Many bars and strip clubs in Tijuana's red light district in which women are the feature entertainment also operate as brothels, which offer attached hotel rooms for short intervals of time.

Illicit drug sales are also common to the red light district, which happens night and day in plain view because the local police tolerates it in the form of collecting their commission.

Prostitution is permitted in Tijuana's red light district, designated a zona de tolerancia, or "tolerance zone."

Paraditas have been regarded as part of Tijuana's cultural history, and attempts to force the women off the streets to curb such public advertising have proven unpopular and unsuccessful.

[6] Michael Hemmingson's ethnographic study, Zona Norte: The Post-Structural Body of Erotic Dancers and Sex Workers in Tijuana, San Diego, and Los Angeles,[7] found that many of these girls lie about their age, saying they are 19–22, and do not work the streets, but special brothels.