Search Results

The Context of HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

Eileen Stillwaggon

in AIDS and the Ecology of Poverty

This chapter examines the health profile of countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union within the context of an emerging HIV epidemic. Unlike the epidemics in most of the ... More

This chapter examines the health profile of countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union within the context of an emerging HIV epidemic. Unlike the epidemics in most of the developing world, the HIV epidemics in the transition economies of Europe are apparently fueled by drug use and commercial sex work. The emphasis on the behavioral conditions, however, masks the important role played by economic crises in the collapse of public health services and the increase in human trafficking. This chapter broadens the analysis of declining health in the former socialist economies and situates the study of HIV epidemics within a biomedical analysis of disease vulnerability, rather than the reigning behavioral model.Less

Sex, Work, and Criminalization

Michelle Madden Dempsey

in Criminality at Work

This chapter provides a philosophical examination of the various dimensions of commercial sex as a form of work. It then offers perspectives on the legitimate role of the criminal law in regulating ... More

This chapter provides a philosophical examination of the various dimensions of commercial sex as a form of work. It then offers perspectives on the legitimate role of the criminal law in regulating commercial sex, based upon three limiting principles. The first is a principle of ‘minimalism’ such that the criminal law should only be used as a last resort. The second is a principle of ‘modest legal moralism’ such that the criminal law should be reserved as a legal response to public wrongs. Finally, the third principle is a ‘presumption of non-interference’ based in the liberal harm principle, so that state coercion is limited to situations of direct or indirect harm. Given these three limiting principles, the chapter asks if the criminal law has a legitimate role in regulating, restricting, or prohibiting sex work.Less

Commodified Sex

Mark D. West

in Lovesick Japan: Sex * Marriage * Romance * Law

This chapter explores three areas in which Japanese courts rule and comment on commodified sex. The first two are commercial: prostitution and other kinds of sex-for-money transactions, and ... More

This chapter explores three areas in which Japanese courts rule and comment on commodified sex. The first two are commercial: prostitution and other kinds of sex-for-money transactions, and pornography. In these two areas, in contrast with the conservatism of private sex, a wide variety of sexual services are clearly legal. Courts generally enforce the law strictly, but their commentary is inconsistent: although they never approve of commercial sex, sometimes they are unexpectedly silent, sometimes they are critical, and sometimes they are ambiguous. The chapter then examines a middle ground between commercial and private, a set of cases in which courts find monetary value in private sex that, while not founded explicitly on love, has a similar emotional or “real” component. In all three areas, courts tacitly allow or actively enforce the commodification of sex and the emotions that may accompany it.Less

Female Sex Slavery or Just Women’s Work?: Prostitution and Female Subjectivity within Anti-trafficking Discourses

Lucinda Joy Peach

in Gender and Globalization in Asia and the Pacific: Method, Practice, Theory

This chapter describes how international human rights is held out as the appropriate paradigm for empowering trafficked women and commercial sex work by otherwise ideologically opposed members of the ... More

This chapter describes how international human rights is held out as the appropriate paradigm for empowering trafficked women and commercial sex work by otherwise ideologically opposed members of the anti-sex-trafficking community and discusses why this reliance can be problematic, especially with respect to the Asia-Pacific region. Since Thailand historically has been the center for sex trafficking and the commercial sex industry in the Asia-Pacific region, and receives a significant part of the attention given to sex trafficking in the Asia-Pacific region, this chapter focuses on the responses of the anti-sex-trafficking community to the morality and appropriate legal status of commercial sex work in Thailand and of Thai women.Less

Selling bodies/selling pleasure: the social organisation of sex work in Taiwan

Mei-Hua Chen

in International approaches to prostitution: Law and policy in Europe and Asia

This chapter looks at Taiwan, where licensing of some forms of prostitution was replaced in the 1990s by increased criminalisation of some activities associated with prostitution. In particular, it ... More

