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Sexual services and goods are regularly, and legally, offered in all Western countries. Although they are shunned through the age old maxims of in pari causa turpitudinis and nemo auditur, there is a growing tendency, both in legislation and case law, to recognize the effects of these contracts. The book analyzes the policies underlying the regulation of sexual services and goods and indicates some important conflicts: self-determination against human dignity, refusal of commodification of women's bodies against protection of sex workers, regulatory approach against prohibition. The analysis touches sensitive issues such as zoning, sexual tourism, private sexual practices, consumers of sex enhancers. The volume takes a legal-realistic approach trying to see the private law aspects of what was considered only as 'infamous commerce.'

Sex workers are at disproportionate risk of violence and sexual and emotional ill health, harms that have been linked to the criminalisation of sex work. We synthesised evidence on the extent to which sex work laws and policing practices affect sex workers' safety, health, and access to services, and the pathways through which these effects occur. We searched bibliographic databases between 1 January 1990 and 9 May 2018 for qualitative and quantitative research involving sex workers of all genders and terms relating to legislation, police, and health. We operationalised categories of lawful and unlawful police repression of sex workers or their clients, including criminal and administrative penalties. We included quantitative studies that measured associations between policing and outcomes of violence, health, and access to services, and qualitative studies that explored related pathways. We conducted a meta-analysis to estimate the average effect of experiencing sexual/physical violence, HIV or sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and condomless sex, among individuals exposed to repressive policing compared to those unexposed. Qualitative studies were synthesised iteratively, inductively, and thematically. We reviewed 40 quantitative and 94 qualitative studies. Repressive policing of sex workers was associated with increased risk of sexual/physical violence from clients or other parties (odds ratio [OR] 2.99, 95% CI 1.96-4.57), HIV/STI (OR 1.87, 95% CI 1.60-2.19), and condomless sex (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.03-1.94). The qualitative synthesis identified diverse forms of police violence and abuses of power, including arbitrary arrest, bribery and extortion, physical and sexual violence, failure to provide access to justice, and forced HIV testing. It showed that in contexts of criminalisation, the threat and enactment of police harassment and arrest of sex workers or their clients displaced sex workers into isolated work locations, disrupting peer support networks and service access, and limiting risk reduction opportunities. It discouraged sex workers from carrying condoms and exacerbated existing inequalities experienced by transgender, migrant, and drug-using sex workers. Evidence from decriminalised settings suggests that sex workers in these settings have greater negotiating power with clients and better access to justice. Quantitative findings were limited by high heterogeneity in the meta-analysis for some outcomes and insufficient data to conduct meta-analyses for others, as well as variable sample size and study quality. Few studies reported whether arrest was related to sex work or another offence, limiting our ability to assess the associations between sex work criminalisation and outcomes relative to other penalties or abuses of police power, and all studies were observational, prohibiting any causal inference. Few studies included trans- and cisgender male sex workers, and little evidence related to emotional health and access to healthcare beyond HIV/STI testing. Together, the qualitative and quantitative evidence demonstrate the extensive harms associated with criminalisation of sex work, including laws and enforcement targeting the sale and purchase of sex, and activities relating to sex work organisation. There is an urgent need to reform sex-work-related laws and institutional practices so as to reduce harms and barriers to the realisation of health.

New Zealand was the first country in the world to decriminalise all sectors of sex work. This book provides an in-depth look at New Zealand's experience of decriminalisation. It provides first-hand views and experiences of 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. Presenting an example of radical legal reform in an area of current policy debate it will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduates as well as policy makers and activists.

