KTD Criminalization, Technology and 230

Craigslist’s Effect on Violence Against Women

Authors: Cunningham, Scott, Gregory DeAngelo, and John Tripp

Craigslist’s Effect on Violence Against Women

University of West Virginia, 2017.

Description:

Female prostitution is both illegal in most American cities and extremely dangerous, as prostitutes face risks of violence from the environment and clients. Previous studies suggest that prostitution has the highest homicide rate of any female intensive occupation in the United States by several orders of magnitude. Policies that can efficiently minimize these hazards are therefore of prima facie importance. Between 2002 and 2010, Craigslist provided an “erotic services” section on its front page which was used almost exclusively by prostitutes to advertise illegal sex services. The company opened this service in different cities at different points in time. We use a differences-in-differences strategy to identify its causal effect on female safety and find that Craigslist erotic services reduced the female homicide rate by 17.4 percent. We also find modest evidence that erotic services reduced female rape offenses. Our analysis suggests that this reduction in female violence was the result of street prostitutes moving indoors and matching more efficiently with safer clients.

KTD Client Violence, Criminalization, Harm Reduction, Police violence, Sexual Violence, Trafficking, Youth

Girls Do What They Have to Do to Survive: Illuminating Methods Used by Girls in the Sex Trade and Street Economy to Fight Back and Heal

Girls Do What They Have to Do to Survive: Illuminating Methods Used by Girls in the Sex Trade and Street Economy to Fight Back and Heal

Young Women’s Empowerment Project, YWEP, 2009.

Description:

We do not deny the fact that girls in the sex trade face violence. We decided that we would do this research to show that we are not just objects that violence happens to- but that we are active participants in fighting back and bouncing back. We wanted to move away from the one-dimensional view of girls in the sex trade as only victims to look at all aspects of the situation:
violence, our response to the violence, how we fight back and heal on a daily basis. We want to build our community by figuring out how we can and do fight back collectively and the role of resilience in keeping girls strong enough to resist.

KTD Criminalization, Harm Reduction, LGBTQ, Trafficking, Youth

Surviving the Streets of New York: Experiences of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex

Meredith Dank, Jennifer Yahner, Kuniko Madden, Isela Banuelos, Lilly Yu, Andrea Ritchie, Mitchyll Mora, Brendan Conner

Surviving the Streets of New York: Experiences of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex

Urban Institute. February 25, 2015.

Abstract:

Based on interviews with 283 youth in New York City, this is the first study to focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth; young men who have sex with men (YMSM); and young women who have sex with women (YWSW) who get involved in the commercial sex market in order to meet basic survival needs, such as food or shelter. The report documents these youth’s experiences and characteristics to gain a better understanding of why they engage in survival sex, describes how the support networks and systems in their lives have both helped them and let them down, and makes recommendations for better meeting the needs of this vulnerable population.

KTD Criminalization, Harm Reduction, Police violence, Trafficking, Youth

Locked in: Interactions with the Criminal Justice and Child Welfare Systems for LGBTQ Youth, YMSM and YWSW who Engage in Survival Sex

Authors: Dank, M.; Yu, L.; Yahner, J.; Pelletier, E.; Mora, M.; Conner, B.

Locked in: Interactions with the Criminal Justice and Child Welfare Systems for LGBTQ Youth, YMSM and YWSW who Engage in Survival Sex

Urban Institute, Sept 2015

Abstract:

This report focuses on LGBTQ youth who become involved in the commercial sex market to meet basic survival needs, describing their experiences with law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and the child welfare system. Interviews with these youth reveal that over 70 percent had been arrested at least once, with many reporting frequent arrest for “quality-of-life” and misdemeanor crimes other than prostitution offenses. Youth described their experiences of being cycled in and out of the justice system as highly disruptive and generating far-reaching collateral consequences ranging from instability in the home and school to inability to pay fines and obtain lawful employment. This report is part of a larger three-year Urban Institute study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth; young men who have sex with men (YMSM); and young women who have sex with women (YWSW) engaged in survival sex.

KTD Criminalization, End Demand

Moving Beyond Supply and Demand Catchphrases: Assessing the uses and limitations of demand-based approaches in Anti-Trafficking

Authors: Ham, Julie

Moving Beyond Supply and Demand Catchphrases: Assessing the uses and limitations of demand-based approaches in Anti-Trafficking

Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW), 2011.

