Secretary of State for Justice v A Local Authority and others: disability and access to sex workers

This is a commentary on Secretary of State for Justice v A Local Authority and others, where the decision of the Court of Protection has been overturned by the Court of Appeal. The judgment has implications for (i) the article 8 and article 14 rights of those who lack capacity to arrange lawful sexual services; (ii) the criminal liability of their carers who are enlisted to assist with such arrangements; and, potentially, (iii) the ban on payment for sexual services in Northern Ireland.

Seeking a Solution to the Problem of Prostitution: Application of Repressive Social Politics

C. Benoit et al. (2018) distinguish three models of social policy that reveal different approaches to prostitution: repressive (prohibiting prostitution), regulating and integrating (decriminalizing prostitution). In Lithuania, a repressive model of social policy is applied in prostitution – both the client and the person providing sexual services are fined. Currently, active social campaigns are underway to apply the Nordic (or Equality) model in prostitution in Lithuania: only the client who buys sexual services would be committing a crime and therefore fined. Although adapting the Nordic model would reduce women’s administrative criminality in female prostitution, the authors consider, based on a case study and the experience of other countries, whether focusing on repressive social policy legislations will address the stigma and isolation that hinder the integration and empowerment of women.

NORMATIVE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

Prostitution as a social phenomenon has been present in different forms and shapes of manifestation for centuries, adapting itself to various societal reactions that attempted to control it or eradicate it. Prostitution is present in the society regardless of a particular social class, nationality/ethnicity or territory, and therefore, different states apply different measures and regimes to repress or control this type of conduct. The notions on which the prohibitionist regime of prostitution is based prevail among the scholars, regarding prostitution as a form of social anomaly and immoral, deviant behavior given that the sexual practices of two people come down to commodity-money relations. The main subject of this paper is the legal regulation of prostitution in the Re-public of Serbia, as well as the analysis of legal regimes that regulate prostitution in the comparative law. In 2016, in the legislation of the Republic of Serbia, the law on public order and peace brought a novelty when it comes to regulating prostitution by adding a new form of action of committing the violation. The law now also prescribes the sanctioning of persons who use this type of sexual services.

Female Sex Work Dynamics: Empowerment, Mobilization, Mobility

UNAIDS defines sex work as selling sexual services (Ditmore in Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. UNAIDS, 2008, [1]). Sex workers involved in sexual relations with multiple partners are a key group of women who need access to comprehensive sexual health services, including HIV prevention, treatment, and care (Lafort et al. in Reproductive health services for populations at high risk of HIV: performance of a night clinic in Tete province, Mozambique. BMC Health Services Research, 2010, [2]). There are a broad range of sex workers in various locations including those who are street-based and brothel-based, those who work as escorts, and those who work from their own homes.

Legalization, Decriminalization or Criminalization; Could We Introduce a Global Prescription for Prostitution?

Context: Prostitution is a complex phenomenon defined as the provision of sexual services to receive something (goods or services) which is not sexual. Given the response of different societies and cultures to criminalization, decriminalization, or legalization of prostitution, this study aimed to compare the three aforementioned approaches to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each view. Method: This narrative review study summarizes various views on how to control the prostitution phenomenon. To conduct this study, related articles in PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases, as well as documents and reports published by Amnesty International, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Office on AIDS, were investigated. There was no time limit for searching the articles and documents. Results: Different communities have their own responses to the prostitution phenomenon, depending on their economic, social, and cultural context. According to the literature reviews, three main approaches, including criminalization, decriminalization, and legalization, are recommended to deal with prostitution. In each of these frameworks, human trafficking and child prostitution are criminalized. Although it seems that partial decriminalization has greater benefits with fewer disadvantages, it is not without defects. Conclusions: All countries, with any dominant approach, must respect the human rights of prostitutes and improve access to healthcare facilities. Using the moderator rules that are embedded in the laws of each country for expediency might also reduce the harmful consequences of the first rules, or measures can be taken by considering specific regulations that exist in the national system of each country.