This chapter looks at Taiwan, where licensing of some forms of prostitution was replaced in the 1990s by increased criminalisation of some activities associated with prostitution. In particular, it describes the historical development of prostitution in Taiwan, the legal and feminist responses to prostitution, and some projections on the future of prostitution in Taiwan. Moreover, a sketch of commercial sex in Taiwan is provided. Currently, the major regulations regarding prostitution include criminal law, the Social Order Maintenance Act (SOM), and the Act for Prevention of Child and Juvenile Involvement in Commercial Sex (PCJICS). Moreover, the debates on legalisation and decriminalisation, and their relevance, are reported. It is suggested that the government should locate prostitution in a more extensive social context in which class, gender, and sexuality are seen to intertwine in the shaping of prostitution.Less

The Politics of Prostitution and Sex Trafficking

Ko-lin Chin and James O. Finckenauer

in Selling Sex Overseas: Chinese Women and the Realities of Prostitution and Global Sex Trafficking

This chapter discusses the results of the present study. It first deals with the issue of defining and estimating the volume of sex trafficking. Among the findings of the study are that the women ... More

This chapter discusses the results of the present study. It first deals with the issue of defining and estimating the volume of sex trafficking. Among the findings of the study are that the women studied, who would be counted as victims in many of the prevailing estimates of human trafficking, are not really victims at all, if based on the narrow definition that a transnational trafficking victim is one who is forced, deceived, or coerced to go overseas for commercial sex. It calls for the need to make explicit exactly how sex trafficking victims are being defined in any discussions of the scope and magnitude of the problem and of any antitrafficking policies. The chapter then turns to the notion of symbolic politics, which refers to a policy making situation wherein perceptions trump substance; where the appearance of action, sometimes without actually doing or intending to do anything, becomes paramount in reassuring political constituents. It is argued that the dispute about prostitution and sex trafficking may have fallen into this policy trap.Less

Policing Prostitution

Mark E. Kann

in Taming Passion for the Public Good: Policing Sex in the Early Republic

This chapter focuses on the policing of prostitution in early America. Parental, political, and judicial support for public officials in their efforts to arrest prostitutes and to shut down brothels ... More

This chapter focuses on the policing of prostitution in early America. Parental, political, and judicial support for public officials in their efforts to arrest prostitutes and to shut down brothels made policing prostitution the ultimate testing ground for determining how serious, how dedicated, and how steadfast politicians were when it came to policing sex in the nation's early years. While reformers and politicians in the early Republic condemned prostitution as a moral outrage in their communities, this chapter argues that they were not fully committed to prosecuting prostitutes and to shutting down brothels. After providing an overview of the nature of the problem of prostitution, it considers critics' public condemnation of prostitution and how good girls became prostitutes. It also discusses the role of men in the growth of the commercial sex industry, along with efforts to redeem prostitutes and help them regain respectability, how quiet interests sought to ensure the viability and profitability of prostitutes and brothels, the law on prostitution, and how prostitution was tolerated by legal establishments in various states.Less

Harm, Vulnerability, and Citizenship: Constitutional Concerns in the Criminalization of Contemporary Sex Work

Vanessa Munro and Jane Scoular

in The Constitution of the Criminal Law

This chapter examines how the regulation of commercial sex markets in the UK have constituted forms of (sexual) citizenship, roles for criminal law, and bases of legitimacy for state intervention. ... More

This chapter examines how the regulation of commercial sex markets in the UK have constituted forms of (sexual) citizenship, roles for criminal law, and bases of legitimacy for state intervention. The aim is to explore the discourses through which recent state initiatives designed to respond to prostitution have been constructed and defended. The chapter first outlines the nature of historical and more recent responses to prostitution in England and Wales. It then explores the ways in which the concept of ‘harm’ — traditionally viewed as a cornerstone of liberal approaches to criminalization, both in and beyond the context of prostitution — has been supplemented by, and reconfigured through, an increasing contemporary reliance upon the associated, but in important ways distinct, concept of vulnerability. It considers potential negative implications of contemporary discourses about, and responses to, prostitution for the lives of sex workers. It suggests that recent responses to the regulation of prostitution risk creating new, or further entrenching current, axes of vulnerability. The final section explores mechanisms to promote a more reflexive and inclusive use of the concepts of harm and vulnerability in the context of sex work. Emphasizing the need for policymakers, on-the-ground enforcers, and sex workers to engage legal mechanisms that exist outside of carceral and coercive confines, it reflects on what this re-constitution might mean for the contours and possibilities of both sexual citizenship and criminal law.Less

