Street Sex Workers Research Articles

Multiple Barriers to Utilization of Drug Abuse Treatment by Female Street Sex Workers in Nigeria

ABSTRACTThis study investigates barriers to utilization of drug abuse treatment by female street sex workers in Nigeria. Twenty-seven (n = 27) street sex workers were recruited through venue-based snow-ball sampling. In-depth, individual interviews were conducted, and transcripts were subjected to thematic, inductive and data-driven analysis. Sex workers use psychoactive drugs to manage the hazards of street sex work, including guilt, stigma, and violence. While a few denied drug-related harms, doubted treatment efficacy and evinced self-efficacy in managing drug problems, the majority of sex workers recognized drug-related harms and the need for treatment. Inadequate information on services, financial and time cost of treatment, fear of police arrest, stigma and lack of male partner support posed as barriers to drug abuse treatment. Social and structural barriers to treatment utilization violate sex workers’ rights to health and exacerbate drug-related harms. Findings highlight the need for changes in policy and societal perceptions of sex work, and multi-level, rights-based interventions to remove barriers to drug abuse treatment for female street sex workers.

Borrowing Privilege: Status Maneuvering among Marginalized Men

Research shows people confront social marginalization through work, yet this scholarship largely ignores people working in illicit markets. We address this gap by investigating how and to what end men in street prostitution “borrow” privilege from their more structurally advantaged clients. Drawing from interviews with men of color in street sex work, we show how they “status maneuver” to offset stigmatized identities tied to prostitution and to construct a masculinity that offers a greater sense of social worth within constrained circumstances. These men ironically rely on status differences between themselves and their white, wealthy men clients to undermine their own oppression and to create possibilities for momentary associations with hegemonic masculine privilege. This research shows how barriers between the powerful and powerless are permeable, and how social hierarchies serve as resources to cope with the inequitable conditions and stigma under which some people live and work.

Experience of violence among street prostitutes: a qualitative study in Shiraz, Iran.

:Background:Female Sex workers (FSWs) are a marginalized group. Although some studies have shown various types of violence against sex workers, it is a subject which needs more in-depth knowledge.Methods:This is a conventional content study conducted on 18 street sex workers in Shiraz, Iran. Results:The present study observed that sex workers had extensive experience in five forms of violence: physical, barbaric, psychological, sexual, deception and robbery. Moreover, violence was deep-rooted in their previous experiences prior to becoming a prostitute, leading to the formation of yet another type of violence, called hidden slavery with male or female pimps.Conclusions:To improve the general health of this group, it is recommended that they be supported by social institutions and be provided with psychological consultations.

Drug use in street sex workers (DUSSK) study protocol: a feasibility and acceptability study of a complex intervention to reduce illicit drug use in drug-dependent female street sex workers

IntroductionPoor health of sex workers continues to be a source of international concern. Sex work is frequently linked with problematic drug use and drug-dependent sex workers typically work on the...

“People like us”: spatialised notions of health, stigma, power and subjectivity among women in street sex work

Most spatially-oriented studies about health, safety and service provision among women in street sex work have taken place in large urban cities and document how the socio-legal and moral surveillance of geographical spaces constrain their daily movements and compromise their ability to care for themselves. Designed to contribute new knowledge about the broader socio-cultural and environmental landscape of sex work in smaller urban centres, we conducted qualitative interviews and social mapping activities with thirty-three women working in a medium-sized Canadian city. Our findings demonstrate a socio-spatial convergence regarding service provision, violence, and stigma, which is common in sex trading spaces that double as service landscapes for poor populations. Women in this study employ unique agential strategies to navigate these competing forces, many of which draw upon the multivalent uses of different urban spaces to optimise service access, reduce the propensity for violence, and manage their health with dignity. Their use of the spatialised term ‘everywhere’ as an idiom of distress regarding issues of power, agency and their desire to take part in wider civic discourse are also explored. These data contribute new insights about spatialised notions of health, stigma, agency, and subjectivity among women in sex work and how they manage ‘risky’ environments.

Affective Organizing: Collectivizing Informal Sex Workers in an Intimate Union

As informal, self-employed workers, street sex workers are frequently understood as a “hard-to-organize” group. As they are not legally registered or protected, they are excluded from institutional arrangements for unionization and collective bargaining and from access to both labor and social protections, due to the lack of recognition of the work they undertake. Despite this, sex workers in Argentina have been successful in generating solidarity and class consciousness as a basis for collective action. To do so, we argue that AMMAR (Asociación de Mujeres Meretrices de Argentina), the Argentinean sex workers’ union, has used a strategy of “affective organizing.” Drawing on a participatory project developed with and involving sex worker activists from AMMAR, the article examines 108 interviews, questionnaires, and participant observations. Overall, we argue for greater attention to be paid by scholars working in the fields of the sociology of work and employment and industrial relations, attention to emotion and affect as their foundational role in labor organizing and collective action. Overall, it is posited that the practices of AMMAR in one of the most stigmatized sectors of the labor market hold invaluable lessons for locating relationality and care at the center, rather than the margins, of labor movements as a basis for the wider transformation of social relations in capitalism.