Context: There is compelling evidence that eliminating sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among female sex workers (FSWs) is a cost-effective approach to reducing the spread of HIV/ AIDS. Although many countries recognise sex work as a public health issue, few have implemented public health policies specifically aimed at controlling the transmission of HIV/ AIDS among FSWs. In particular, Senegal stands out as the only African country to regulate sex work through a specific public health policy that requires FSWs to register with a health centre. Despite the potential health and legal benefits associated with registration, a staggering 80% of FSWs in Senegal remain unregistered. This low registration rate hinders the realisation of the policy's full potential for public health benefits. The reluctance of FSWs to register is due to inherent flaws in the policy design, where the disadvantages of registration outweigh the benefits for FSWs.Objective: To identify which modifications to the current registration policy have the potential to increase uptake of registration by FSWs and to assess their feasibility in the context of Senegal.Method: We conducted a qualitative policy research study using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 22 national stakeholders in this policy, including representatives from the police, government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Dakar, Senegal, as well as FSWs' leaders. The interview data were thematically coded using the interview topic guide and other recurring themes and analysed using thematic analysis on Nvivo 12.Results: A total of 20 relevant themes were selected, focusing primarily on assessing the feasibility of potential interventions and identifying potential barriers and associated risks. We found that, without changing current legislation, improving relationships between FSWs and police officers, providing accurate and accessible information about the rules and benefits of the policy, and offering psychosocial support have the potential to improve both the registration rate of FSWs and their wellbeing. Policy features designed to increase registration by improving FSWs’ confidentiality, and thus their confidence in the services offered, were also discussed.Conclusions: The study highlighted that several national public health policies could be changed to increase the registration rate of FSWs and improve their wellbeing without overturning constitutional law.

Globally, young sex workers who use drugs (YSWUD) are at the intersection of laws and policies that criminalize and stigmatize both drug use and sex work which, when compounded by age, leads to increased state targeting and surveillance. Such punitive responses create significant barriers for YSWUD in accessing health, social, and harm reduction services, while also increasing exposure to structural and everyday violence (e.g., overdose risk, increased workplace violence, police targeting, etc.). In order to better highlight the global realities and priorities of YSWUD, this commentary brings together YSWUD from across the world to speak to their unique experiences and expertise with the aim of providing guidance around how service providers and policy makers can move beyond the logics of criminalization to best engage with YSWUD.

Policing is an important structural determinant of HIV and other health risks faced by vulnerable populations, including people who sell sex and use drugs, though the role of routine police encounters is not well understood. Given the influence of policing on the risk environment of these groups, methods of measuring the aggregate impact of routine policing practices are urgently required. We developed and validated a novel, brief scale to measure police patrol practices (Police Practices Scale, PPS) among 250 street-based female sex workers (FSW) in Baltimore, Maryland, an urban setting with high levels of illegal drug activity. PPS items were developed from existing theory and ethnography with police and their encounters with FSW, and measured frequency of recent (past 3 months) police encounters. The 6-item scale was developed using exploratory factor analysis after examining the properties of the original 11 items. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to model the factor structure. A 2-factor model emerged, with law enforcement PPS items and police assistance PPS items loading on separate factors. Linear regression models were used to explore the relative distribution of these police encounters among FSW by modeling association with key socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics of the sample. Higher exposure to policing was observed among FSW who were homeless (β = 0.71, p = 0.037), in daily sex work (β = 1.32, p = 0.026), arrested in the past 12 months (β = 1.44, p<0.001) or injecting drugs in the past 3 months (β = 1.04, p<0.001). The PPS provides an important and novel contribution in measuring aggregate exposure to routine policing, though further validation is required. This scale could be used to evaluate the impact of policing on vulnerable populations' health outcomes, including HIV risk.

