By Lisa Cameron, Jennifer Seager, Manisha Shah

We examine the impact of criminalizing sex work, exploiting an event in which local officials unexpectedly criminalized sex work in one district in East Java, Indonesia, but not in neighboring districts. We collect data from female sex workers and their clients before and after the change. We find that criminalization increases sexually transmitted infections among female sex workers by 58 percent, measured by biological tests. This is driven by decreased condom access and use. We also find evidence that criminalization decreases earnings among women who left sex work due to criminalization, and decreases their ability to meet their children's school expenses while increasing the likelihood that children begin working to supplement household income. While criminalization has the potential to improve population STI outcomes if the market shrinks permanently, we show that five years post-criminalization the market has rebounded and the probability of STI transmission within the general population is likely to have increased.

Working Paper 27846

Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2020. 52p.

By Daniel Tolstrup, Sarah T. Roberts, Ruth Deya, George Wanje, Juma Shafi, Jocelyn R. James, Geetanjali Chander, R. Scott McClelland, Susan M. Graham

Aim

Unhealthy alcohol use is often correlated with experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV). We investigated how different types of IPV (sexual, physical, emotional, and financial) were associated with unhealthy alcohol use among women engaged in sex work in Mombasa, Kenya.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 283 HIV-negative women who engaged in sex work recruited from an ongoing cohort study. Modified Poisson analysis was used to assess associations between recent (≤ 12 months) or past (> 12 months) experiences of sexual, physical, emotional, or financial IPV and unhealthy alcohol use defined as an Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test score ≥ 8.

Results

Among 283 participants, 34.6 % had unhealthy alcohol use. Physical (62.5 %), emotional (60.4 %), and financial (66.4 %) IPV occurred more frequently than sexual IPV (43.8 %). Adjusted risk ratios (ARR) for relationships between physical and financial IPV and unhealthy alcohol use were elevated but not statistically significant. Compared to participants who had not experienced sexual IPV, those who had experienced recent or past sexual IPV had an increased risk of unhealthy alcohol use (ARR 1.56, 95 % confidence interval [1.09, 2.23] and ARR 1.48, 95 % confidence interval [0.97, 2.25], respectively).

Conclusion

Sexual IPV was associated with unhealthy alcohol use among Kenyan women who engage in sex work. Physical, emotional, and financial IPV were also highly prevalent in the study population, though not associated with unhealthy alcohol use. These findings affirm the potential benefit of providing integrated IPV and alcohol treatment services focused on recovery after experiences of IPV for this vulnerable population.

Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports, Volume 14, March 2025, 7p.

Edited by Teela Sanders Jane Scoular · Barbara G. Brents Susie Balderston · Gillian Abel

This open access book draws on an international research project, using extensive and multiple methods to explore unwanted sexual contact and violence in sex work populations. A project delivered by a large team of sex workers, peer researchers, and academics, and with practitioner input over a four-year period, the central question they explore is: how do social, legal, and judicial contexts shape the safety and well-being of people engaging in sex work? The book compares survey and interview data conducted in 2023 across four different legal environments: legalisation (Nevada, USA), criminalisation (Northern Ireland), decriminalisation (New Zealand) and partial criminalisation (UK). It explores how the interaction between legal consciousness (how people in sex work interpret law, consent, their rights, and how or whether to report), legal norms (legal theory, case rulings, legal codes) and legal practices (what police, lawyers, and judges actually do) affects unwanted contact against sex workers. This book advances understanding of the various layers regulating sexual autonomy for marginalised peoples — the specific factors that impact the negotiation, experiences, and disposition of crimes of sexual violence in different socio-legal contexts.

Cham: Springer Nature, 2025. 283p.

