Abstract
The management of violence-related risks on the street invariably relates to individual perceptions of violence amongst street-based sex workers. This paper explores perceptions and experiences of violence amongst street-based sex workers in Wellington and Christchurch. This paper begins with an overview of how risks of violence have been conceptualised and how the diversity of these risks is reflected in the perceptions and experiences of the women interviewed. Some complexities in how these risks were constructed and managed by the women are then explored, including perceptions of the street as a work environment. To conclude, I discuss the significance of these findings in the context of debates on sex worker safety.
Highlights
This article aims to unpack the ways in which street‐based sex workers conceptualise and experience diverse risks of violence in their work, drawing on the narratives of 28 New Zealand‐ based street‐based sex workers
Prostitution was decriminalised in New Zealand in 2003 and, while this paper focuses more broadly on perceptions of violence‐related risks, the impact of this change was central to the research
In this paper I have explored perceptions and experiences of violence amongst women working on the streets as sex workers
Summary
This article aims to unpack the ways in which street‐based sex workers conceptualise and experience diverse risks of violence in their work, drawing on the narratives of 28 New Zealand‐ based street‐based sex workers. Since street sex work is pre‐defined as risky behaviour, women involved in it are constructed as failing to practise risk avoidance, and are defined as risk takers engaging in an activity assumed to be characterised by extreme danger. This may impact directly on how risks are perceived by those working in this sector since the more stigmatised and dangerous an individual’s life circumstances are, the more extreme their perception of risk may be (Harris, Nilan and Kirby 2011). There is a paucity of research that focuses on exploring the ways in which risks of violence are conceptualised, defined and negotiated, amongst street‐based sex workers
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