Organisational Patterns of Sex Work and the Effects of the Policy Framework

Abstract

Challenging the binary construction of prostitution as work or violence, in this article we adopt a perspective to the under-researched phenomenon that is attentive to the agency of sex workers. The Introduction theorizes sex work as a continuum of professional and organizational practices, and discusses prostitution frameworks and markets in two post-socialist EU member states, Slovenia and Croatia. The main aim was to explore how organizational patterns of sex work develop in the two countries and what their specific features and varieties are according to the different policy systems. Empirical analysis that is based on fifteen qualitative interviews (conducted in 2017) with sex workers in Slovenia and Croatia. Analysis show that decriminalization policy context is more conducive to professionalization of sex work which can positively impact security and job satisfaction, while the criminalization framework facilitates violence and suppresses the empowerment of sex workers. It is argued that “governing through crime” that still persists, especially in Croatia, needs to develop alternatives such as adopting the principle of “collaborative governance” where policy decisions are informed by sex workers. Analysis show that decriminalization has enabled teamwork when sex workers interconnect as a business strategy, while the criminalization framework functions to limit the agency of sex workers. While stigmatization and marginalization of sex workers largely persists in both countries, the decriminalization in Slovenia has enabled teamwork when sex workers interconnect as a business strategy.