Female sex workers in European nations that have legalized some aspects of sex work have a lower HIV rate than those living in parts of Europe where their trade is outright forbidden, aidsmap reports.

Publishing their findings in The Lancet HIV, researchers studied data on 27 nations for which the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control provides estimates of the proportion of sex workers who are HIV positive. The data set includes male sex workers, but their share of the total is small enough that the analysis essentially focuses on females in the trade.

Ten of the nations totally criminalize sex work while 17 legalize some aspects of it.

The study authors also examined information from the World Bank on the general population of each nation’s confidence level of the effectiveness and fairness of their police and judiciary. This allowed the investigators to estimate the effectiveness and fairness of law enforcement with regard to sex work in a nation.

The average prevalence of HIV among sex workers in the nations where sex work is partially legalized was 0.5 percent compared with 4 percent in the nations where it is totally criminalized. After adjusting the data for gross domestic product and the use of injection drugs among sex workers, the researchers found that the disparity held.

The effectiveness and fairness of law enforcement did not affect the HIV rate among sex workers in nations where their trade is totally criminalized. However, effective and fair law enforcement was linked to a lower sex worker HIV rate in countries that partially legalized sex work.

To read the aidsmap article, click here.

To read the study abstract, click here.