1. “Getting Screwed sums up the many ways we get shafted by
everyone, every day; by the cops, courts, judges, prosecutors,
defense attorneys, politicians, preachers, prostitution aboli-
tionists, radical feminists, academics, and so many others. For
them, we are an endless source of revenue, political power, and
academic achievement. Ms. Bass’s book serves up a much dif-
ferent portrait of us—that of hearty individuals who are capable
of speaking for ourselves and fighting for our rights.”
—Norma Jean Almodovar, sex workers activist and author of
Cop to Call Girl
“Alison Bass is a master storyteller. In Getting Screwed, she
takes us convincingly inside the lives of sex workers. Their
stories will make you laugh and maybe even cry, but more
important, they will make you angry at the laws which unfairly
persecute sex workers.”
—Karen Osborn, author of The River Road
“Getting Screwed takes us behind the beaded curtain to
meet the corporate professionals, mothers, grandmothers,
and university students who are the real faces of prostitution in
America today . . . Bass’s gripping, clear-eyed look at a margin-
alized subculture will make you rethink assumptions about what
consenting adults do behind closed doors.”
—Deborah Halber, author of The Skeleton Crew
A vivid account of how current U.S. laws against
prostitution harm sex workers, clients, and society
ALISON BASS is an award-winning
author, journalist, and professor. A
longtime medical and science writer
for the Boston Globe, Bass now teach-
es journalism at the Reed College of
Media at West Virginia University. Her
previous book, Side Effects: A Prose-
cutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestsell-
ing Antidepressant on Trial, won the
National Association of Science Writers’
Science in Society Award in 2009. For
more info, visit Alison’s website
www.sexworkersandthelaw.com.
ON SALE OCTOBER 2015
Getting Screwed:
Sex Workers and the Law
by Alison Bass
Hardcover, 280 pp
ISBN 978-1-61168-634-0, $29.95
Order online at upne.com,
or call 800-421-1561
Weaving the true stories of sex workers with the latest research on prostitution into a gripping journalistic narra-
tive, Alison Bass examines the impact of the sexual revolution, the rise of the Nevada brothels, the post-9/11
war on sex trafficking, and how prostitution has become a thriving industry in the global economy. Drawing on
recent studies that show lower rates of violence and sexually transmitted diseases in regions where adult pros-
titution is legal and regulated, Bass makes a powerful case for decriminalizing sex work and offers strategies
for making prostitution safer for American sex workers and the communities in which they dwell.