Introduction Sex workers are disproportionately infected with HIV worldwide. Significant focus has been placed on understanding the structural determinants of HIV and designing related interventions. Although there is growing international evidence that policing is an important structural HIV determinant among sex workers, the evidence has not been systematically reviewed. Methods We conducted a systematic review of quantitative studies to examine the effects of policing on HIV and STI infection and HIV‐related outcomes (condom use; syringe use; number of clients; HIV/STI testing and access) among cis and trans women sex workers. Databases included PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Sociological s, Popline, Global Health (OVID), Web of Science, IBSS, IndMed and WHOLIS. We searched for studies that included police practices as an exposure for HIV or STI infection or HIV‐related outcomes. Results Of the 137 peer‐reviewed articles identified for full text review, 14 were included, representing sex workers' experiences with police across five settings. Arrest was the most commonly explored measure with between 6 and 45% of sex workers reporting having ever been arrested. Sexual coercion was observed between 3 and 37% of the time and police extortion between 12 and 28% across studies. Half the studies used a single measure to capture police behaviours. Studies predominantly focused on “extra‐legal policing practices,” with insufficient attention to the role of “legal enforcement activities”. All studies found an association between police behaviours and HIV or STI infection, or a related risk behaviour. Conclusions The review points to a small body of evidence that confirms policing practices as an important structural HIV determinant for sex workers, but studies lack generalizability with respect to identifying those police behaviours most relevant to women's HIV risk environment.

Under U.S. law, sex trafficking is defined as \"the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.\" To be punishable, the offense must involve a \"severe form\" of trafficking involving (1) a person under age eighteen who has been induced to perform a commercial sex act or (2) an adult who has been so induced by the use of \"force, fraud, or coercion.\" Adults who sell sex willingly, with some kind of assistance, are not considered trafficking victims under U.S. law. Trafficking that involves underage persons or adults subjected to force, fraud, or coercion is a serious violation of human rights, and the growing international awareness of the problem and efforts to punish perpetrators and assist victims are welcome developments. But there is also a parallel story -- a robust mythology of trafficking. While no one would claim that sex trafficking is fictional, many of the claims made about it are wholly unsubstantiated. This Article offers a critique of the paradigm responsible for this mythology, a perspective that has become increasingly popular over the past decade. This oppression paradigm depicts all types of sexual commerce as institutionalized subordination of women, regardless of the conditions under which it occurs. The perspective does not present domination and exploitation as variables but instead considers them core ontological features of sexual commerce. I will contrast this monolithic paradigm with an alternative -- one that is evidence-based and recognizes the existence of substantial variation in sex work. This polymorphous paradigm holds that there is a broad constellation of work arrangements, power relations, and personal experiences among participants in sexual commerce. Polymorphism is sensitive to complexities and to the structural conditions shaping the uneven distribution of workers' agency and subordination. Victimization, exploitation, choice, job satisfaction, self-esteem, and other factors differ between types of sex work, geographical locations, and other structural conditions. Commercial sexual exchange and erotic entertainment are not homogeneous phenomena. A growing number of researchers have challenged the oppression model's claims, yet their criticisms have yet to gain serious attention from American lawmakers. This Article (1) analyzes the claims made by those who embrace the oppression model, (2) identifies some legal and policy implications of this paradigm, and (3) offers an evidence-based alternative. The analysis pertains to both sex trafficking and to sexual commerce more generally. Adapted from the source document.

Background Despite a large body of evidence globally demonstrating that the criminalization of sex workers increases HIV/STI risks, we know far less about the impact of criminalization and policing of managers and in-call establishments on HIV/STI prevention among sex workers, and even less so among migrant sex workers. Methods Analysis draws on ethnographic fieldwork and 46 qualitative interviews with migrant sex workers, managers and business owners of in-call sex work venues in Metro Vancouver, Canada. Results The criminalization of in-call venues and third parties explicitly limits sex workers’ access to HIV/STI prevention, including manager restrictions on condoms and limited onsite access to sexual health information and HIV/STI testing. With limited labour protections and socio-cultural barriers, criminalization and policing undermine the health and human rights of migrant sex workers working in –call venues. Conclusions This research supports growing evidence-based calls for decriminalization of sex work, including the removal of criminal sanctions targeting third parties and in-call venues, alongside programs and policies that better protect the working conditions of migrant sex workers as critical to HIV/STI prevention and human rights.