By Piotr Bąkowski and Martina Prpic

Drawing on diverse underlying rationales, policies on prostitution – in the EU and elsewhere – vary both in their objectives and in their strategies for achieving those objectives. These distinctions manifest in the terminology used, with 'prostitution' typically favoured by stakeholders aiming to curb or eradicate the practice, and the term 'sex work' embraced by those who view prostitution as a legitimate form of employment. Formulating policies on prostitution presents numerous challenges, including a lack of comprehensive statistical data. However, these policies often lack emphasis on the importance of evidence-based approaches – shaped instead by ideological beliefs and moral perspectives. While discussions on prostitution transcend feminism, feminist ideologies have had a particularly strong impact on policy formulation. Academic classification of prostitution policies into national models or regimes is subject to ongoing debate, with criticism directed towards the 'model approach' for oversimplifying the complexities of these policies and failing to capture regional and local variations. Traditionally, policies have been categorised into overarching ideological approaches: 'prohibitionism', which seeks to outlaw all aspects of prostitution; and 'abolitionism', which focuses on criminalising the facilitation and purchase, but not the sale of sexual services. However, there is a growing tendency towards classifying policies as falling under criminalisation (of purchase or sale), legalisation (regulation) or decriminalisation. Given the EU's lack of explicit authority to regulate prostitution, which falls within the exclusive competence of individual Member States, stakeholders both within and outside EU institutions advocate framing prostitution as a problem linked to areas where the EU does have competence; these include gender equality, violence against women, human trafficking, and the free movement of services. With the European Commission and the Council largely silent on the issue, debates predominantly occur within the European Parliament, and are marked by strong disagreements between Members subscribing to opposing approaches. Prostitution is subject to varying regulations across the EU, leading to a diverse array of national legislative and policy frameworks. Member States differ as to how they address the sale or purchase of sex, as well as the exploitation of prostitution. This variety is due not only to EU Member States' different historical and cultural backgrounds, but also to the current local state of affairs, especially as regards the situation in the field, and the priorities of the governments in power. In some Member States, there is a strong concern that prostitution constitutes violence against women. Those States usually tend to penalise buyers of sexual services. By contrast, some other Member States recognise that 'sex work' is a voluntary choice for some and tailor their legal frameworks accordingly.

Brussels: European Parliamentary Research Service, 2024. 39p.

Edited by Danilo Antonio Baltieri

This book covers some recent researches on the interface between drug misuse and crime and demonstrates that some types of violent crimes are more intimately related to alcohol and / or drug consumption. It is written for researchers, health and law professionals engaged in the evaluation, management and treatment of different types of offenders. It is organized by a number of phenomena that are known (or supposed) to link drugs and crime. This book shows that the application of punishment under the guise of deterrence, despite its ineffectiveness, is frequently preferred to a more adequate management for some types of offenders. This book provides ten manuscripts that describe different aspects of the relationship between drugs and crimes, always focusing on Brazilian reality. It shows that a partnership between specialized mental health professionals, lawyers and policy makers is urgent with respect to this subject in Brazil and other countries.

Bentham Books, 2009. 100p.

By Charlotta Holmström (Editor), Jeanett Bjønness, Mie Birk Jensen, Minna Seikkula, Hildur Fjóla Antonsdóttir, May-Len Skilbrei, Tara Søderholm, Charlotta Holmström and Ylva Grönvall

What do we know about the extent of young people’s experiences of sex for compensation in the Nordic countries? Are such experiences addressed by social initiatives and how do legal measures affect them? This report is based on country studies focusing on knowledge about sex for compensation among young people in the Nordic countries. The five country studies show how research on the extent of, and the motivations and conditions for, young people selling sex in the Nordic countries is rather scarce and that there are few social initiatives that target young people specifically. The interviews with service providers and the literature reviewed point to individual vulnerabilities related to young people’s experiences of compensational sex. In order to develop preventive measures more knowledge on structural factors related to experiences of compensational sex is needed.

Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers, 2019. 206p.

Edited by Maja Lundqvist, Angelica Simonsson and Kajsa Widegren

This book looks at what a Nordic perspective can teach us about sexual harassment. Bringing researchers, writers and policy makers into dialogue in an ambitious volume, the book moves beyond the juridical definitions of justice, coloniality, exploitation and work and offers knowledge that is implementable into policy making.

Bristol, UK: Policy Press, 2023. 259p.

