Mapping Brazilian and Portuguese Young People’s Positions Towards Highly Paid Sex Work

Abstract

The study mapped the personal positions regarding highly paid sex work observed among people living in two Lusophone countries: Brazil and Portugal. The participants were 138 students, recruited in Brasilia University, and 113 students from Oporto University. They were presented with 24 vignettes depicting the current situation of a young female sex worker. These vignettes were composed of all combinations of four factors: (a) the woman’s age, (b) whether she was native-born or not, (c) her level of autonomy (e.g., depends on a “protector”), and (d) the number of clients a day. Participants judged the extent to which each situation was acceptable. Data collection took place in 2014. Through cluster analysis, qualitatively different positions were found. For 54%, the situation was never acceptable, irrespective of circumstances. For 4%, it was always acceptable. For 29%, acceptability was mainly a function of age and autonomy. The never acceptable position was more frequent among Portuguese (60%) than among Brazilian participants (48%), among females (63%) than among males (43%), and among believers in God (63%) than among atheists (41%). Thirteen percent (18% male and 9% females) did not express any opinion. In Brazil, and in contrast to what was observed in Portugal, the alternative to the position that sex work is never acceptable was not the affirmation that it is an occupation like others but the acknowledgment that it poses an ethical problem and that this problem must be treated in the same way as other ethical problems. It can, therefore, be considered that the current social policy in Brazil (e.g., sex work is integrated as a job into the Brazilian Classification of Occupations) is probably supported by a substantial part of the Brazilian civil society. In contrast, most Portuguese participants expressed a principled position that was more consistent with prohibitive social policies in effect in Sweden or in France than with social policies in effects in their country.