What's anti-social about sex work? Governance through the changing representation of prostitution's incivility

Jane Scoular, Jane Pitcher, Rosie Campbell, Phil Hubbard, and Maggie O'Neill

in Regulating sex for sale: Prostitution policy reform in the UK

This chapter utilizes both critical and empirical forms of enquiry to uncover the relationship between dominant constructions of the ‘problem of prostitution’ and the associated norms that operate ... More

This chapter utilizes both critical and empirical forms of enquiry to uncover the relationship between dominant constructions of the ‘problem of prostitution’ and the associated norms that operate across various historical epochs, focusing in particular on the recent association between street sex work and anti-social behaviour. It shows that the alleged antithesis of sex work to community safety owes as much to the ideological operation of the law as to any inherent feature of commercial sex. The chapter considers the practical implications of recent reforms, which continue to follow this ideology. It outlines some of the dangers of policy frameworks and techniques of control that continue to situate sex work as antithetical to the cultivation of community safety, by reflecting on a recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation-funded study, which examined the experiences of those living and working in areas of street sex work.Less

Teens Trading Teens

Sverre Molland

in The Perfect Business? Anti-Trafficking and the Sex Trade along the Mekong

This chapter examines the ways in which recruitment is carried out in the sex industry and the implications for interpreting them in the context of trafficking definitions. More specifically, it ... More

This chapter examines the ways in which recruitment is carried out in the sex industry and the implications for interpreting them in the context of trafficking definitions. More specifically, it considers the significant differences that exist between how human trafficking is articulated through legal regimes, such as the Palermo Protocol, and how women are recruited as sex workers along the Thai–Lao border. After providing an overview of the sociocultural aspects of prostitution, the chapter discusses the role of kinship, reciprocity, and morality in women's decision to enter prostitution in Laos and Thailand. It then explores some of the important differences and similarities between commercial sex in the two countries and goes on to explain the process of recruitment in the sex industry in the context of definitions of trafficking. It also tackles the issue of victim identification and how numbers of trafficked victims are measured.Less

The Destinations

Ko-lin Chin and James O. Finckenauer

in Selling Sex Overseas: Chinese Women and the Realities of Prostitution and Global Sex Trafficking

This chapter explores the social organization of the Chinese sex business in the ten research sites studied: Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei (Taiwan), Bangkok (Thailand), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Singapore, ... More

This chapter explores the social organization of the Chinese sex business in the ten research sites studied: Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei (Taiwan), Bangkok (Thailand), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Singapore, Jakarta (Indonesia), New York (United States), Los Angeles (United States), and Shenzhen (China). It asks: What is the particular character of these overseas sites that seems to have made them magnets for women from China? What can we learn from looking closely at one prominent site (Shenzhen) in China? What is the nature of the culture of tolerance for commercial sex in each of these cities? Most importantly, is there anything about the sites' character and nature that help us to better understand how transnational human smuggling and trafficking work?Less

Out of the Shadows

Keely Stauter-Halsted

in The Devil's Chain: Prostitution and Social Control in Partitioned Poland

This chapter argues that Poland's increased demand for prostitution can be traced to its cities' demographics. Peasant emancipation followed by massive migration out of the countryside, as well as a ... More

This chapter argues that Poland's increased demand for prostitution can be traced to its cities' demographics. Peasant emancipation followed by massive migration out of the countryside, as well as a dearth of employment opportunities for unskilled women, created a dramatic upsurge in lower-class reliance on prostitution as a means of subsistence. In addition, as more and more young men in search for seasonal jobs, high culture, and education flocked to Poland, prostitutes became more aggressive in plying their trade. Each of these settings offered a steady clientele for commercial sex workers. In many respects, then, the anxiety surrounding the incidence of prostitution in Polish cities had its roots in socioeconomic causes.Less

The Sex Markets

Ko-lin Chin and James O. Finckenauer

in Selling Sex Overseas: Chinese Women and the Realities of Prostitution and Global Sex Trafficking

This chapter focuses on the modus operandi of various sex venues in the ten research sites. It classifies the sex markets into three main categories: independent, partnership, and employed. Within ... More

