Paulo Drinot examines both the creation and closure of Lima's Barrio Rojo and tells us about Peruvian society in the first half of the 20th century. He tells readers why prostitution regulation was adopted and then abandoned, and how that tells readers about the history of Lima and Peru. His approach intersects with studies that look at the gendered character of state formation in Latin America. He adopts an approach to studying the state that moves beyond seeing the state as a paternal and patriarchal state acting upon society. He challenges the idea that the medicalization of prostitution and disease was an elite 'top-down' project.

He says "In Peru, projects were highly racialized, officials began to look and see if the Indian could be redeemable or improved" and that there was a belief that "Prostitutes [were] needed to be made safe for men to turn them away from sexual perversions like gayness or masturbation." By studying prosititon it explores ideas about how male and female sexuality informed attempts to govern prostitution and venereal disease. The regulation of prostitution in Lima produced two things: (1) society was increasingly pathologized (Euro racial thought influenced the Latin American elite's views of themselves) & (2) Pathologized society allowed for regeneration and civilization.