Stigma in the sex trades

Abstract

Recent sex worker-led activism urges the public to consider that those in the sex industry enter it by choice, circumstance, or coercion, but the federal definition of human trafficking is much more broad. Assuming that all prostitution is involuntary, abolitionists are pushing for increased police intervention, without understanding that those in the sex trades often report a lack of trust in the police because of violence they have experienced. This article presents a secondary analysis of mixed-method data I assisted in collecting with 304 adults trading sex. Many of the researchers on the team had prior experience in the sex trades. This article explores how the stigma around the sex industry is damaging an already at-risk population and how therapeutic services offered to sex workers often fall short of meeting their needs. The false dichotomy presented by implying that someone trading sex is either a criminal or a victim ignores the complexities of real life for those working in an illegal industry. Misconceptions and stigma surrounding sex work lead to increases in violence and subpar access to services. It is vital that therapists interacting with this community gain a better understanding of these intricacies to create environments without judgment.

Keywords:

• Sex work
• human trafficking
• trafficking
• prostitution
• stigma

Disclosure statement

The author declares that she has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this article.

Notes

1 The terms “sex worker,” “those trading sex,” and “those in the sex industry” will be used in this paper interchangeably to describe anyone who participates in the sex industry by providing a sexual service. The term sex work does not signify the absence or presence of force, and can include work that does not include explicitly sexual contact such as dominatrixes’ and exotic dancers.

2 The rescue industry refers to any organization whose primary purpose is to rescue those currently trading sex. Many sex workers’ rights groups are highly critical of these organizations for employing a carceral approach to extracting sex workers from their circumstances, as well as their lack of consideration for those who participate in the sex industry out of financial need.

3 “Cisgender” or “cis” refers to those who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, e.g., they do not identify as trans, non-binary, or gender non-conforming.

Additional information

Funding

The work for this article was not funded by any agency. However, the original data that I conducted secondary analysis on was part of a study that was supported by an award (No. 2014-R2-CX-0007) to the Center for Court Innovation from the National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the Center for Court Innovation or the Department of Justice.

Notes on contributors

Ariel Wolf

Ariel Wolf is a former sex worker from New York City. From 2014 to 2015, she served as the community organizer for Red Umbrella Project, a sex worker led nonprofit that amplifies the voices of those in the sex trade through memoir writing, political advocacy training, and community support. She worked as a research assistant for the Center for Court Innovation on the study about the sex trades for 3 years, while she also worked on projects centered on gun violence in the neighborhood of Brownsville, community needs in Crown Heights, and procedural justice within the Manhattan criminal courts. She hopes to attend graduate school for sociology in the future.