Silva began by explaining that her presentation is the preliminary result from recently performed research, which unfolded from a previous study about sexual tourism in a famous site in Copacabana beach.
This first study indicated that it was vital to expand the analysis about prostitution as economic activity in urban Brazil and to examine more closely sexual markets in Rio and their determinants.
The data to be presented was collected in an anthropological study about prostitution sites, prostitutes and their clients in Rio de Janeiro. Presently the research is to being extended to other cities. On the other hand, religious discourses, especially in their dogmatic versions, describe prostitutes as sinners who must be saved before being forgiven.
The common trait between these two moral visions about prostitution is that both deny the decision of a person who decides to engage with prostitution may be simply for economic reasons.
In contrast, the empirical data collected by this research reveals that almost all of the women who opted for prostitution did so because it is work that pays better than any of the other options they found in the labor market.
