scholarly journals Policing roulette: Sex workers’ perception of encounters with police officers in the indoor and outdoor sector in England

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Klambauer
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Positive Experiences ◽  
Indoor And Outdoor

The regulation of sex work continues to be a divisive topic in England and internationally. Policies governing the policing of the sex industry in England are continually revised and debated, but are seldom grounded in empirical evidence of sex workers’ experiences. Based on 49 qualitative interviews with sex workers in England, this article finds that indoor sex workers had far more positive experiences with the police than outdoor sex workers. Despite this difference, both indoor and outdoor sex workers perceive their interactions with the police through the lens of their stigmatized status as sex workers and do not expect respectful treatment by the police. This article presents compelling evidence that an enforcement-led approach to policing creates insuperable barriers to the success of protective policing.

scholarly journals Identities Do Not Belong in a Box: Understanding Identity Construction, Negotiation & Communication for Escorts and Escort Agency Owners

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cleo Pyke
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Social Constructs ◽  
Qualitative Nature ◽  
And Performance

This Master’s Research Paper (MRP) seeks to better understand how both escorts and escort agency owners construct, negotiate and communicate their identities in the context of their lives. Using Erving Goffman’s theories on stigmatization, identity formation, and performance theory, combined with in-depth qualitative interviews, I aim to better understand of the dynamic nature of the participants’ identities. The qualitative nature of the research will explore how both human agency and social constructs impact and inform their lived experiences communicating and constructing each of their respective identities. The findings reveal that there are significant gaps in the existing literature on communication and sex work; the current literature focuses heavily on a victim-based narrative of sex work, with particular emphasis on the outdoor population of sex workers. This ignores the experiences of those who work in the peripheries of the sex industry (e.g. agency owners), as well as the escorts themselves, who have willingly chosen to engage in this line of work without coercion.

scholarly journals Identities Do Not Belong in a Box: Understanding Identity Construction, Negotiation & Communication for Escorts and Escort Agency Owners

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cleo Pyke
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Social Constructs ◽  
Qualitative Nature ◽  
And Performance

This Master’s Research Paper (MRP) seeks to better understand how both escorts and escort agency owners construct, negotiate and communicate their identities in the context of their lives. Using Erving Goffman’s theories on stigmatization, identity formation, and performance theory, combined with in-depth qualitative interviews, I aim to better understand of the dynamic nature of the participants’ identities. The qualitative nature of the research will explore how both human agency and social constructs impact and inform their lived experiences communicating and constructing each of their respective identities. The findings reveal that there are significant gaps in the existing literature on communication and sex work; the current literature focuses heavily on a victim-based narrative of sex work, with particular emphasis on the outdoor population of sex workers. This ignores the experiences of those who work in the peripheries of the sex industry (e.g. agency owners), as well as the escorts themselves, who have willingly chosen to engage in this line of work without coercion.

On the edges of the law: sex workers’ legal consciousness in England

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 327-343
Author(s):  
Eva Klambauer
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
State Involvement ◽  
The Law ◽  
Indoor And Outdoor

AbstractIn England, sex workers are placed at the edges of the law. How the social and legal status of sex workers impacts on their perception of and interaction with the law in a semi-legal setting has not yet been explored. Drawing on fifty-two qualitative interviews with indoor and outdoor sex workers in England, this study investigates their disposition to the law, legality and the state. The commonalities and discrepancies between the experiences of indoor and outdoor sex workers reveal the influence of the combination of legal framework and social status on sex workers’ legal consciousness. This study finds that, even in a setting of semi-legality, sex workers attempt to avoid contact with state authorities. However, this aversion to the current law does not prevent them from making claims for legal change. Surprisingly, indoor and outdoor sex workers hold opposing views on the appropriate level of regulation and state involvement in the sex industry. Remarkably, although outdoor sex workers have more negative experiences with arbitrators of the law, they desire the law's protection. In contrast, indoor sex workers’ main grievance is for sex work to be a legitimate industry that can operate with only minimal state control. These differences in outdoor and indoor workers’ legal claims are explicable by sharp cleavages in social status, vulnerability and degree of criminalisation. These findings demonstrate that intra-group differences in the legal consciousness of marginalised groups are key to understanding the role of social and legal status in shaping legal claims.

scholarly journals The Loss of Boystown and Transition to Online Sex Work: Strategies and Barriers to Increase Safety Among Men Sex Workers and Clients of Men

