“If we cannot advertise legally, safely, and independently, then we’re easy prey for exploitative third parties,” she said in an e-mail. “If clients are harder to find and negotiate with because they are criminalized, a pimp’s promise of procurement begins to sound more tempting.”

Pressley also heard from sex workers who had recently championed decriminalization in Washington, D.C., which the city government considered, but did not pass, in November.

“This is my body. Nobody should be telling me what I can and cannot do about it,” argued D.C. advocate Tamika Spellman, a transgender sex worker who met with Pressley. “We live in a country where casual sex is a celebrated act. If I charge for that casual sex it’s a criminal act? That does not make sense.”

Spellman said the D.C. measure failed largely because of concern that children would be vulnerable to trafficking after decriminalization — a concern she said was baseless.