Criminalization and Off-Street Sex Work in Canada

Abstract

The research presented in this article examines women's perceptions of how the criminal laws relating to prostitution affect the experience of working in the off-street Canadian sex industry. The results of interviews with 10 women indicate that the criminalization of prostitution has numerous effects on the health and safety of indoor workers: the workers are alienated from the protective services of police; they are often misinformed about their legal rights in Canada; they face personal, legal, and social consequences for association with a criminalized activity; their abilities to mitigate risk are severely limited by the criminalization of ancillary activities related to prostitution; and their health is directly affected by the isolation and stress that accompany marginalized labour. The participants share their advice for future regulation of the sex industry in Canada and strongly encourage the removal of adult consensual sex work from the realm of criminal behaviour in Canada.

“Well, It Should Be Changed for One, Because It’s Our Bodies”: Sex Workers’ Views on Canada’s Punitive Approach towards Sex Work

“…Similar to what has been reported in a few other Canadian studies (Lutnick and Cohan 2009;Jeffrey and Macdonald 2006;O'Doherty 2011), most of our participants who expressed an opinion on Canada's prostitution laws supported removing adult consensual sex work from the Criminal Code. Even though the exchange of sex for money was not technically illegal at the time of our study, criminal provisions surrounding the activity, from their view, created dangerous conditions for sex workers, and hindered access to police protection for the majority of workers.…”

“…As hinted at above and discussed in detail elsewhere (Benoit et al 2016b), sex workers in our multi-city study had significantly lower confidence in police than other Canadians, and said that the police especially do a poor job treating sex workers fairly and being approachable and easy to for them to talk to. Decriminalization and regulation may not completely eliminate such prejudicial attitudes and unjust treatment of sex workers by police, but at least some of our participants suggested legal reform may reduce hesitancy by sex workers to involve the police if they witness or experience a crime (Abel et al 2009;Stoltz et al 2007;O'Doherty 2011;Abel et al 2010). The same is likely to be the case regarding sex workers' comparatively high unmet healthcare needs.…”

Squaring Up: Experiences of Transition from Off‐Street Sex Work to Square Work and Duality—Concurrent Involvement in Both—in Vancouver, BC

“…Participants ranged in age from 20 to 61 years with an average age of 38. Similar to other studies of off‐street workers (Althorp ; Law ; O'Doherty , ), my sample was well educated; one person obtained a master's degree, four participants had college and vocational certificates. Of the 15 who had completed high school, 11 had some university or college education.…”

“…Being confronted with “whore stigma” (Pheterson ) was the greatest challenge to leaving sex work for all participants. Sex work theorists indicate that those who leave hide their biographical information from friend and foe; create new histories cued to build acceptance in nonsex working environments, and deceive others to avoid stigma and obtain the resources for transition (Bowen ; Millar ; O'Doherty ; Pheterson ; Rickard ; Ross ; Sanders ; Shaver et al. ).…”

“…Being confronted with "whore stigma" (Pheterson 1993) was the greatest challenge to leaving sex work for all participants. Sex work theorists indicate that those who leave hide their biographical information from friend and foe; create new histories cued to build acceptance in nonsex working environments, and deceive others to avoid stigma and obtain the resources for transition (Bowen 2013;Millar 2002;O'Doherty 2011;Pheterson 1993;Rickard 2001;Ross 2009;Sanders 2007;Shaver et al 2011). Kayla's attempt at "sexiting"-strategic engagement in sex work and square work with goals toward leaving the industry (Bowen 2013)was thwarted by a police officer who outed her at her square job: "The cop told [my co-worker] that I was a prostitute and a junkie and she spread it all over the place, all over the unit!"…”