The “ickiness factor”: Stigma as a barrier to exiting prostitution

Blakey, Joan M.; Gunn, Alana

doi:10.1080/10509674.2018.1549177

Cited by 10 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…3 Leon's institution required that confidentiality cover the program itself and not just participant identities; we therefore use the pseudonymous Peterson County to refer to this program, while the Baltimore and Philadelphia programs are referred to by their real names. 4 Although data collection ended approximately seven years before publication, more recent studies indicate that PDPs and their contradictory logics remain and have become more entrenched (Anasti, 2018;Blakey & Gunn, 2018;Musto, 2016;Whittle, 2018). From the other side of the historical continuum, these issues have arisen consistently over at least the past 100 years, and so are perennial, as indicated in Cohen (2017) and Lilley et al (2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The sale of sex is highly stigmatized behavior (Weitzer, 2018), which results in prostitution defendants being treated as particularly contemptible, pathetic, and morally deficient (Anasti, 2018; Blakey & Gunn, 2018; Shdaimah & Leon, 2015). Comparisons of different legal regimes governing the sale of sex that appear to operate on ideologically distinct views of sex work demonstrate that regardless of the governmental approach, street‐based sex workers remain highly surveilled and marginalized (Bernstein, 2007).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4 4 Although data collection ended approximately seven years before publication, more recent studies indicate that PDPs and their contradictory logics remain and have become more entrenched (Anasti, 2018; Blakey & Gunn, 2018; Musto, 2016; Whittle, 2018). From the other side of the historical continuum, these issues have arisen consistently over at least the past 100 years, and so are perennial, as indicated in Cohen (2017) and Lilley et al (2020).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Targeted sympathy in “whore court”: Criminal justice actors' perceptions of prostitution diversion programs

Leon

Shdaimah

2021

Law & Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Using interview and focus group data (N = 44) from three study sites, we locate prostitution diversion program (PDP) professionals within logics of punishment and governance. While critical research on problem‐solving justice emphasizes professionals' performative and quasi‐therapeutic roles, inadequate attention has been paid to the contradictory logics of their roles. Involvement in a diversion program reinforces underlying assumptions about whom they are working with and what those people need, in ways that we argue require critical distance. Professionals exploit the paradox of assistance through coercion, and exhibit what we identify as “targeted sympathy.” Targeted sympathy enhances the ability of these professionals to use their discretion to help their clients, but it also elevates a narrow set of acceptable problems and interventions. Created with an understanding of street‐based sex workers as victims, PDPs also rely on hyper‐responsibilization, expecting defendants to bootstrap themselves over systemic hurdles with virtually no resources. Thus, while targeted sympathy may indicate a movement away from the “othering” that pervades contemporary penality, it continues to decontextualize individuals and assign blame and accountability.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Targeted sympathy in “whore court”: Criminal justice actors' perceptions of prostitution diversion programs

Leon

Shdaimah

2021

Law & Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Unfortunately, re-entry for formerly incarcerated women is marked by not just the process of navigating illnesses (Bronson & Carson, 2019) but also structural barriers. Structural stigma and surveillance impede women’s access to resources such as employment, housing, substance use treatment, and education (Blakey & Gunn, 2018; Schenwar & Law, 2020; Van Olphen et al, 2009). Indeed, Black women experience myriad barriers to re-entry.…”

Section: Formerly Incarcerated Black Women and Re-entrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Voice, Counterspaces, and Ethical Care in Research With Black Women With Trauma and Incarceration Histories

Gunn

2021

Health Educ Behav

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Formerly incarcerated women face diverse challenges to re-entry, which include recovering from health illnesses and trauma to navigating various systems of stigma and surveillance. It is these multilevel challenges to reintegration that also make formerly incarcerated women vulnerable participants in research. As such, this qualitative study explores how 28 formerly incarcerated Black women experience the research interview process. Findings revealed that women participated in research because these contexts were viewed as spaces for “truth telling” and increasing awareness that can effect changes in the lives of communities facing trauma. Moreover, the participants perceived the interview process to allow them to share their pasts in ways that can promote healing and recovery. Participants also discussed risks of emotional distress and anticipatory fears regarding imbalanced researcher–participant dynamics. The implications for antioppressive, compassionate interviewing practices underscore the need for greater considerations of the role of the researcher and how they contribute to women’s recovery from complex trauma and illness.

show abstract

“…Returns to prostitution, particularly when accompanied by addiction relapse, are part of exiting (Baker et al, 2010;Roe-Sepowitz et al, 2011). Regardless of legal status, the stigmatized nature of prostitution influences the availability and uptake of resources, as well as understandings of self, that are part of the exiting process (Armstrong, 2019;Blakey & Gunn, 2018). This study is the first explicitly designed to examine perspectives of women exiting prostitution over time, in this case per court mandate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“I’m Doing Everything Right All Over Again”: How Women Manage Exiting Street Prostitution Over Time

Gesser

Shdaimah

2021

Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice &Amp; Criminology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Exiting street prostitution is a complex, recursive process which has been rarely studied over time. Using typical case sampling, we selected two respondents from a two-year ethnographic study of a court-affiliated diversion program in Philadelphia who participated in a total of eight interviews. Saldaña's (2009) seldom-used longitudinal coding method was applied to conduct a fine-grained longitudinal analysis of participants' perceptions of exiting prostitution, focusing on participants' motivations and actions. Respondents managed expectations of others and themselves and their sense of self-worth within a context of changing relationships, structural opportunities, accomplishments and setbacks. Viewed in a longitudinal context, the same relationships and structural hurdles often had different impact on women's motivation to exit at different time points. We argue that a longitudinal perspective of the exiting process is critical to avoid erroneous binary classifications of women as either exiters or non-exiters from prostitution, as the exiting process is more complex than what cross-sectional studies have previously revealed. Findings have implications for researchers of prostitution and programs for women exiting prostitution that should structure supports and (dis)incentives in a nonjudgmental fashion in line with this nuanced understanding of exiting over time. This is particularly important in criminal justice settings, where punitive responses have serious shortand long-term consequences.

show abstract

The “ickiness factor”: Stigma as a barrier to exiting prostitution

Cited by 10 publications

References 38 publications

Targeted sympathy in “whore court”: Criminal justice actors' perceptions of prostitution diversion programs

Targeted sympathy in “whore court”: Criminal justice actors' perceptions of prostitution diversion programs

Voice, Counterspaces, and Ethical Care in Research With Black Women With Trauma and Incarceration Histories

“I’m Doing Everything Right All Over Again”: How Women Manage Exiting Street Prostitution Over Time

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About