In Vancouver, Canada, there has been a continuous shift in the policing of sex work away from arresting sex workers, which led to the implementation of a policing strategy that explicitly prioritized the safety of sex workers and continued to target sex workers’ clients. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 cisgender and 5 transgender women street-based sex workers about their working conditions. Data were analysed thematically and by drawing on concepts of structural stigma and vulnerability. Our results indicated that despite police rhetoric of prioritizing the safety of sex workers, participants were denied their citizenship rights for police protection by virtue of their ‘risky’ occupation and where thus responsiblised for sex work related violence. Our findings further suggest that sex workers’ interactions with neighbourhood residents were predominantly shaped by a discourse of sex workers as a ‘risky’ presence in the urban landscape and police took swift action in removing sex workers in case of complaints. This study highlights that intersecting regimes of stigmatization and criminalization continued to undermine sex workers citizenship rights to police protection and legal recourse and perpetuated labour conditions that render sex workers at increased risk for violence and poor health.

Objectives To examine how unique, low-barrier housing programs for women that are functioning as unsanctioned quasi-brothels under special needs housing regulations in a Canadian urban setting influence risk negotiation with clients in sex work transactions. Methods We conducted 39 semi-structured qualitative interviews and 6 focus groups with women who live in low-barrier, supportive housing for marginalized sex workers with substance use issues. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed. Results Women's accounts revealed that unsanctioned quasi-brothels promoted increased control over negotiating sex transactions, including the capacity to refuse unwanted services, negotiate condom use and avoid violent perpetrators. Despite the lack of formal legal and policy support for brothels in Canada, the environmental-structural supports afforded by these unsanctioned, quasi-brothels, including surveillance cameras and support from staff or police in removing violent clients, were linked to improved police relations and facilitated the institution of informal peer-safety mechanisms. Conclusions This study draws attention to the potential role of brothels as venues for public health and violence prevention interventions and points to the critical importance of removing the socio-legal barriers preventing the formal implementation of such programs.

ObjectivesTo 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).DesignQualitative and ethnographic study triangulated with sex work-related violence prevalence data and publicly available police statistics.SettingVancouver, 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.Participants26 cisgender and 5 transgender women who were street-based sex workers (n=31) participated in semistructured interviews about their working conditions. All had exchanged sex for money in the previous 30 days in Vancouver.Outcome measuresThematic analysis of interview transcripts and ethnographic field notes focused on how police enforcement of clients shaped sex workers’ working conditions and sexual transactions, including risk of violence and HIV/STIs, over an 11-month period postpolicy implementation (January–November 2013).ResultsSex workers’ narratives and ethnographic observations indicated that while police sustained a high level of visibility, they eased charging or arresting sex workers and showed increased concern for their safety. However, participants’ accounts and police statistics indicated continued police enforcement of clients. This profoundly impacted the safety strategies sex workers employed. Sex workers continued to mistrust police, had to rush screening clients and were displaced to outlying areas with increased risks of violence, including being forced to engage in unprotected sex.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that criminalisation and policing strategies that target clients reproduce the harms created by the criminalisation of sex work, in particular, vulnerability to violence and HIV/STIs. The current findings support decriminalisation of sex work to ensure work conditions that support the health and safety of sex workers in Canada and globally.

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A growing body of international evidence suggests that sex workers face a disproportionate burden of violence, with significant variations across social, cultural, and economic contexts. Research on trans sex workers has documented high incidents of violence; however investigations into the relationships between violence and social-structural contexts are limited. Therefore, the objective of this study was to qualitatively examine how social-structural contexts shape trans sex workers' experiences of violence. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 33 trans sex workers in Vancouver, Canada between June 2012 and May 2013. Three themes emerged that illustrated how social-structural contexts of transphobia and criminalization shaped violent experiences: (1) transphobic violence, (2) clients' discovery of participants' gender identity, and (3) negative police responses to experiences of violence. The findings demonstrate the need for shifts in sex work laws and culturally relevant anti-stigma programs and policies to address transphobia.

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Background: Street-involved youth are a population at risk of adopting injection as a route of administration, and preventing the transition to injection drug use among street youth represents a public health priority. In order to inform epidemiological research and prevention efforts, we conducted a qualitative study to investigate the initiation of injection drug use among streetinvolved youth in Vancouver, Canada.

Men sex workers in Vancouver have largely transitioned from street to online solicitation coinciding with losing “Boystown,” the main outdoor sex work stroll for men. This article explores strategies and barriers to increase safety among men and trans sex workers and clients of men in Vancouver, Canada. Qualitative interviews were conducted (2012–2013) with 61 self-identified men who currently buy and/or sell sex in a community-based research project known as CHAPS (Community Health Assessment of Men Who Purchase and Sell Sex). Drawing on a socioecological framework, thematic analysis of interview transcripts was conducted utilizing ATLAS.ti 7 software among men (39 workers; 8 buyers). Narratives indicate that gentrification and urban planning led to social isolation and loss of social support networks among men in the sex industry. Concurrently, the restructuring of sex work to online increased workers’ safety and control. Narratives reveal how the Internet can provide greater opportunities to negotiate terms of sex work and enhanced screening using webcams, reducing risks of violence, stigma, and police harassment for both workers and clients compared with the street. This study highlights how losing Boystown led to a loss of community and solidarity: key protective measures for sex workers. Online solicitation increased workers’ capacity to screen prospective clients and prevent violence. Recent legal reforms in Canada to further criminalize sex work raise significant concern for human rights and health of individuals in the sex industry, and point to the critical need to include voices of men and trans sex workers and buyers in policy discussions.