By Jennifer Leigh Syvertsen  

The relationships between female sex workers and their noncommercial male partners are often assumed to be coercive and anchored in risk, dismissed as “pimp-prostitute” arrangements by researchers and the general public alike. Yet, these stereotypes unjustly erase the complexity of lives we imagine to be consumed by social suffering. Dangerous Love centers a framework of love to rethink sex workers’ intimate relationships as commitments to collective solidarity and survival in contexts of oppression. Combining epidemiological research and ethnographic fieldwork in Tijuana, Mexico, Jennifer Leigh Syvertsen examines how individuals try to find love and meaning in lives marked by structural violence, social marginalization, drug addiction, and HIV/AIDS. Linking the political economy of inequalities along the border with emotional lived experience, this book explores how intimate relationships become dangerous safe havens that fundamentally shape both partners’ well-being. Through these stories, we are urged to reimagine the socially transformative power of love to carve new pathways to health equity. “

Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2022. 190p.

By Sarah Earle and Keith Sharp

Sex in Cyberspace offers a bold and provocative, yet sensitively written, account of an under-investigated area of sociological enquiry. While there is a considerable amount of research documenting the experiences of sex workers, very little data exists on their male clientele. The first empirically-based volume on the experiences of men who pay for sex, this work presents a significant new source of data. The book is based upon an extensive study of on-line forums in which both the purchasers of sexual services and the workers themselves can exchange information and views - information which is otherwise extremely difficult to obtain. Sarah Earle and Keith Sharp argue that such sites represent a significant change in the social organization of sex work and those who seek and use the services of sex workers. Shedding new light on men's sexual identity, Sex in Cyberspace makes a major contribution to the study of sexuality.

London; New York: Routledge, 2007. 144p.

Edited by Gillian Abel, Lisa Fitzgerald and Catherine Healy

New Zealand was the first country in the world to decriminalise all sectors of sex work. Previous criminal or civil laws governing sex work and related offences were revoked in 2003 and sex workers became subject to the same controls and regulations as any other occupational group. This book provides an in-depth look at New Zealand's experience of decriminalisation. It provides first hand views and experience on this policy from the point of view of those involved in the sex industry, as well as people involved in developing, implementing, researching and reviewing the policies. Valuable comparisons pre- and post-decriminalisation are made, based on research in the sex industry prior to decriminalisation. Presenting an example of radical legal reform in an area of current policy debate this book will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduates in criminal justice, political science, sociology, gender studies and social policy as well as policy makers and activists.

Bristol, UK: Policy Press, 2010. 280p.

Edited by Gayle Letherby, Kate Williams, Philip Birch and Maureen Cain

This book brings together chapters by academics, researchers and practitioners to analyse how crimes such as sex work, domestic violence and rape and sexual assault have risen up the Government agenda in recent years. For example, the 'Paying the Price' consultation exercise on sex work in 2004, and recent legislation around sex crimes, including the Sex Offences Act (2003). This is a multi-disciplinary, social scientific, pro-feminist collection, which draws upon practice, empirical research, documentary analysis and overviews of research in the areas of sex work and sexual violence. Within Sex as Crime there are two distinct sub-sections: 'Sex for Sale' and 'Sex as Violence', but the broader and overriding link of sex as crime remains a paramount theme that spans the collection. Chapters include discussions of the impact of new regulations on street sex workers, and of street sex work on community residents, the use of the internet by men who pay for sex and men who sell it, sexual violence and identity, sex crimes against children and protecting children online and working with sex offenders. Other chapters explore reasons for such offending behaviour.

Abingdon, Oxon: Willan, 2008. 416p.

Edited by Helena Gabriel and Helen Hemblade

This volume again compiles strategies, best practices and innovative approaches, serves as a platform for, and provides practical support to anybody who wishes to prevent, investigate, prosecute, and punish VAW and gender-related killings of women and girls, i.e. femicide. The second section on cyber crimes includes an interview with Neil Walsh of UNODC, articles on online harassment of women journalists and cyber crimes against women in India, among others.

UN Studies Association (UNSA), 2019. 84p.

By Myrna Dawson, Danielle Sutton, Angelika Zecha, Ciara Boyd, Anna Johnson, and Abigail Mitchell

This report contains critical information that builds on the earlier and ongoing work on femicide in Canada and internationally by highlighting current and emerging trends and issues that require further investigation and monitoring in the coming years.

Guelph Ontario: Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, 201p. 77p.