More than 80 percent of those interviewed told Farley they wanted to leave prostitution.
The effect of all this on the women in the brothels is "negative and profound," Farley said.
"Many were suffering what I'd describe as the traumatic effects of ongoing sexual assaults and those that had been in the brothels for some time were institutionalized. That is, they were passive, timid, compliant, and deeply resigned," she said.
"No one really enjoys getting sold," said Angie, who Farley interviewed. "It's like you sign a contract to be raped."
Meanwhile, illegal brothels are on the increase in Nevada, as they are in other parts of the world where brothels are legalized.
Nevada's illegal prostitution industry is already nine times greater than the state's legal brothels.
"Legalizing this industry does not result in the closing down of illegal sex establishments," Farley said, "it merely gives them further permission to exist."
Farley found evidence, for example, that the existence of state-sanctioned brothels can have a direct effect on attitudes to women and sexual violence. Her survey of 131 young men at the University of Nevada found the majority viewed prostitution as normal, assumed that it was not possible to rape a prostitute, and were more likely than young men in other states to use women in both legal and illegal prostitution.
The solution, Farley believes, is to educate people about the realities of legalized abuse of women.
"Once the people of Nevada learn of [the prostitutes'] suffering and emotional distress, and their lack of human rights, they, like me, will be persuaded that legal prostitution is an institution that just can't be fixed up or made a little better. It has to be abolished," Farley said.
The prevailing attitude in Nevada remains as it was a few centuries back though -- that men have sexual "needs" that they have a right to fulfil. Outside one of the legal brothels a sign reads: "He who hesitates, masturbates."
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