Vulnerability Of Sex Workers Research Articles

Criminality of Prostitution Abuse

The article is based on an empirical socio-legal analysis of criminal court case ‎files concerning prostitution abuse in Slovenia. Based on the theoretical framework developed by Petra Östergren, the authors analyse whether the Slovenian ‎regulatory system on sex work is repressive, restrictive or integrative. The paper explores how the courts define “abuse” and “exploitation” of prostitution, ‎how the participation of third parties in sex work activities is dealt with by ‎the courts, how the vulnerability of sex workers is treated, and how the existence of consent is considered before the courts. The paper examines the files ‎for moral arguments, stereotyping, and stigmatisation, as well as references to ‎occupational risks in the field of sex work and sex workers’ rights. In the conclusions the authors argue that in Slovenia the characteristics of the restrictive ‎model, with elements of both repressive and integrative, prevail.

Laughing in the Face of the Law: Humour as a Thermostat Activating Social Change for Porn Workers

The vulnerability of sex workers in the porn industry is a heated debate within feminism. The UK 2014 Audiovisual Media Services Regulations and 2017 Digital Economy Act, which burden the production of online pornography, provoked sex workers’ Face-Sitting and Kink Olympixxx protests. This paper investigates how throughout these protests, humour communicates sex workers’ discomfort on this legislation. Arguing that humour is a thermostat that senses public uneasiness and slowly activates social change, this paper examines the two protests highlighting how sex workers employed unrefined bawdy humour to unearth their neglected rights and move towards more adequate rights.

We are human beings: The social support to commercial sex workers during COVID-19 in the criminalised setting at uMhlathuze Local Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

ABSTRACT The vulnerability of sex workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their real-life experiences, are discussed in this paper. The study uses the humanitarianism theory as a lens to understand why sex workers are excluded from social safety programmes, and why they should receive government and non-governmental organisation (NGO) aid. To comprehend the lived experiences of sex workers, in their own words, the researchers adopted a qualitative research approach. A total of 11 commercial sex workers, all of whom were female and operated in uMhlathuze’s towns areas, were interviewed. The study found that the pandemic took away the means of generating income to secure the livelihoods of commercial sex workers. Social support from the government and NGOs was available, but sex workers did not have access to it because their activity fell outside the legal beneficiary framework, which is contrary to humanitarian principles, in which every individual deserves assistance during difficult times. The criminalisation of commercial sex work has worsened poverty and the socioeconomic desperation during the pandemic. The study recommends that commercial sex be decriminalised and that safety programmes be implemented to restore the dignity of sex workers and secure their livelihoods.

“Very little but a lot.” Solidarity within the sex workers' community in Poland during the COVID‐19 pandemic

AbstractThis article is an account of the struggle of the sex workers' community in Poland during the COVID‐19 pandemic. It unfolds as a dialog between three members of Sex Work Polska, a sex worker‐led activist and advocacy collective in Poland. While positioned as researchers, activists, and/or sex workers, we transgress the boundaries between academia and activism, permitting a grassroots insight into the crisis situation of the sex workers' community. This method enables us to present the embodied experience of community solidarity in crisis. We recall our thoughts and emotions from the moment of lockdown and our response to the pandemic by organizing an Emergency Fund to support sex workers. We reflect on how the pandemic evoked solidarity, the conditionality of institutionalized support, and our resistance to it. In capturing our experiences, we also show how the pandemic exposed the pre‐existing vulnerabilities of sex workers, their invisibility as a community in crisis, and their overvisibility as subjects of punitive measures. Our collective work and discussion allowed for engagement in feminist knowledge production, but also constituted a community care process.

Sex Work Regulation, Anti-trafficking Policy, and Their Effects on the Labour Rights of Sex Workers in Germany

This article provides an analysis of regulatory approaches to sex work, the status of sex workers’ labour rights, and the conflation of sex work and human trafficking, with reference to the example of Germany. It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Germany’s approach to the regulation of prostitution and the ways it has been influenced by international debates challenging the status of sex work as work, as well as concerns about human trafficking. It analyses the Prostitution Act 2002 (ProstG), and the Prostitute Protection Act 2017 (ProstSchG), and their effects on the rights and working conditions of sex workers, as well as their aim of improving the safety of vulnerable sex workers and reducing the level of human trafficking and exploitation in the German sex industry. In particular, the article considers the impact of this legislation on those working in the sex industry, especially migrant women and those at risk of exploitation. Through its analysis of the existing approach to sex work in Germany, the direction of reform and the absence of a labour-rights approach to the regulation of sex work and the prevention of trafficking, the article highlights the fact that even a country that is -in principle - willing to accept sex work as work, has failed to grant labour rights to sex workers. The article argues that the Prostitute Protection Act has in some ways increased the vulnerability of sex workers rather than promoting their safety. In addition, it is argued that legislators should consider labour protection and labour rights as an alternative means of protecting sex workers, rather than (re)criminalizing aspects of sex work in the name of ‘protecting’ women by means of prohibition or control. Adopting a labour-rights approach rather than paternalistic approach would have the potential to bring about far-reaching reform of the relevant legislation both in Germany and internationally. Sex Work, Human Trafficking, Labour Rights, Criminalization, Prostitution, Sex Work as Work