The Effect of Violence and Intersecting Structural Inequities on High Rates of Food Insecurity among Marginalized Sex Workers in a Canadian Setting.

Food security is both a basic human right and a public health necessity. Despite known gendered contexts of food insecurity, there is a dearth of research on prevalence and factors driving increased food insecurity for sex workers in a criminalized setting. The current study longitudinally examines the prevalence and structural and individual factors associated with increased odds of food insecurity among street and off-street sex workers in a Canadian urban setting. Prospective analyses drew on data from a community-based longitudinal cohort of cis and trans women in street and off-street sex work in An Evaluation of Sex Workers Health Access (2010-2014). The primary outcome was a time-updated measure of food insecurity, using the Radimer-Cornell scale. We used bivariable and multivariable logistic regression using generalized estimating equations to prospectively model correlates of food insecurity over a five-year period. Of 761 cis and trans women sex workers, 72.4% (n = 551) were food insecure over the study period. Over a third (35.2%, n = 268) identified as Indigenous and a quarter, 25.6% (n = 195) were of a gender/sexual minority. Within the 11.0% (n = 84) of women living with HIV, 96.4% (n = 81) were food insecure over the follow-up period. In multivariable analysis, Indigenous ancestry (AOR = 1.58 [95% CI 1.18, 2.10]), unstable housing (AOR = 1.27 [95% CI 1.03, 1.57]), stimulant use (AOR = 1.97 [95% CI 1.57, 2.45]), heroin use (AOR = 1.72 [95% CI 1.36, 2.19]), mental health diagnosis (AOR = 2.38 [95% CI 1.85, 3.05]), recent violence (AOR = 1.54 [95% CI 1.24, 1.91]), means of food access: reliant on food services only vs. self-sufficient (AOR = 1.78 [95% CI 1.38, 2.29]), and means of food access: both vs. self-sufficient (AOR = 2.29 [95% CI 1.84, 2.86]) were associated with food insecurity. In separate multivariable models, both recent and lifetime physical and/or sexual violence remained independently associated with food insecurity (AOR 1.54 [95% CI 1.24, 1.91]; AOR 4.62 [95% CI 2.99, 7.14], respectively). Almost all study participants living with HIV reported being food insecure. These intersecting risks demonstrate the negative impacts associated with living with HIV, experiencing food insecurity and/or physical or sexual violence. This study also highlights the potential for interventions that address structural inequities (e.g., decriminalizing sex work) to have crosscutting impacts to reduce barriers to accessing necessities (including food) or health and social services (e.g., methadone; primary care).

Treading water: Street sex workers negotiating frantic presents and speculative futures in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Structural conditions shape the temporalities that govern the lives of street sex workers operating in Châu Đốc, a small town in Southern Vietnam. These women live each day as they come and make decisions based on quick returns and the management of daily needs, prioritizing short-term solutions over planning for the future. The ethnographic study of the multiple temporalities that govern street sex work, family care, gambling and debt-juggling practices shows that these women live in a frantic present-oriented temporality that is filled with pressing tasks and routines. This leads to an uncertain future that engenders various forms of hopeful and speculative behaviour, but precludes systematic planning. As a result, these women are treading water: putting effort into keep themselves afloat but never furthering their status and lives or catching up with the currents of development and progress. Overall, this article argues that this day-to-day lifestyle goes hand in hand with the linear and future-oriented time of capitalism and wage-labour that has infiltrated everyday life in post-reform Vietnam.

Violent and Nonviolent Crimes Against Sex Workers: The Influence of the Sex Market on Reporting Practices in the United Kingdom.

Previous research has shown that sex workers experience extremely high rates of victimization but are often reluctant to report their experiences to the police. This article explores how the markets in which sex workers operate in the United Kingdom impact upon the violent and nonviolent crimes they report to a national support organization and their willingness to report victimization to the police. We use a secondary quantitative data analysis of 2,056 crime reports submitted to the U.K. National Ugly Mugs (NUM) scheme between 2012 and 2016. The findings indicate that although violence is the most common crime type reported to NUM, sex workers operating in different markets report varying relative proportions of different types of victimization. We also argue that there is some variation in the level of willingness to share reports with the police across the different sex markets, even when the types of crime, presence of violence, and other variables are taken into account. Our finding that street sex workers are most likely to report victimization directly to the police challenges previously held assumptions that criminalization is the key factor preventing sex workers from engaging with the police.