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1994-2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Argento ◽  
Matthew Taylor ◽  
Jody Jollimore ◽  
Chrissy Taylor ◽  
James Jennex ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Health Assessment ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Protective Measures ◽  
Community Based Research ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
Work Strategies ◽  
And Control

Men sex workers in Vancouver have largely transitioned from street to online solicitation coinciding with losing “Boystown,” the main outdoor sex work stroll for men. This article explores strategies and barriers to increase safety among men and trans sex workers and clients of men in Vancouver, Canada. Qualitative interviews were conducted (2012-2013) with 61 self-identifed men who currently buy and/or sell sex in a community-based research project known as CHAPS (Community Health Assessment of Men Who Purchase and Sell Sex). Drawing on a socioecological framework, thematic analysis of interview transcripts was conducted utilizing ATLAS.ti 7 software among men (39 workers; 8 buyers). Narratives indicate that gentrification and urban planning led to social isolation and loss of social support networks among men in the sex industry. Concurrently, the restructuring of sex work to online increased workers’ safety and control. Narratives reveal how the Internet can provide greater opportunities to negotiate terms of sex work and enhanced screening using webcams, reducing risks of violence, stigma, and police harassment for both workers and clients compared with the street. This study highlights how losing Boystown led to a loss of community and solidarity: key protective measures for sex workers. Online solicitation increased workers’ capacity to screen prospective clients and prevent violence. Recent legal reforms in Canada to further criminalize sex work raise significant concern for human rights and health of individuals in the sex industry, and point to the critical need to include voices of men and trans sex workers and buyers in policy discussions.

scholarly journals Labouring in the Sex Industry: A Conversation with Sex Workers on Consent and Exploitation

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Francine Tremblay
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Cultural Symbol

Sex work in all its forms is an occupation that belongs to the service industry, and like any other work, sexual labour is open to exploitation. However, the reason why sex work is seen to be different from other forms of labour is that it betrays the socially accepted rules of love and intimacy and is exercised within a criminalised environment. As a cultural symbol, sex work remains steadfastly linked to aberration and dangerousness. This article juxtaposes the legal and lay definitions of consent and exploitation based on conversations with fourteen Canadian sex workers. The objective of this exploratory article is to delve within two ill-defined and highly contested notions related to the sex industry—consent and exploitation.

scholarly journals Precarious or Protected? Evaluating Work Quality in the Legal Sex Industry

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Orchiston
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Industry Regulation ◽  
Regulatory Model ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Legal Sex

Decriminalising (or legalising) sex work is argued to improve sex workers’ safety and provide access to labour rights. However, there is a paucity of empirical research comparing how different regulatory approaches affect working conditions in the sex industry, especially in relation to venues that are managed by third parties. This article uses a mixed methods study of the Australian legal brothel sector to critically explore the relationship between external regulation and working conditions. Two dominant models of sex industry regulation are compared: decriminalisation and licensing. First, the article documents workplace practices in the Australian legal brothel sector, examining sex workers’ agency, autonomy and control over the labour process. Second, it analyses the capacity of each regulatory model to protect sex workers from unsafe and unfair working conditions. On the basis of these findings, the article concludes that brothel-based sex work is precarious and substantively excluded from the protective mantle of labour law, notwithstanding its legality. It is argued that the key determinant of conditions in the legal brothel sector is the extent to which the state enforces formal labour protections, as distinct from the underlying regulatory model adopted.

scholarly journals Del paradigma higienista a las teorías de la interseccionalidad. La construcción social de la ocupación de trabajadoras sexuales

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Teodora Hurtado Saa
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
The Social ◽  
Colombian Women ◽  
Las Mujeres ◽  
Trabajadoras Sexuales ◽  
Sex Market

