Banwell, Stacy ORCID: 0000-0001-7395-2617 "Decriminalisation helps all of us and criminalisation harms all of us": The subjective viewpoints of sex workers on the current proposals to reform prostitution laws in the UK. In: British Society of Criminology - Crime, Justice, Welfare: Can the Metropole Listen?, 10-12 July 2014, Liverpool, UK. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

In a recent cross-party parliamentary report a proposal was put forward to reform prostitution laws in the UK. This report - which follows the Nordic model – will criminalize those who use prostitutes: ‘pimps’ and ‘punters’. Women, who are currently prosecuted for soliciting, will be given anti-social behavior orders. The response has been mixed, reflecting long-standing debates about this topic. The Oppression paradigm regards prostitution as a form of violence against women and the expression of patriarchal gender relations and male domination. In contrast, the empowerment paradigm, preferring to use the phrase ‘sex worker’, rejects the notion that sex work is inherently exploitative. Rather, providing sexual services should be regarded as a legitimate form of labor that can be potentially subversive and empowering. Drawing upon a polymorphous approach, this research acknowledges that this binary understanding of prostitution is reductive: sex work cannot be reduced to either one perspective (Weitzer, 2010). Women’s experiences are multiple and diverse. Using Goffman’s work on stigma, and focusing on issues relating to safety, this qualitative study (a work in progress) involves interviews with women who sell sex in the UK to gain their views on the Government proposal to reform prostitution laws in the UK.

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Sex workers; prostitution laws
Pre-2014 Departments:	School of Humanities & Social Sciences > Department of Law & Criminology
Related URLs:	Organisation
Last Modified:	14 Oct 2016 09:38
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/15141

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