Sex work itself wasn’t widely criminalized until the early 20th century, when moral crusaders, alarmed by unfounded fears that white women were being forced into prostitution.

Huh. Didn’t really know this, looked it up and it seems to be correct.

So it was always white women absolutely no one was interested in convinced they were going to be kidnapped from the general store/Target parking lot and pressed into sex slavery? Guess some absurd fantasies never die. Be interested to understand more about the weird psychology of this.