Also this today, from Nicholas Kristof: "The American Journal of Epidemiology published a meticulous study finding that the 'workplace homicide rate for prostitutes' is 51 times that of the next most dangerous occupation for women, working in a liquor store. The average age of death of the prostitutes in the study was 34."

Emily smartly raises the question of what this study would find other countries. It would be interesting to look separately at half-legal arrest-the-john systems like Sweden's and full legalization and regulation such as in (Wikipedia tells me) New Zealand.

What I'd also be interested to see, though, is a study comparing the workplace violence of prostitution to other occupations whose practitioners are ipso facto witness to their clients' criminality, e.g. dealing narcotics.

Stats not confined along the gender or sex work axes might yield more insight into the interaction of power dynamics, sexuality, gender, and criminality in effecting the workplace violence that prostitutes face.