The study of prostitution in early modern England is often informed by incorrect terminology. The modern historiographical use of the term “prostitute” is misleading, as the term did not appear until the sixteenth century, and the act of selling sex did not come to dominate understandings of whoredom until many years later. This thesis examines the etymological history of the term “prostitute” and its cognates, and their changing legal, economic, and cultural meanings. This thesis investigates the intersection of late medieval and early modern conceptions of illicit sex with the rise of commercial capitalism to track the conceptual development of transactional sex as a commodity. Despite the influence of commercial capitalism on aspects of sexual immorality and developing conceptions of difference between paid and unpaid illicit sex, the primary division remained between chaste and unchaste women throughout the whole of the early modern period.

Although human trafficking was not a new concept, it gained increased attention across the United States and Canada in the first two decades of the 21st century. To better understand the Canadian anti-trafficking movement, this thesis analyzed the discourse on the topic in six local and national daily newspapers between 2008 and 2018. The goal of this thesis was to investigate the emergence of human trafficking as a social problem. Using social constructionism as a point of departure, a critical discourse analysis was conducted in NVivo of the quotes made by human trafficking experts in Canadian media. The results of this analysis suggest that an Unofficial Christian Coalition emerged in Canada, which – assisted by the media – led a moral crusade against human trafficking and pushed for the adoption of restrictive sex work legislation in Canada.

When police arrested nineteen women in Dedza, Malawi hospitality locations in 2016, it was under the guise of the living on the earnings of prostitution laws. The women appealed and won their case, with the ruling judge noting that Malawian women are free to patronize any hospitality facilities or bars without fear of being arrested. The case, The Republic v. Pempho Banda and 18 Others, sparked a national debate over the social and legal status of sex workers in the southern African country. It also brought to light that efforts to stimulate tourism had inadvertently boosted the country's sex work industry. To move away from a reliance on agriculture and bolster socio-economic growth and its foreign exchange earnings, the country is positioning itself to gain a greater market share of visitors. However, as in many tourist destinations, the promise of sex attracts tourists, and sex is increasingly becoming a central offering of Malawi's tourism industry. Yet, Malawian sex workers continue to occupy a social status in which they are marginalized or mistreated by the general public and criminal justice system. This provides apt conditions for continued and increased human rights abuse against sex workers. This research explores the events, legal environment, media coverage, and public opinion surrounding this case and its relation to the tourism industry. The data is from interviews with actors in the criminal justice system, documents and an analysis of online media about the Pempho Banda et al. case. My dissertation highlights the complexities and contradictions surrounding sex work in Malawi. In doing so, I hope to intervene in the national debate surrounding sex workers so as to facilitate public opinions and policies that are more sex worker friendly and protective of their human rights. / Doctor of Philosophy / When police arrested nineteen women in Dedza, Malawi hospitality locations in 2016, it was under the guise of living on the earnings of prostitution laws. The sex workers appealed and won their case, with the ruling judge noting that Malawian women are free to patronize any hospitality facilities or bars without fear of being arrested for sex work in what are traditionally considered male spaces. The case, The Republic v. Pempho Banda and 18 Others, sparked a national debate over the social and legal status of sex workers in the southern African country. It also brought to light that stimulating tourism inadvertently boosted the country’s sex work industry. To move away from a reliance on agriculture and bolster its foreign exchange earnings, the country is positioning itself to gain a greater market share of visitors. However, like in many tourist destinations, the promise of sex has attracted both foreign and domestic tourists, thereby progressively promoting sex as a central offering of Malawi’s tourism and hospitality industry. Yet, Malawian sex workers continue to occupy a social status in Malawi in which they are marginalized or mistreated by the general public and within the justice system. These conditions result in continued and increased human rights abuse against sex workers. The Pempho Banda et al. case is a seminal case that assists us in examining the legal and social status of sex workers in this context. This research explores the events, legal environment, media coverage, and public opinion surrounding this case and its relation to the tourism industry. This is done using interviews, documents, and an analysis of online media coverage about the case. I contend that discriminatory laws, policies, practices and sentiments targeting sex workers need to be redressed. My findings imply that a decriminalization approach will advance sex workers’ rights more than criminalization or legalization. Unequivocally, decriminalizing sex work is likely to be met with resistance from the public; however, there is sufficient evidence from public opinion, media coverage and statements from criminal justice system members connected to this case that suggest the existence of support for enacting protective policies for sex workers. Furthermore, since evidence shows a correlation between increased tourism and sex work, I argue that Malawi needs to prepare practical policies that factor in this reality.