Serial Killers & Their Easy Prey

How do serial killers get away with murder? For years, law enforcement, true crime writers, and journalists have portrayed serial killers as criminal masterminds. But, a closer look at serial homicide cases reveals a different story: Serial killers are opportunists who target marginalized and vulnerable populations. Specifically, they target street sex workers, who become “easy prey” because of their precarious legal status.

“A Cathartic Moment in a Man’s Life”: Homosociality and Gendered Fun on thePuttan Tour

Rarely addressed in academic scholarship, the puttan tour is a well-known form of entertainment in Italy where young men drive around in small groups with the aim of spotting street sex workers. On some occasions, the participants will approach the sex workers to strike up a conversation. On others, they will shout out insults from their car then drive away. This article aims to advance a detailed analysis of this underexplored cultural practice drawing on a diverse body of scholarship exploring the intersection of masculinity, leisure, and homosociality. By analyzing stories of puttan tours gathered mostly online, including written accounts and YouTube videos, our aim is to explore the appeal of the puttan tour through an analysis of how homosociality, humor, and laughter operate in this example of gendered fun. To this end, we look at the multiple and often equivocal meanings of this homosocial male-bonding ritual, its emotional and affective dynamics, and the ways in which it reproduces structures of inequality while normalizing violence against sex workers.

‘It’s just more, you know, natural’: The perceptions of men who buy sex in an emerging street sex market

Despite recognition that a greater understanding of men who buy sex in illicit street sex markets is required for a holistic view of street sex work, research focused on this group remains scarce. The authors of this article recognize buyers of illicit sex as key players in the socio-spatial construction of street sex markets, and consider their inclusion in research vital to a holistic understanding of a street sex market. The article discusses key findings from interviews conducted with nine men who buy sex from female street sex workers as part of a broader ethnography of street sex work in Dandenong, Victoria. Observations provide insight into the nature of these men’s connection to the women they buy sex from, their perceptions of their use of commercial sex, and their preference for buying sex in this street sex market instead of other types of commercial sex. These observations contribute to our understanding of the value of the sexual capital clients attach to this street sex market and the sex they buy within it.

Registered Dietitian Nutritionists in Substance Use Disorder Treatment Centers

Registered Dietitian Nutritionists in Substance Use Disorder Treatment Centers

Clients Bargaining for Having Unprotected Sex with Female Prostitutes

Background: The trade of prostitution is familiar with unprotected sex, which is the main cause of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), especially human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Underground sexual relationship includes bargaining (having sexual intercourse with or without a condom) between prostitutes and their clients. Qualitative studies are rare on this subject. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the quality of bargaining between prostitutes and their clients requesting for unprotected sex, according to the experiences of street Female Sex Workers (FSWs). Patients and Methods: This was a conventional content analysis to explore the themes based on 18 FSWs referral to a Drop-In Centre (DIC) of Shiraz, Iran. Transcribed data was analysed by identifying condensed meaning units, subthemes, and themes. Results: The study showed that all participants were aware of risks of unprotected sex and emphasized the use of condoms in their sexual relationships. Nevertheless, most clients had requested unprotected sex and thus each sex plan was a bargaining scenario between prostitutes and clients. Prostitute bargaining level for using a condom by the client was negatively influenced by price for each session, while factors such as having a pimp, older age of the prostitute, health literacy, and craving of the client had a positive effect on this balance of power. An important point is that the prostitutes’ resistance was related to their awareness of STDs, which effects the bargaining level for protected sex. Conclusions: Since, in the current setting, prostitution is an underground trade, it was not possible to have full access to all the dimensions of this subject. Thus, it seems that gaining awareness could play a pivotal role in the promotion of the bargaining power and minimization of related hazards. In addition, the context of the study needs customized models based on Islamic Shari’a for solving the problem.

