Criminalisation of clients: reproducing vulnerabilities for violence and poor health among street-based sex workers in Canada-a qualitative study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To explore how criminalisation and policing of sex buyers (clients) rather than sex workers shapes sex workers' working conditions and sexual transactions including risk of violence and HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Design

Qualitative and ethnographic study triangulated with sex work-related violence prevalence data and publicly available police statistics.

Setting

Vancouver, Canada, provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of policies that criminalise clients as the local police department adopted a sex work enforcement policy in January 2013 that prioritises sex workers' safety over arrest, while continuing to target clients.

Participants

26 cisgender and 5 transgender women who were street-based sex workers (n=31) partici

SUBMITTER: Krusi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4054637 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature