Craigslist has given up fighting to keep up it’s “Adult Services” section after it had been faced with a letter from 17 state attorneys general demanding it immediately shut down its adult services listing.

Craigslist’s “Adult Services” section carried ads for everything from personal massages to a night’s companionship, which critics say veered into prostitution and jailhouse suicide last month of a former medical student who was awaiting trial in the killing of a masseuse he met through Craigslist. But in an intersecting counter-point if Philip Markoff the former medical student who was accused of killing a masseuse he met through Craigslist had gone through another different underground venue the police would have never caught him because they used the messages sent through Craigslist to catch Markoff.

Driving sex work underground is exactly what makes it dangerous. Sex workers in legal brothels do not have to worry about client abuse or persecution by law enforcement. So now 17 attorneys generals who will get to crow how they “saved the children” when they make their bid to run for higher office have actually made it harder and the police crack down on crimes that happen to sex workers and people who use them.

According the AIM Group, Craigslist’s adult services section accounts for 30 percent of its overall revenue — a projected $36.6 million in 2010 out of $122 million. More than half the company’s revenue comes from recruitment advertising and about 17 percent (almost $21 million) comes from apartment ads in New York City, the AIM

Something tells me there’s going to be a huge spike in ads in the ‘therapeutic’ services offered section.