<p>Sex sells. A lot. But who exactly is on the market? </p><p>What kinds of bodies are calibrated for traffic and consumption, and how exactly do they get there? When it comes to “sex” trafficking—which comprises a minority percentage of human trafficking, yet dominates the moral imagination as an “especially heinous” crime—the rise in predominantly white, evangelical Christian American interest in the trafficked subject galvanizes an ethical outrage that rarely observes critiques of race, ethnicity, sexuality or class as conditions of possibility. Though a nuanced mandate to fight trafficking is all but cemented in the contemporary American political and moral conscience, Virgin Territory accounts for the ways Christian ideas of purity annex both gender and sexuality inside the legacies of racialized colonial encounter, and foreground the market expansion of the global sex trade as it exists today. </p><p>In Part I, I argue that the narratives of virginity tied to Mary’s body simultaneously foregrounded the gendered, sexed Other as sparked disdain for the religious Other, for the Jewish body and for Mary’s Jewish identity. Through this analysis I explore the connections of racial identity to the Christian theological elision of Jewish election. I demonstrate how the questions of sexual ethics materialized at the site of the Virgin Mary, and align the moral attachments of sex and purity in the production of whiteness. These machinations, tied to the emerging European identity of empire, irrupt horrifically into the narrative ontology of dark flesh in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.</p><p>In Part II, I highlight the function of these narratives inside of the moments of colonial encounter, demonstrating how the logics of purity and virginity were directly applied to manage dark female flesh. I map the visual iconography of the Black Madonna first through a Dutch painting entitled The Rape of the Negress. I read this image through the social theological imagination instantiating the idea of the reprobate body and white imperial gaze. This analysis foregrounds a theological reading of Sarah Baartman, the “Hottentot Venus,” as the center of a complex sex trafficking investigation, outlining the genealogy of race, as well as the ideologies of the racial, ethnic and national Other, as mitigating factors in the conditions of possibility of a global sex trade. By restoring these narratives and their theological undertones, I reiterate the ways Christian thought is imbricated in the global sex trade, and propose theological strategies for rethinking humanitarian responses to sex trafficking.</p> / Dissertation

The transmission and prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) among those who use injection drugs is a major public health issue. Injection drug use has been identified as the main cause of transmission for HCV in Canada. Street youth are at risk for acquiring HCV due to injection drug use that is often a consequence of living in a street environment. Presently, research on prevalence trends, characteristics, and associated behaviors for injection drug use and HCV in street youth, is limited. <p>The purposes of this study were to determine prevalence of injection drug use and HCV in Saskatoon street youth, to identify demographic or other factors that may contribute to street youth using injection drugs, and to identify risk factors and other characteristics of street youth associated with HCV. This study utilized data from Phase III of the Enhanced STD Surveillance in Canadian Street Youth Study by Health Canada for those participants recruited from Saskatoon, Canada. Between February and July 2001, 186 Saskatoon street youth participants between the ages 14 and 24 years completed nurse-administered questionnaires and of these, 156 provided blood specimens. Analyses were conducted to compare population characteristics between street youth who have used injection drugs and those who had not. Similarly, population characteristics were analyzed among those street youth who were antibody-HCV positive and those that were antibody HCV negative.<p>In this study 32.3% of 186 participants had used injection drugs. Significant associations with injection drug use were found for older age (p = 0.01), having sexual partners that use injection drugs (p = 0.01), history of incarceration (p = 0.01), and history of living on the street (p = 0.02). Significant interactions were found for sex trade work by gender (p < 0.01) and by age (p = 0.03), and for living on the street by age (p = 0.02). A HCV prevalence rate of 9.3% of 156 participants was determined for Saskatoon street youth. Use of Ritalin by injection (p = 0.04) and history of living on the street (p = 0.05) were found to be significant risk factors associated with HCV. The interaction of living on the street by gender was also significantly associated with HCV (p = 0.05). <p>The relationship identified between HCV and injection drug use in Saskatoon street youth was a history of living on the street. This link between could serve as a valuable marker for use of injection drugs and developing HCV infection in street youth. Nurses are encouraged to seek out street youth social networks to provide health care and messages of health promotion and disease prevention. Strategies that are culturally, socially, and developmentally appropriate are needed to keep these youth off the streets in the first place.