Rethinking the Boundaries: Towards a Butlerian Ethics of Vulnerability in Sex Trafficking Debates

Feminist debates on sex trafficking have become entrenched and polarised, with abolitionists producing images of helpless abused victims, while sex worker advocates work hard to achieve some recognition of the agency of migrant sex workers. This article explores constructions of embodiment, subjectivity and agency in the debate, showing how abolitionist views, in spite of their efforts to challenge liberal pro-sex perspectives, rely on a familiar vision of the body as a singular, bounded and sovereign entity whose borders must be secured against invasion. The result is a vision in which victimisation is taken to epistemically compromise the subjectivities of sex workers, forcing them and their advocates to argue for recognition of their agency according to familiar liberal models of consent in order to be able to enter the debate. Drawing on the recent work of Judith Butler on consent and vulnerability, this article argues that what is needed is a rethinking of bodily ontology so that the vulnerability of sex workers is not opposed to their agency, but rather seen as an inevitable aspect of embodied sociality, constituting a call to ethical engagement and a recognition of the inequitable global distributions of precarity that produce sex trafficking as part of contemporary geopolitics. From this perspective, the alignment between radical feminist efforts to secure women's bodily borders and global efforts to secure national borders no longer appears as coincidence.

P3.305 Vulnerability of Sex Workers (SWs) and Their Particular Needs For HIV/STI Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment: BORDERNETwork Research Findings and Recommendations For Comprehensive Sexual Health Response

BackgroundProstitution is a frequent and often controversial discussion topic at expert and political levels in Europe. Still evidence-based knowledge of sex work in general, and the situation of the SWs...

Strategizing Systematic HIV Intervention: A Case Study

For any intervention in public health, one needs to gather the evidence on the basis of which systematic plans and strategies can be built. In Rajasthan, for HIV and AIDS prevention, care and support activities apex organisation is Rajasthan State AIDS Control Society (RSACS). IIHMR, Jaipur, provided technical support to RSACS in targeted interventions, capacity building, strategic planning and public private partnership. In systematising the intervention with the sex workers living in district Sawai Madhopur, a situational analysis was carried out. The district is internationally known tourist place in Rajasthan and has remarkable mobility pattern among sex workers. It was found that in the district, the risk and vulnerabilities of sex workers has increased because of this mobility and illiteracy. It was reported that majority of sex workers in Sawai Madhopur knew that AIDS is not curable and the rest had either no idea or they thought AIDS could be cured. Amongst those who reported that they had no idea about the cure of HIV/AIDS, most of them were active sex workers. These active sex workers, hence, due to lack of awareness about STI, HIV and AIDS, were very vulnerable against HIV infection. Majority of the sex workers reported that they were not willing to use female condoms. Nearly half of the sex workers in Sawai Madhopur joined this profession as tradition of their families and caste. For HIV prevention and BCC, the better strategy is to use such IEC materials which contains pictures on various issues like condom negotiation, managing violence, sex workers collectives, correct and consistent use of condoms, STI, RTI, HIV and AIDS. Efforts should also be made to integrate the children from sex workers family into formal education process and, simultaneously, a little older children should be imparted skills in alternative trainings for joining other acceptable means of earning livelihood.

Condoms as evidence of prostitution in the United States and the criminalization of sex work

The vulnerability of sex workers and transgender women to HIV infection is a result of many factors including stigma, social and physical isolation, economic deprivation, and legal and policy environments that criminalize their behaviour. Recent systematic reviews have found high HIV prevalence among both populations, including an 11.8% pooled HIV prevalence among female sex workers in 50 countries and a 19.1% HIV prevalence among male-tofemale transgender women in 15 countries worldwide. Studies in the United States have also documented high HIV prevalence among people who report transactional sex and transgender populations. (Published: 24 May 2013) Citation: Wurth MH et al. Journal of the International AIDS Society 2013, 16:18626 http://www.jiasociety.org/index.php/jias/article/view/18626 | http://dx.doi.org/10.7448/IAS.16.1.18626

Client Retention and Health Among Sex Workers in Nairobi, Kenya

It is still a small body of research that directly addresses female sex workers' relationships with their regular commercial male partners. I used ethnographic data from Nairobi, Kenya to interrogate motivations and strategies for recruiting and retaining regular male clients among female sex workers (FSWs). Regular commercial male partners, popularly called customer care, wera or wesh by Nairobi's FSWs, played diverse roles in their lives. Client retention enabled sex workers to manage the risk of reduced marriage prospects, guaranteed them steady work, livelihoods, and incomes, and prevented their victimization and harassment. To retain clients, sex workers obliged them a great deal, pretended they had quit prostitution, and sometimes resorted to magical practices. However, these strategies were also accompanied by risks that reinforced the vulnerability of sex workers. Lack of critical attention to sex workers' practices for managing perceived risks in their particular type of work may hamper current programmatic efforts to make their job safer.

P1-S2.13 The impact of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games on sex work patterns, safety and sex worker vulnerability to HIV and sexually transmitted infections

BackgroundLarge-scale international sports events such as the 2010 Winter Olympics Games in Vancouver, Canada can have significant impacts on the vulnerability of sex workers (SWs) to HIV and sexually transmitted...