Lack of Confidence in Police Creates a “Blue Ceiling” for Sex Workers' Safety (original) (raw)
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Greenwich Social Work Review, 2020
The influence of stigma and discrimination on sex workers’ perceptions of safety is not well documented outside of Canada’s three largest provinces—Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec. This qualitative preliminary study examines sex workers’ perceptions of front-line police officer’s ability to ensure their safety. This research draws on four semi-structured in-depth interviews with female-identifying sex workers in X. Guided by an anti-oppressive social justice framework, our thematic analysis of the interviews identified three major findings. First, police and public stigma impacted sex workers’ ability to work safely, to interact with law enforcement, and to combat the interpersonal violence committed against them. Second, the need for alternative means of safety outside of police protection was expressed. Specifically, sex workers often depended on personal safety plans and the help and support of other sex workers to reduce their risk and exposure to violence. Third, existing...
Victimization in the Canadian Off-Street Sex Industry
2015
This nationwide study examined victimization in Canadian off-street commercial sex. Working in collaboration with sex workers, I recruited 109 adult women, men and transgender sex workers to take part in a self-administered survey, and I interviewed 42 sex workers. The survey focused on rates of several forms of violence, including threats, threats with weapons, assault, sexual assault, and confinement. Other forms of victimization included: theft, harassment, the refusal to use condoms, refusal to pay full price for services provided, and pressure to provide sexual activities beyond the worker's service parameters. Participants identified the perpetrators of their victimization-clients, co-workers, bosses, police, significant others-and the frequency with which they experienced victimization. In addition, I collected biographical information and data on risk management, crime reporting practices, and the real and perceived effects of criminal, family, taxation, and immigration laws. My participants described a wide range of experiences in several types of off-street commercial sex work, including adult film, exotic dance, online adult entertainment, and fetish-related erotic labour. A majority of the participants reported never experiencing violence in the course of their sex work (68% or 74 of 109 participants). While victimization occurs in the off-street sex industry, the findings demonstrate that violence is not inherent to commercial sex exchanges. Consequently, to reduce the types and frequency of violence experienced by off-street sex workers, we need to understand the individual, contextual, and structural factors that lead to varying levels of victimization in different sectors of the sex industry. In this dissertation, I outline the existing evidence on victimization in off-street sex work and then I present the evidence gained through this study. I explain the legal implications of the findings and demonstrate how this evidence contrasts with the assumptions that form the basis of criminalization policies in Canada and globally. Finally, I describe sex workers' recommendations to increase safety and reduce stigma in the sex industry. My participants challenged dominant and oppressive discourses about their work and suggested that the Canadian commercial sex industry is diverse and complex. Our policy responses ought to reflect a nuanced understanding of victimization in commercial sex.
Social Sciences, 2017
Background: The regulation of sex work is contentious in all countries, including for governments, the public, and sex workers themselves. Research shows sex workers' perspectives are ignored during policy formation in most cases. This is despite the fact they have unique insider knowledge and are directly affected by the policies that are enacted. Methods: We analyzed the accounts of a heterogeneous sample of adult sex workers (N = 218) residing in different urban cities in Canada to find out their views on current laws and their recommendations for reform. The interviews were conducted in 2012-2013 prior to the implementation of the 2014 Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act. The paper thus provides an opportunity to compare the changes desired by Canadian sex workers with changes put into law by the Act. Results: Although the interview questions did not directly ask about the current legal system, 121 expressed an opinion. Three main themes emerged from the qualitative analysis: (1) the challenges that criminalization posed to sex workers; (2) the workers' suggestions for legal reform; and (3) potential issues with legal reform. Conclusions: We discuss the contributions our qualitative findings make to the scholarship on sex work regulation and call for further research that includes sex workers' voices in decision-making regarding changes to policies affecting their lives.
Background: Building on a broader sociological discourse around policing approaches towards vulnerable populations, increasing public health evidence points to policing practices as a key health determinant, particularly among street-based sex workers. Despite the importance of policing as a structural health determinant, few studies have sought to understand the factors that underlie and shape policing practices towards sex workers. This study therefore aimed to explore the drivers for policing attitudes and practices towards street-based cisgender female sex workers. Methods: Drawing on ethnographic methods, 280 hours of observations with police patrol and 10 stakeholder interviews with senior police leadership in Baltimore City, USA were carried out to better understand the drivers for policing strategies towards cisgender female sex workers. Analysis was data- and theory-driven, drawing on the concepts of police culture and complementary criminological and sociological literatur...