Resumen: Este artículo versa sobre el actual estado    de la teorización, de la terminología y del conocimien- to empírico relativo a la producción social y ejercicio del trabajo sexual, con atención especial a las teorías    y conceptos que estructuran el tema de la participación diferenciada de las mujeres en general, y de las muje- res con características étnicas/raciales subalternizadas en particular, en el mercado del sexo. Se delinea una postura alternativa a los planteamientos convenciona- les higienistas, criminalistas o victimistas desde donde tradicionalmente se ha analizado la cuestión. Adicio- nalmente, se reflexiona sobre el crecimiento, expansión y modernización de la industria del sexo, en la que algu- nos países post-industrializados asumen la condición de demandantes y los países en vía de desarrollo, la de ofer- tantes de mano de obra para el consumo de experiencias sexuales de diferente índole. De igual modo, se delibera sobre la importancia que tiene la comercialización del sexo, para el desarrollo económico de algunos países y el trabajo sexual como estrategia de “rebusque” frente a los embates de la vida cotidiana. Asimismo, describimos las formas de explotación y de ejercicio del oficio de tra- bajadoras del sexo.Palabras claves: Mercado global del sexo, construcción de la ocupación, interseccionalidad, trabajo sexual, mu- jeres afrocolombianas, sexualidades disidentesFrom the Hygienist Paradigm to Intersectionality. The Social Construction of Sexual WorkAbstract: The present article deals with the current state of the theorizing, the terminology and the empirical knowledge about the social production and exercise of sex work, with special attention to theories and concepts that structure the subject of the different participation in the sex trade of women in general, and of women with subalternized ethnic/racial features in particular. It de- lineates an alternative view to conventional hygienist approaches, or criminal or victimization approaches, traditionally used to analyze the issue. In addition, this paper reflects on the growth, expansion and moderniza- tion of the sex industry, in which some post-industrialized countries provide the demand and developing countries provide the supply of labor for the consumption of sexual experiences. Similarly, it discusses the importance of the commercialization of sex for the economic development of some countries and of sex work as a strategy of look- ing for informal work while coping with the ravages of everyday life. It also describes the forms of exploitation of sex workers in the exercise of their profession. Key words: global sex market, occupation, intersection- ality, sex work, Afro-Colombian women, dissident sexu- alities

scholarly journals Female Subversion through Sex Work: Transgressive Discourses

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-137
Author(s):  
Marta Olasik
Keyword(s):  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Lesbian Studies ◽  
The One

The main objective of this article is to provide a multi-faceted and spatially-sensitive reflection on sex work. Taking as a point of departure subversive feminist politics on the one hand and the much contingent notion of citizenship on the other, I intend to present various forms of prostitution as potentially positive and empowering modes of sexual and emotional auto-creation. Informed by the leading research of the subject, as well as inspired and educated by Australia-based Dr Elizabeth Smith from La Trobe University in Melbourne, who had researched and presented female sex workers as self-caring and subversive subjects who make own choices and derive satisfaction from their occupation, I wish to seek academic justice for all those women (and men or trans people, for that matter) in the sex industry who feel stigmatized by political pressure and ultra-feminist circles across Europe. Translating Dr Smith’s significant research into European (and Polish) social realities would be a valuable contribution to the local discussions on gender and sexuality, and axes they intersect with. More importantly, however, a framework of a conceptual interdisciplinary approach needs to be adopted—one in which a specific queer form of lesbian feminist reflection is combined with human geography, both of which have much to offer to various strands of sociological theory and practice. Therefore, as a queer lesbian scholar based in Poland, I would like to diverge a bit from my usual topic in order to pay an academic and activist tribute to the much neglected strand of sociology of sex work. However, my multi-faceted and interdisciplinary academic activity allows me to combine the matter in question with the field of lesbian studies. Both a female sex worker and a lesbian have been culturally positioned through the lens of what so-called femininity is, without a possibility to establish control over their own subjectivities. Hence, on the one hand the article is going to be an academic re-interpretation of sex work as such, but on the other, methodological possibilities of acknowledging and researching lesbian sex workers will be additionally considered with special attention to feminist epistemologies and praxis. While a sensitivity to a given locality is of utmost importance when dealing with gender and sexuality issues, I would like to suggest a somewhat overall approach to investigating both female empowerment through sex work and lesbian studies inclusive of sex workers. Importantly, the more common understandings of the sex industry need to be de-constructed in order for a diversity of transgressive discourses to emerge.

Introduction: The Cultural Study of Commercial Sex: Taking a policy perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Hammond ◽  
Feona Attwood
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Study ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Commercial Sex ◽  
Policy Perspective ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Sexual Commerce ◽  
Selling Sex

The transformation of the sex industry since 2000 has meant that the image of the ‘street prostitute’ touting for business on dark street corners is less representative of sex work or sex workers than it has ever been. Much of our knowledge about the sex industry, and about wider transformations of economic, intimate and cultural life, is out of date (Bernstein, 2007a), and policy processes are taking place within the context of limited or outdated knowledge. The growth in visibility, consumption and diversity of sexual commerce is now well recognised (Weitzer, 2000; Agustín, 2005; Scoular and Sanders, 2010) and commercial sex industries are known to operate across a variety of locations, and within specific modes of production and consumption, which are historically, contextually and culturally contingent and where ‘the meaning of buying and selling sex is not always the same’ (Agustín, 2005: 619).

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