110505
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/110505/1/MPRA_paper_110505.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tara S Beattie & Boryana Smilenova & Shari Krishnaratne & April Mazzuca, 2020. "Mental health problems among female sex workers in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(9), pages 1-38, September.
    2. Stef Adriaenssens & Jef Hendrickx, 2019. "Calculating Value Added of Prostitution with Multiple Data: A New Approach for Belgium," Public Finance Review, , vol. 47(1), pages 58-86, January.
    3. Peter G.M. Van Der Heijden & Maarten Cruyff & Hans C. Van Houwelingen, 2003. "Estimating the Size of a Criminal Population from Police Records Using the Truncated Poisson Regression Model," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 57(3), pages 289-304, August.
    4. Deering, K.N. & Amin, A. & Shoveller, J. & Nesbitt, A. & Garcia-Moreno, C. & Duff, P. & Argento, E. & Shannon, K., 2014. "A systematic review of the correlates of violence against sex workers," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(5), pages 42-54.
    5. Philippe Adair & Oksana Nezhyvenko, 2016. "Sex Work Vs. Sexual Exploitation: Assessing Guesstimates For Prostitution In The European Union," Proceedings of Economics and Finance Conferences 4206791, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    6. Keith Sabin & Jinkou Zhao & Jesus Maria Garcia Calleja & Yaou Sheng & Sonia Arias Garcia & Annette Reinisch & Ryuichi Komatsu, 2016. "Availability and Quality of Size Estimations of Female Sex Workers, Men Who Have Sex with Men, People Who Inject Drugs and Transgender Women in Low- and Middle-Income Countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(5), pages 1-11, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Philippe Adair & Oksana Nezhyvenko, 2023. "Love for sale throughout European countries: Assessing the figures of prostitution," Erudite Working Paper 2023-07, Erudite.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rachel Jewkes & Minja Milovanovic & Kennedy Otwombe & Esnat Chirwa & Khuthadzo Hlongwane & Naomi Hill & Venice Mbowane & Mokgadi Matuludi & Kathryn Hopkins & Glenda Gray & Jenny Coetzee, 2021. "Intersections of Sex Work, Mental Ill-Health, IPV and Other Violence Experienced by Female Sex Workers: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Community-Centric National Study in South Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-13, November.
    2. Hanne Ochieng Lichtwarck & Method Rwelengera Kazaura & Kåre Moen & Elia John Mmbaga, 2022. "Harmful Alcohol Use and Associated Socio-Structural Factors among Female Sex Workers Initiating HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Hiroyuki Yamada & Yuki Kanayama & Kanako Yoshikawa & Kyaw Wai Aung, 2023. "Risk attitude, risky behaviour and price determination in the sex market: A case study of Yangon, Myanmar," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 665-691, December.
    4. Lanumteang, K. & Böhning, D., 2011. "An extension of Chao's estimator of population size based on the first three capture frequency counts," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 2302-2311, July.
    5. Katie Hail-Jares & Ruth C F Chang & Sugy Choi & Huang Zheng & Na He & Z Jennifer Huang, 2015. "Intimate-Partner and Client-Initiated Violence among Female Street-Based Sex Workers in China: Does a Support Network Help?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-16, September.
    6. Shirley J Semple & Jamila K Stockman & Eileen V Pitpitan & Steffanie A Strathdee & Claudia V Chavarin & Doroteo V Mendoza & Gregory A Aarons & Thomas L Patterson, 2015. "Prevalence and Correlates of Client-Perpetrated Violence against Female Sex Workers in 13 Mexican Cities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-15, November.
    7. Bill McCarthy & Mikael Jansson & Cecilia Benoit, 2021. "Job Attributes and Mental Health: A Comparative Study of Sex Work and Hairstyling," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-21, January.
    8. Mark E. Piatek & Dankmar Böhning, 2024. "Deriving a zero-truncated modelling methodology to analyse capture–recapture data from self-reported social networks," METRON, Springer;Sapienza Università di Roma, vol. 82(2), pages 135-160, August.
    9. Cecilia Benoit & Mikael Jansson & Michaela Smith & Jackson Flagg, 2017. "“Well, It Should Be Changed for One, Because It’s Our Bodies”: Sex Workers’ Views on Canada’s Punitive Approach towards Sex Work," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-17, May.
    10. Sunny Jiao & Vicky Bungay & Emily Jenkins, 2021. "Information and Communication Technologies in Commercial Sex Work: A Double-Edged Sword for Occupational Health and Safety," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, January.
    11. Tara S. Beattie & Rhoda Kabuti & Alicja Beksinska & Hellen Babu & Mary Kung’u & The Maisha Fiti Study Champions & Pooja Shah & Emily Nyariki & Chrispo Nyamweya & Monica Okumu & Anne Mahero & Pauline N, 2023. "Violence across the Life Course and Implications for Intervention Design: Findings from the Maisha Fiti Study with Female Sex Workers in Nairobi, Kenya," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(11), pages 1-17, June.
    12. Baksh, M. Fazil & Böhning, Dankmar & Lerdsuwansri, Rattana, 2011. "An extension of an over-dispersion test for count data," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 466-474, January.
    13. Thandrayen, Joanne & Wang, Yan, 2009. "A latent variable regression model for capture-recapture data," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 53(7), pages 2740-2746, May.
    14. Jennie Pearson & Kate Shannon & Andrea Krüsi & Melissa Braschel & Jennifer McDermid & Brittany Bingham & Shira M. Goldenberg, 2022. "Barriers to Governmental Income Supports for Sex Workers during COVID-19: Results of a Community-Based Cohort in Metro Vancouver," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-15, August.
    15. Wen-Han Hwang & Jakub Stoklosa & Ching-Yun Wang, 2022. "Population Size Estimation Using Zero-Truncated Poisson Regression with Measurement Error," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 27(2), pages 303-320, June.
    16. Crankshaw, Tamaryn L. & Chareka, Samantha & Zambezi, Pemberai & Poku, Nana K., 2021. "Age Matters: Determinants of sexual and reproductive health vulnerabilities amongst young women who sell sex (16–24 years) in Zimbabwe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    17. Oksana Nezhyvenko, 2018. "Informal Employment in Ukraine and European Union Transition Countries," Erudite Ph.D Dissertations, Erudite, number ph18-03 edited by Philippe Adair.
    18. Matthew Quaife & Peter Vickerman & Shanthi Manian & Robyn Eakle & Maria A. Cabrera‐Escobar & Sinead Delany‐Moretlwe & Fern Terris‐Prestholt, 2018. "The effect of HIV prevention products on incentives to supply condomless commercial sex among female sex workers in South Africa," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(10), pages 1550-1566, October.
    19. Philippe Adair, 2017. "Non-Observed Economy vs. the Shadow Economy in the EU: The Accuracy of Measurements Methods and Estimates revisited," Post-Print hal-01683929, HAL.
    20. Laura Meriluoto & Rachel Webb & Annick Masselot & Sussie Morrish & Gillian Abel, 2015. "Safety in the New Zealand sex industry," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 296-317, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hidden population; Sex worker population; Population size estimation; Capture-recapture; Internet data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E26 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Informal Economy; Underground Economy
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:110505. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.