In 2023, the legislature enacted a law prohibiting law enforcement from engaging in investigatory sex, which — along with the state’s prohibition on custodial sex — comprises the country’s most comprehensive ban on police sexual violence.
In 2022, a ballot referendum, approved by the governor, removed a ban on prostitution from the city charter in Burlington.
In 2022, Montpelier removed the ban on prostitution from its city ordinances.
In 2021, an “immunity law” that allows sex workers and survivors of trafficking to seek police assistance or medical care when they are victims of or witnesses to a crime, without fear of their own arrest, was enacted.
Bills to decriminalize consensual adult sex work have been introduced in both chambers each session since 2021.