The transmission and prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) among those who use injection drugs is a major public health issue. Injection drug use has been identified as the main cause of transmission for HCV in Canada. Street youth are at risk for acquiring HCV due to injection drug use that is often a consequence of living in a street environment. Presently, research on prevalence trends, characteristics, and associated behaviors for injection drug use and HCV in street youth, is limited. <p>The purposes of this study were to determine prevalence of injection drug use and HCV in Saskatoon street youth, to identify demographic or other factors that may contribute to street youth using injection drugs, and to identify risk factors and other characteristics of street youth associated with HCV. This study utilized data from Phase III of the Enhanced STD Surveillance in Canadian Street Youth Study by Health Canada for those participants recruited from Saskatoon, Canada. Between February and July 2001, 186 Saskatoon street youth participants between the ages 14 and 24 years completed nurse-administered questionnaires and of these, 156 provided blood specimens. Analyses were conducted to compare population characteristics between street youth who have used injection drugs and those who had not. Similarly, population characteristics were analyzed among those street youth who were antibody-HCV positive and those that were antibody HCV negative.<p>In this study 32.3% of 186 participants had used injection drugs. Significant associations with injection drug use were found for older age (p = 0.01), having sexual partners that use injection drugs (p = 0.01), history of incarceration (p = 0.01), and history of living on the street (p = 0.02). Significant interactions were found for sex trade work by gender (p < 0.01) and by age (p = 0.03), and for living on the street by age (p = 0.02). A HCV prevalence rate of 9.3% of 156 participants was determined for Saskatoon street youth. Use of Ritalin by injection (p = 0.04) and history of living on the street (p = 0.05) were found to be significant risk factors associated with HCV. The interaction of living on the street by gender was also significantly associated with HCV (p = 0.05). <p>The relationship identified between HCV and injection drug use in Saskatoon street youth was a history of living on the street. This link between could serve as a valuable marker for use of injection drugs and developing HCV infection in street youth. Nurses are encouraged to seek out street youth social networks to provide health care and messages of health promotion and disease prevention. Strategies that are culturally, socially, and developmentally appropriate are needed to keep these youth off the streets in the first place.

Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal activities in today’s world and a violation of human rights. Sex trafficking of women from Russia and Ukraine was enabled by the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the incorporation of the new countries into the global economy. At the same time, this social problem generated a series of anti-trafficking campaigns in Russia, Ukraine, and internationally. This research analyzes social responses to the risks of sex trafficking of women from Russia and Ukraine. The analysis is based on sixteen-month multi-sited field research in Russia and Ukraine. I collected data through participant observation, interviewing, and document analysis. The research provides insight into the supply and demand sides of sex-trafficking markets and describes how sex trafficking of women is integrated into the overall organization of the global sex trade. I use institutional ethnography to map out different anti-trafficking institutions (NGOs, governmental offices, international organizations) and examine social relations engendered by anti-trafficking mobilizations. My research analyzes institutional interventions aimed at minimizing the risks to sex trafficking victims. I explore how the institutional actors form transnational regulatory spaces to combat the problem of sex trafficking. Finally, I analyze how female trafficking survivors negotiate their identities in response to the institutional power of anti-trafficking NGOs that assist them.