Description:

The need to reduce ‘demand’ for trafficked persons is widely mentioned in the anti-trafficking sector but few have looked at ‘demand’ critically or substantively. Some ‘demand’-based approaches have been heavily critiqued, such as the idea that eliminating sex workers’ clients (or the ‘demand’ for commercial sex) through incarceration or stigmatisation will reduce trafficking. In this publication, we take a look at the links between trafficking and: (1) the demand for commercial sex, and (2) the demand for exploitative labour practices. We assess current approaches used to reduce each of these types of ‘demand’ and consider other long-term approaches that can reduce the demand for exploitative practices while respecting workers’ and migrants’ rights (e.g. enforcing labour standards, reducing discrimination against migrants, supporting sex workers’ rights).

KTD Criminalization, Trafficking

‘Sex Trafficking’ as Epistemic Violence

Author: Chapman-Schmidt, Ben

‘Sex Trafficking’ as Epistemic Violence

Global Alliance Against Trafficking in women, Anti-Trafficking Review. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.2012191211.

Abstract:

While the American Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (FOSTA) has been heavily criticised by researchers and activists for the harm it inflicts on sex workers, many of these critics nevertheless agree with the Act’s goal of fighting sex trafficking online. This paper, however, argues that in American legal discourse, ‘sex trafficking’ refers not to human trafficking for sexual exploitation, but rather to all forms of sex work. As such, the law’s punitive treatment of sex workers needs to be understood as the law’s purpose, rather than an unfortunate side effect. This paper also demonstrates how the discourse of ‘sex trafficking’ is itself a form of epistemic violence that silences sex workers and leaves them vulnerable to abuse, with FOSTA serving to broaden the scope of this violence. The paper concludes by highlighting ways journalists and academic researchers can avoid becoming complicit in this violence.

KTD Criminalization, End Demand

The Ban against the Purchase of Sexual Services. An evaluation: 1999-2008

Swedish Institute, November 2010

The Ban against the Purchase of Sexual Services. An evaluation 1999-2008

Abstract:

Since 1 January 1999, it has been a crime to buy sexual services in Sweden. In contrast to previous measures against prostitution, the criminalization of the purchase of sexual services targets the demand, i.e., the sex buyer or the prospective sex buyer.

The aim of this report is to evaluate the application of the ban on the purchase of sexual services and its effects. The Swedish Institute investigated how the provision has worked in practice and its effects on the prevalence of prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes in Sweden. 

KTD Criminalization, End Demand

Sex Work Law Reform in Canada: Considering Problems with the Nordic Model

Authors: Sandra Ka Hon Chu and Rebecca Glass

Sex Work Law Reform in Canada: Considering Problems with the Nordic Model

Alberta Law Review (2013) 51:1. [Canada, Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA)]

Abstract:

The Nordic model is a piece of legislation, passed in Sweden in 1999, which criminalizes the purchase of sex. In Canada, exchanging sex for money is not illegal, but virtually every activity associated with prostitution is. Following the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in Bedford v. Canada, the question of what type of legislation is most appropriate with respect to prostitution has become even more important. This article begins by evaluating the degree of success (or lack thereof) of the Nordic model. The article then goes on to determine whether legislation similar to the Nordic model would be constitutional if adopted in Canada.

KTD Criminalization, Harm Reduction, HIV, Public Health

Condoms as evidence of prostitution in the United States and the criminalization of sex work

Authors: Wurth, Margaret & Schleifer, Rebecca & McLemore, Megan & Todrys, Katherine. (2013).

Condoms as evidence of prostitution in the United States and the criminalization of sex work.

Journal of the International AIDS Society. 16. 18626. 10.7448/IAS.16.1.18626.

Abstract:

The vulnerability of sex workers and transgender women to HIV infection is a result of many factors including stigma, social and physical isolation, economic deprivation, and legal and policy environments that criminalize their behaviour. Recent systematic reviews have found high HIV prevalence among both populations, including an 11.8% pooled HIV prevalence among female sex workers in 50 countries and a 19.1% HIV prevalence among male-tofemale transgender women in 15 countries worldwide. Studies in the United States have also documented high HIV prevalence among people who report transactional sex and transgender populations.