Resources

Prior to the 2010 International AIDS Conference, the Smart Person's Guide to HIV and Sex Work was released in order to clarify current policy and action items relating to HIV and the role of sex worker organisations in responding to this global epidemic.

In 1999, the Swedish government embarked on an experiment in social engineering1 to end men’s practice of purchasing commercial sexual services. The government enacted a new law criminalizing the purchase (but not the sale) of sex (Swedish Penal Code). It hoped that the fear of arrest and increased public stigma would convince men to change their sexual behaviour. The government also hoped that the law would force the estimated 1,850 to 3,000 women who sold sex in Sweden at that time to find another line of work.

This research is the first large scale quantitative research on sex workers in Fiji. It has enabled an understanding of the nature and extent of sex work in Fiji, rates of HIV and STI infection among sex workers and their knowledge and behaviour around safer sex practices. This research will compliment valuable insights gained from previous qualitative research. The findings from this research will assist in the appropriate targeting and provision of education, resources and health care services to a group previously defined by UNAIDS as a most-at-risk population.

This Report aims to summarize the arguments for and against the criminalisation of the purchase of sexual services. It first describes the experiences of Swedish and Dutch legal regulation relating to the purchase of sexual services. In Sweden, there is a wish to abolish sex work by way of criminalising the client. In the Netherlands, sex work is allowed within certain limits (only involuntary sex work comes under criminal rules).

Silence on Violence: Improving Safety of Women - the policing of off-street sex work and trafficking in London

This report was written in the run-up to the Olympic Games, held in London 2012 and it considers two overacrhing areas related to womens' safety within sex work: the policing of sex trafficking, and within that the policing for the Olymipics; and the general policing of sex workers. The report focusses on off-street sex work as the evidence shows that it very rarely, if at all, involves trafficked women.

The article explores the policy underpinning Sweden’s 1999 ban on the purchase of sexual services in the context of the social and health service sectors and the way that these sectors interact with sex workers. It argues that the rationale behind the sex purchase ban is difficult to reconcile with social policy outwith the 'merits' of criminal justice.

This article looks at how legalisation came to the netherlands; what it was intended to do, and what the impact has been on sex workers. In order to answer these lines of enquiry, the article examines what discourses frame the major actors in this debate, starting with a historical overview of Dutch sex work policies throughout the 20th century. Having established the socio-political backdrop of the Netherlands' approach to legalised sex work, the resource discusses how legalisation (or regulationism) "did not solve a number of serious problems in the sex industry".

This reference text seeks to "clarify terms and illustrate examples of alternatives to the use of criminal law as a response to sex work". It provides capsule definitions - with small case-studies or examples - of what a variety of laws and policies look like in terms of their impact on sex work, covering criminalisation, legalisation, and decriminalisation, along with a mini-discussion of other laws that are used against sex workers, such as the criminalisation of HIV transmission, or immigration enforcement.

'Criminalising Condoms' details the experiences of sex workers and outreach services across six countries (Kenya, Namibia, Russia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the United States). It finds that where any degree of criminalisation exists (whether of sex workers themselves, or of activities relating to sex work), condoms are used as evidence of sex work. This forces sex workers to choose between carrying safer sex supplies, thus attracting the deleterious attentions of the police, or working without condoms in the hope that the police will refrain from harassment - but also without the supplies that would protect them from HIV.

Published as part of Research for Sex Work 13: HIV and Sex Work – The view from 2012.

You can download this 2 page PDF article above.  This article is in English & Chinese.

Published as part of Research for Sex Work 13: HIV and Sex Work – The view from 2012.

You can download this 2 page PDF article above.  This article is in English & Chinese.

Published as part of Research for Sex Work 13: HIV and Sex Work – The view from 2012.

You can download this 2 page PDF article above.  This article is in English & Chinese.

Published as part of Research for Sex Work 13: HIV and Sex Work – The view from 2012.

You can download this 2 page PDF article above.  This article is in English & Chinese.

Published as part of Research for Sex Work 13: HIV and Sex Work – The view from 2012.

You can download this 2 page PDF article above.  This article is in English & Chinese.

Published as part of Research for Sex Work 13: HIV and Sex Work – The view from 2012.

You can download this 3 page PDF article above.  This article is in English & Chinese.

Published as part of Research for Sex Work 13: HIV and Sex Work – The view from 2012.

You can download this 2 page PDF article above.  This article is in English & Chinese.

Published as part of Research for Sex Work 13: HIV and Sex Work – The view from 2012.

You can download this 3 page PDF article above.  This article is in English & Chinese.

Published as part of Research for Sex Work 13: HIV and Sex Work – The view from 2012.

You can download this 3 page PDF article above.  This article is in English & Chinese.

Published as part of Research for Sex Work 13: HIV and Sex Work – The view from 2012.

You can download this 3 page PDF article above.  This article is in English & Chinese.

Published as part of Research for Sex Work 13: HIV and Sex Work – The view from 2012.

You can download this 2 page PDF article above.  This article is in English & Chinese.