The Disclosure Dilemma: Stigma and Talking About Sex Work in the Decriminalised Context

Centering Sex Workers’ Voices in Law and Social Policy

“…Literature highlights that sex workers sometimes choose to withhold what they do for a living to avoid judgement (Armstrong & Fraser, 2020;Benoit et al, 2015). Similar to our research prior to the PCEPA study (Benoit et al, 2019a), those who revealed their occupational status in this study experienced costs that included judgment, stigma, and insufficient health care.…”

“…In summary, the intertwined barriers sex workers face in accessing fundamental occupational rights and protections, and human rights more generally, cannot be addressed by decriminalization alone, as has been shown by research from other regions, such as New Zealand and some States in Australia, where sex work stigma lingers even with the recognition of sex work as legitimate work and improved occupational rights (Abel et al, 2009(Abel et al, , 2012Armstrong & Abel, 2020b;Armstrong & Fraser, 2020;Begum et al, 2013;Easterbrook-Smith, 2020;Jeffrey & Sullivan, 2009). Evidence from middle-and lower-income countries shows that harm reduction and bottom-up interventions aimed at promoting social cohesion and community empowerment among sex workers have resulted in genuine improvements in sex workers' health and safety, and at the same time increased their integration in the local community (Bekker et al, 2015;Blanchard et al, 2013;Kerrigan, et al, 2015;Swendeman et al, 2009).…”

“…In a systematic review of the literature, Platt et al (2018) found that criminal laws affecting the sale, purchase, and organization of sex work cause far-reaching harms to sex workers that decrease safety, peer support, and services and increase police harassment. Decriminalizing all areas of sex work reduces harms and improves the health and safety of sex workers by allowing them to organize their work without running afoul of the law, and seek protective services when victimized with less fear of harassment or discrimination, although stigma still remains a significant issue under decriminalization (Aantjes et al, 2021;Abel, 2014;Abel & Ludeke, 2021;Argento et al, 2020;Armstrong & Abel, 2020b;Armstrong & Fraser, 2020;Crago et al, 2021;Easterbrook-Smith, 2020;Jackson & Heineman, 2018;Levy-Oronovic et al, 2020;Platt et al, 2018;Sanders et al, 2020). Global social rights agencies, such as Amnesty International (2016), advocate decriminalization as a harm reduction approach, making it a human right for individuals, who voluntarily decide to do sex work, to have access to similar employment and civil rights as other service workers, and be unfettered by stigma and discrimination.…”

‘I Can Lead the Life That I Want to Lead’: Social Harm, Human Needs and the Decriminalisation of Sex Work in Aotearoa/New Zealand

“…While sex workers in a range of legislative environments are impacted by stigma, this is most pronounced when the sex industry is subject to criminalisation, through inferring that those involved in it are dangerous and problematic (Krüsi et al, 2014). Criminalisation creates an additional barrier to sex workers being able to talk openly about their work due to the risks of doing so, meaning that many people are forced to compartmentalise a part of their life through fear of these consequences (Armstrong & Fraser, 2020).…”