Megan Lundstrom understands more than most the conditions that force women into dangerous situations—she also has the key to help them escape.

She was once the “world’s most exclusive madam.”

Two men died of meth overdoses at the home of a West Hollywood political donor. Dark conspiracy theories abounded— but the truth is even darker

A travelogue through the contradiction-rich and predominantly Muslim Southern Thailand.

How police brought down a tech-savvy prostitution network in Seattle.

Every year, thousands of teenagers from one city in Nigeria risk death and endure forced labor and sex work on the long route to Europe.

A program in Washington state aims to teach johns about healthy relationships - and the patriarchy.

What sex workers think about legalizing sex work.

A stripping trip to Florida gone horribly astray told across 158 tweets.

An investigation into serial killings in a small North Carolina city.

The effects of legalized prostitution in Germany.

Behind the doors of Centaurus, Rio’s most infamous brothel.

Why 18th-century French police obsessively tracked elite sex workers.

Traveling with a sex tourist to the Uzbek city of Tashkent. Excerpted from the forthcoming book If It’s Monday It Must Be Madurai.

How a struggling comedian became a pimp who eventually started sending teenage hookers on bank robbery missions that earned them notoriety as the “Starlet Bandits.”

When Germany legalized prostitution just over a decade ago, politicians hoped that it would create better conditions and more autonomy for sex workers. It hasn’t worked out that way.

The story of Melissa Barthelemy, a prostitute killed in a string of murders on Long Island in December 2010.

A family turns to murder to save one of their own.

A look at the Mexican drug wars from the point of view of a narco’s mistress in Juárez.

On Queens’ stubbornly unchanging Roosevelt Avenue, where immigrants pay $2 a song to grind against hired dancers and shuttered houses of prostitution have given way to rolling brothel-vans.

A summer as a whorehouse Madame.

How a family man dentist got involved in an underage prostitution ring.

Part one of W.T. Snead’s Victorian-era investigation into child prostitution.

Five prostitutes disappear. Bodies turn up on a Long Island beach. On the women lost, and the families left behind.