“I Wanted to Feel Like a Man Again”: Hegemonic Masculinity in Relation to the Purchase of Street-Level Sex

This paper examines the narratives of men who purchase sex from street level providers in a mid-sized city in Western Canada. We explore what men’s stories tell us about how masculinity is constructed in relation to street sex work. These men narrated their purchase of sex as attempts to exercise or lay claim to male power, privilege, and authority; at the same time, research reveals how tenuous this arrangement is for men. Study participants drew on conventional heterosexual masculine scripts to rationalize their actions and behaviors. Their stories reveal that their purchase of street-level sex is motivated by a sense of failure to successfully align with classed and gendered norms of hegemonic masculinity in which the purchase of sex was an attempt to “feel like a man again”. In this paper we move beyond the notion that static “types” of men purchase sex, highlighting instead that sex work customers are complex social actors with multifaceted reasons for purchasing sex but that are nonetheless inseparable from socially valorized forms of masculine comportment. We conclude that hegemonic masculinity is not only injurious to some men, but also to the sex workers on whom it is enacted.

‘Lived bodies’ and the neoliberal city – a case study of vulnerability in London

This article explores the ‘more-than-work’ aspects of the lives of vulnerable women who street-sex work. Particularly, we are interested in the differences between the women’s experiences, within the broader context of power structures as manifested in neoliberal cities. Few studies have explored this aspect of street-sex workers’ lives and theorisations of the co-creation of environments tend to elide the experiences of the most vulnerable people. Specifically, we explore the relationships that these women have with two environments: the quotidian (where they undertake routine everyday activities), and the gentrified (relating to changes in the spaces in which they live and work). We find that their experiences are extremely local, and heavily contingent on the services made available to them (or not) by the statutory and third sectors, and the emotional contacts they make, particularly in third sector support services. This challenges some of the literature which suggests a separation of ‘home’ and ‘work’, and which finds close associations between women who street-sex work. While places designed by the third sector are more responsive to these women, they are also more vulnerable to closure through lack of funding. This contributes to a significant degree of ontological non-linearity and ontological insecurity in these women’s lives.

Bodies and desires on the internet: An approach to trans women sex workers’ websites

Most literature on prostitution centres exclusively on street and female sex workers. Considering the lack of inclusion of trans sex workers within research agendas and public policies, in this article I analyse websites where trans women offer their services in Portugal and the UK. I examine the way trans women escorts present themselves to potential clients through detailed descriptions of their bodies’ sizes, physical attributes, personal characteristics and lovemaking skills, and how they negotiate gender, nationality, race, ethnicity and sexuality in relation to the cultural and socio-economic demands of the market. An intersectional framework provides the critical perspective from which to consider how certain trans narratives are displayed through these online advertisements while decentring hegemonic notions (mainly, white and middle class) of representing trans experiences. This exploratory research aims to better understand the online trans sex industry as a place of empowerment where ‘beautiful’ trans escorts can strategically position themselves in order to succeed in a competitive market and, simultaneously, lay claim for a certain degree of (finite) recognition.

Sex workers and public health: intersections, vulnerabilities and resistance

Since the 19th century with syphilis and most recently with AIDS, sex workers have been seen as a means for disease transmission and a public health problem that requires intervention. However, researchers have shown that in Western countries, HIV rates in people involved in commercial sex are low, except for in specific groups, such as intravenous drug users. Moreover, the risks faced by sex workers due to stigmatization and other forms of violence have been put into evidence. Based on an urban ethnography with street sex workers carried out in Porto (Portugal), between 2004 and 2005, this article discusses the social, labor, and legal vulnerabilities affecting people involved in commercial sex and how these interfere with their health. Focus is placed on the strategies used by sex workers to minimize health risks and their discourses of resistance in fighting vulnerabilities.

‘You beat ‘em, we feed ‘em!’: Enfolding laughter and pride

In this article I use the affective politics of laughter as an entry point into broadening understandings of the political potentiality of the everyday geographies of pride, centralizing in my analysis a safe house for women involved in street level sex work. I look to the ways in which the encounters between laughter and pride in this space expose its inextricability from bodily vitality and survival, feelings of collective belonging, and structural realities and inequalities. Using Gilles Deleuze's concept of the fold to structure my analysis, I use laughter as a lens to advance an understanding of pride that emphasizes its entanglement with collective affect and its immanent multiplicity as it is embodied through everyday encounters with difference. I emphasize the affective component of laughter's foldings as a means to think through the way vibrational pulls, pushes, tenors and tones work to move bodies toward or away from collectives, spaces, politics, ideas, relationships and ways of living. Exploring pride through the affective politics of laughter is a way to advance understandings of pride as emerging always in relation to collectives, histories, and spaces, rather than as an individual trait. Such a reframing has implications for understanding affective politics as a resource for social justice projects.

Identifying possible reasons why female street sex workers have poor drug treatment outcomes: a qualitative study

AimsTo explore street sex workers (SSWs) views and experiences of drug treatment, in order to understand why this population tend to experience poor drug treatment outcomes.DesignIn-depth interviews.SettingBristol, UK.Participants24 current and...