PLOS ONE
Policing is an important structural determinant of HIV and other health risks faced by vulnerable populations, including people who sell sex and use drugs, though the role of routine police encounters is not well understood. Given the influence of policing on the risk environment of these groups, methods of measuring the aggregate impact of routine policing practices are urgently required. We developed and validated a novel, brief scale to measure police patrol practices (Police Practices Scale, PPS) among 250 street-based female sex workers (FSW) in Baltimore, Maryland, an urban setting with high levels of illegal drug activity. PPS items were developed from existing theory and ethnography with police and their encounters with FSW, and measured frequency of recent (past 3 months) police encounters. The 6-item scale was developed using exploratory factor analysis after examining the properties of the original 11 items. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to model the factor structure. A 2-factor model emerged, with law enforcement PPS items and police assistance PPS items loading on separate factors. Linear regression models were used to explore the relative distribution of these police encounters among FSW by modeling association with key socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics of the sample. Higher exposure to policing was observed among FSW who were homeless (β = 0.71, p = 0.037), in daily sex work (β = 1.32, p = 0.026), arrested in the past 12 months (β = 1.44, p<0.001) or injecting drugs in the past 3 months (β = 1.04, p<0.001). The PPS provides an important and novel contribution in measuring aggregate exposure to routine policing, though further validation is required. This scale could be used to evaluate the impact of policing on vulnerable populations' health outcomes, including HIV risk.
Canadian Dimension , 2020
The Bedford decision was announced on December 20, 2013 saw the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously strike down Canada’s three anti-sex work laws including laws prohibiting brothels, living on the avails of prostitution, and communicating in public with clients. Sex worker advocates argued that Canada’s anti-sex work laws were unconstitutional, in conflict with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and put the lives of sex workers in great danger. In June 2014, the Conservative government introduced Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, which criminalizes clients, advertising for sex work, and whoever helps or works with sex workers. While some feminists have applauded these harsher laws against prostitution, sex workers and their allies continue to struggle for justice. In this roundtable, we go beyond legal arguments to see who is benefiting from these laws. We also link sex workers’ issues to race and sexuality, police brutality, and prison abolition, bringing different movements together and discussing what should be done.
2019
Background: Building on a broader sociological discourse around policing approaches towards vulnerable populations, increasing public health evidence points to policing practices as a key health determinant, particularly among street-based sex workers. Despite the importance of policing as a structural health determinant, few studies have sought to understand the factors that underlie and shape policing practices towards sex workers. This study therefore aimed to explore the drivers for policing attitudes and practices towards street-based cisgender female sex workers. Methods: Drawing on ethnographic methods, 280 hours of observations with police patrol and 10 stakeholder interviews with senior police leadership in Baltimore City, USA were carried out to better understand the drivers for policing strategies towards cisgender female sex workers. Analysis was data- and theory-driven, drawing on the concepts of police culture and complementary criminological and sociological literatur...
2019 Dignity Journal- Sex Trafficking Through the Eyes of a Police Officer-Researcher.pdf
Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence, 2019
This article is a description of the research I conducted on the sex industry in Manitoba, Canada, from 2016-2017. I interviewed 61 people, of which six were political leaders, 23 were social workers, 24 were police officers, and eight were sex industry survivors. About half of the practitioners I interviewed are also sex industry survivors. As a veteran police officer with 35 years of law enforcement experience, my research journey was unique from conducting the interviews to reporting my findings. These are some of my experiences and the lessons I learned about gathering and sharing the stories of sex industry survivors while serving as a police officer.
“We Are Not Criminals”: Sex Work Clients in Canada and the Constitution of Risk Knowledge
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit et Société, 2018
While Canada has long criminalized aspects of sex work, the specific act of purchasing sexual services was not against the law per se. In 2014, however, the then Conservative government implemented new legislation targeting sex work clients. Given the criminalization and persistent stigmatization of their activities, assessing clients’ changing actions, perceptions, and knowledge of the new legislation is challenging. We thus turned to a major Canadian online sex work review forum to examine postings on forum threads. This paper examines the risk knowledge practices in which clients engage as they try to make sense of the modified legal regime and avoid new legal risks. Our findings illuminate clients’ varied understandings of their own criminalization.