How Sex Workers Understand Their Experiences of Working in the Republic of Ireland

Introduction This study seeks to explore the ways in which sex workers understand their experiences of working under sex work legislation in the Republic of Ireland, including laws that criminalise the purchase of sexual services. Participants reflected on their experiences of working in Ireland both and after the passing of [the] Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017. In 2017, the Republic of Ireland criminalised the purchase of sexual services and increased fines and sentences for brothel keeping. Method In 2020, semi-structured interviews lasting 60 to 90 min were conducted with 6 sex workers from diverse backgrounds, ages 24–44, actively working in Ireland since 2017. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcriptions were used to conduct an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results Seven themes arose from the data: psychological wellbeing, relationships with law enforcement, relationships with friends and family, the effects of client criminalisation laws on clients, benefits of sex work community, stress related to precarious accommodation and experiences of both discrimination and perceived discrimination. Conclusion Changes to sex work legislation appear to have failed in their mission to improve life for sex workers in Ireland. Other options such as decriminalisation should be considered.

Pussy Power: A Contemporaneous View of Indigenous Women and Their Role in Sex Work

Sex work is the trade of sexual services in exchange for money or other goods of value. In the context of Indigenous Australia, sex work often produces narratives of victimisation and oppression reinforcing the patriarchal power and colonial dominance that is rife in Australia over Indigenous women’s bodies and behaviours. Drawing from interviews with Indigenous women who are engaged with sex work, this paper challenges these narratives by examining the motivation and meanings that shape Indigenous women’s decisions to undertake sex work, offering a compelling counter-narrative that discusses how Indigenous women seek and enact agency, sexuality, and sovereignty through the pussy power of sex work.

Hustling the Platform

An increasing amount of sex work in the United Kingdom is now digitally mediated, as workers and clients identify each other, agree prices and services, undertake security checks, and often make payment through various platforms and websites. Existing accounts of “digital sex work” have been both overly technological deterministic and optimistic, largely invisibilizing capital and the new forms of power and control it enables. The authors argue that the dominant platform for digital sex work in the United Kingdom, AdultWork, is reshaping the market in direct sexual services, driving down standards and prices, and normalizing risky behaviors. The article posits that these changes in the sex industry are symptomatic and reflective of wider shifts in labor-capital relations and technology and therefore argues that bringing research on platform work and sex work into closer dialogue is mutually productive. Studies of digital sex work would benefit from critical insights into power and control in platform work, while scholars of platform work—and of work and employment more generally—have much to learn from paying attention to the gendered labor of sex workers. In particular, resistance and collective organizing among sex workers, some of the most marginalized workers in contemporary capitalism, can suggest wider strategies of labor resistance and transformation in platform work and beyond.

Human Trafficking in Woman and Children Perspective; Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish in Persons

Trafficking in persons is a cross-border crime which injures human dignity. The mode of trafficking in persons is to take advantage of the economic conditions of potential victims by luring them a better job. This research will discuss the profile of victims of trafficking in persons, gender analysis in human trafficking, and international policies in victim protection that are gender equality oriented. This research is a normative juridical study examining the analysis of international legal instruments, laws and court decisions. The research was conducted using the statute approach, legal concepts and the concept of gender. The victims of trafficking in persons are dominated by women, although it does not rule out the possibility that men can also be the victims. Women are considered as commodities that can provide benefits because they can be bought and sold to do work without requiring high education, and even provide sexual services. The perpetrators of the criminal network carry out the recruitment of potential victims by involving the householder of the potential victim, in this case the husband or father of the potential victim. This condition cannot be separated from the deep rooted patriarchal culture in the society, in which the men play a role as the decision makers in the family. Power relations play an important role in analyzing this crime of trafficking in persons. Efforts to combat trafficking in persons are carried out within the framework of a gender-equitable policy. However, the existing legal instruments have not addressed the fundamental problems of trafficking in women. Reconstruction of the legal culture of society is very important in protecting women from various forms of violence.

Editorial: Understanding Exploitation in Consensual Sex Work to Inform Occupational Health & Safety Regulation: Current Issues and Policy Implications

The impetus behind this Special Issue emerged from a quest to move beyond binary thinking in the contemporary period about people who sell sexual services, including recent disputes about “sex trafficking vs [...]