The underground sex economy in Dallas, you probably won't be surprised to know, is thriving. Not thriving quite like the local trade in drugs ($191 million per year) or guns ($171 million), but it's substantial, pulling in an estimated $98.9 million per year.
That's at least the figure reached in a Justice Department-sponsored study -- The New York Times calls it a "landmark" -- released today by the Urban Institute, which examined prostitution and sex trafficking in eight American cities.
The report is probably most compelling for the granular look it gives at each city's sex trade, based on statistical analysis and interviews with cops, pimps and prostitutes.