This is a qualitative study with a descriptive approach. The main purpose with this study is to examine the view of prostitution and sex trade among Social worker students at Malmö Högskola.Our research questions are; To which extension and consideration is the view of male and female prostitutes divided? Is the view of the male and female sex buyer different among the students? How do the students explain and understand male and female prostitution? How do the students explain and understand the male and female sex buyer? To collect data and to be able to find out the students views and thoughts about the phenomenon we used focus groups with four to six students in each group. To categorize the material we used four topics; explanation/understanding models, the individuals behind the phenomenon, love/sex and intimacy, and the society’s responsibility. We analysed the discussions and the result of the focus groups with two main perspectives. The first perspective used in this study is structuralism and the second focuses on the individual. The conclusion of this study is that prostitution is always considered as something negative and self destructive despite of the gender. The students divide both female and male sex buyers into two groups, the rich and successful and the social outcast, but there are different explanation models for female and male sex buyers.

Sex trafficking, the fastest growing form of human trafficking, exacerbates among the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized women and girls. News media, as powerful social institutions, have the potential to shape opinions and attitudes towards critical issues (Sobel 2014). So how does two of the most internationally influential newspapers report about the sex trade? Seeking answers, I study sex trafficking news articles published from January 2019 to February 2020 by The Guardian and The New York times about the sex trade in the context of the highly mediatic Epstein case. From a media justice and feminist perspective (see Fraser. 2009; Silverstone. 2007; Couldry. 2013; Friedman and Johnston. 2013) I design an explanatory sequential mixed method study. In the first stage of the study I conduct a quantitative content analysis of 74 articles to explore wether the Epstein case may be reflected in the reporting on sex trafficking, more generally in the amount of coverage and its content. In the second stage of the study I conduct a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on a smaller sample of 6 articles, to gain insights into how are victims, perpetrators and patriarchal power abuses in the sex trade discursively constructed. The findings emerging from the study provide empirical evidence to suggest that: (I) marginalized women have unequal accesses to media recognition and representation in the studied sample. (II) These articles tend to underrepresent and misrepresent victims and survivors, their voices and experiences while prioritizing male, powerful and privileged ones. (III) The studied articles contain discourses that legitimize patriarchal views of sexual violence and slavery.

“Area restriction” is the umbrella term used for this thesis to consider geography-based, individually- assigned orders issued by criminal justice agents to remove and restrict targets from particular city spaces. This research focuses on 13 Canadian cities that use arrest-and-release area restriction strategies to managing street sex work(ers). Despite heavy criticism for their punitive nature, area restrictions have received little academic attention. This project takes an exploratory and descriptive approach to the issue in order to develop a platform for future research. Using qualitative, non-experimental methods it also critically analyzes the implementation, logic and reported impacts of the strategies while drawing implications for how area restrictions relate to citizenship statuses of sex workers by mapping exclusions onto the city. Multiple data sources were included but the most significant and compelling information comes from interviews with police officers and community agency workers. Findings suggest that area restriction strategies contribute to substantial social divides between sex workers and other community members, but also between sex workers and important services, resources and their community. At the same time, the strategy is reported as a “temporary relief” measure that is ineffective at lessening sex trade activity and often leads to displacement and dispersal of sex work(ers). However, collaborative efforts in some cities show promise for achieving goals of ‘helping sex workers off the street.’ Realistic recommendations for area restriction strategies are made that lead to more inclusive approaches that are considerate of needs and concerns of all interest groups linked to the “prostitution problem.”