This chapter focuses on the modus operandi of various sex venues in the ten research sites. It classifies the sex markets into three main categories: independent, partnership, and employed. Within each main category, it further examines the various settings where the subjects were engaged in commercial sex. Women interviewed in the study typically worked in one of the following four settings: (i) on the street, (ii) restaurants and other public places, (iii) hotels, and (iv) at home. The chapter also explores the curious phenomenon wherein some of these women maintained a stable relationship with a customer by becoming a mistress, and the pros and cons in their view of having a “husband.” The findings presented so far indicate the diversity of the sex industry involving Chinese women. The oppression paradigm that defines prostitution solely as inherently exploitative and harmful to workers does not reflect this diversity.Less

Supply and Demand: Follow the Money

Ko-lin Chin and James O. Finckenauer

in Selling Sex Overseas: Chinese Women and the Realities of Prostitution and Global Sex Trafficking

This chapter examines the economics of transnational prostitution. Specifically, it explores how much, if anything, Chinese women must pay to go overseas, how long it takes them to clear their ... More

This chapter examines the economics of transnational prostitution. Specifically, it explores how much, if anything, Chinese women must pay to go overseas, how long it takes them to clear their transportation fees, how much they make from prostitution, and how they manage their money. It argues that transnational commercial sex is a business, and that the sex business is, like any other business, organized and functional in such a way that the benefits to all the participants are maximized, without certain participants having to be sacrificed or exploited. It then focuses on the customers, the sex buyers. It looks at the socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds of the men who bought sex from our subjects. It also explores the issue of abuses by clients. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the nature of buying sex.Less

The New Commercialization of Sex: From Forced Prostitution to Cybersex

in Global Sex

This chapter is concerned with the dynamics of the commercialization of sex itself, and how this reflects the larger sociopolitical order. Prostitution is only the most dramatic aspect of a sex ... More

This chapter is concerned with the dynamics of the commercialization of sex itself, and how this reflects the larger sociopolitical order. Prostitution is only the most dramatic aspect of a sex industry, which is increasingly interrelated with the global economy. In part, this is associated with the huge increase in tourism, but often young women are recruited into sex work through migration, often under conditions that are virtual enslavement. Prostitution is hardly new, and it is difficult to distinguish between an actual increase in commercial sex and an increasing openness in acknowledging it. Indeed it is possible that there is far less commercial sex in many parts of the rich world now than a century ago, though this has probably been more than compensated for by increases in other parts of the world.Less

Female Activism and the Shadow State

Keely Stauter-Halsted

in The Devil's Chain: Prostitution and Social Control in Partitioned Poland

This chapter discusses the “Alfonse Pogrom” of May 1905, which gives rise to other antiprostitution initiatives that were led by female activists. During the pogrom, throngs of angry workers stormed ... More

This chapter discusses the “Alfonse Pogrom” of May 1905, which gives rise to other antiprostitution initiatives that were led by female activists. During the pogrom, throngs of angry workers stormed the city's red-light district, attacking Jewish-run bordellos, smashing furniture, tearing hinges off doors, and shattering windows. The violence and destruction continued for two days and by the time police restored order forty people, including many owners of public houses, lay wounded or dying. This event marked a turning point in popular attitudes toward commercial sex, sparking increased public awareness of prostitution across Poland. In particular, female activists established philanthropic, charitable, as well as educational initiatives to combat commercial sex.Less

Prostitution in Contemporary Rio de Janeiro

Thaddeus Gregory Blanchette and Ana Paula da Silva

in Policing Pleasure: Sex Work, Policy, and the State in Global Perspective

This chapter examines the diversity of prostitution in contemporary Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It first provides an overview of the commercial sexual market in Rua Buenos Aires and why women in the city ... More

This chapter examines the diversity of prostitution in contemporary Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It first provides an overview of the commercial sexual market in Rua Buenos Aires and why women in the city work as prostitutes. It then considers state intervention in prostitution in Rio and goes on to highlight the importance of situating sex work in the macroeconomic context of feminized labor. It also explores the perceptions of Brazilian sex workers regarding the conditions of their labor and concludes with a discussion of how government policies designed to push commercial sex venues out of the public eye are actually intensifying the stigmatization of sex workers and forcing the sexual market to consolidate under the tighter control of third-party exploiters (namely, “pimps”) in venues farther removed from public oversight.Less