The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of violent sexual ideology among a sample of clients of street prostitutes. Despite the abundance of feminist theory and research on prostitution and sexual violence, very little research examines clients of prostitutes, who have many opportunities to perpetrate sexual violence against women who engage in prostitution (Davis 1993). Because street prostitutes are structurally vulnerable to male violence due to the low respectability of their occupation, clients are especially important to study. Because violence against women and sex work has both been studied in relationship to masculinities, this study examined the relationship between marginalized masculinities and violent sexual ideology among 423 clients of street prostitutes. The sample studied was derived from the National Institute of Justice Clients of Street Prostitutes 1996-1999. Using OLS regressions, I determined the significant predictors of violent sexual ideology among these clients. I found that rape myth acceptance, frequency of pornography use, frequency of sex, age, frequency of thinking about sex, lower levels of sexual conservatism and lower levels of perceived attractiveness were significantly related to violent sexual ideology. / Master of Science

In 2007, one current and two former sex workers, Amy Lebovitch, Terri-Jean Bedford and Valerie Scott launched a charter challenge, Bedford v Canada, arguing that the prostitution provisions criminalizing bawdy houses (section 210), living on the avails (section 212 (1)(j)) and communicating for the purposes of prostitution (section 213.1 (c)) violated their section 7 rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Six years later, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously to strike down all three challenged laws, leaving a one-year period to construct a new regime on prostitution. On December 6, 2014, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) came into effect, criminalizing, for the first time, prostitution in Canada and introducing a law that replicates many of the provisions of the previous regime. This thesis uses semi-structured interviews and qualitative analysis to examine the experiences of nine street-based sex workers in Ottawa, paying particular attention to experiences after the introduction of the new law. Drawing on the work of Mead & Blumer’s symbolic interactionism theory and Goffman’s concept of stigma the thesis examines how embedded stereotypes in legislation ‘play out’ in the lives of sex workers. I argue that the interactions of sex workers in Ottawa are conditioned by stereotypical assumptions which in turn lead to their broader discrimination and marginalization. This study concludes by finding that the first objective of PCEPA, to protect those who sell their own sexual services, has not been met; instead, PCEPA has resulted in street-based sex workers in Ottawa assuming more risk, and in turn, facing more danger while on the job.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether and how the social services in the municipality of Falun is managing social work related to prostitution. It is a qualitative study based on three focus group interviews conducted in parts of the social services organization in the municipality of Falun. The empirical data collected was analyzed from an intersectional perspective. Several distinct findings emerged from the study. Social work against prostitution does not exist in the social services organization in the municipality of Falun. The organization possesses no procedures or guidelines for this kind of work, and no preventive work or cooperation with other organizations is carried out. It also emerged, that several social work officers had a stereotype image of who a potential sex- seller could be. This fact may influence who would be able to get any support from social services regarding to this social problem. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om och hur Falu kommuns socialtjänst arbetar gällande prostitution. Studien är en kvalitativ studie som baseras på tre fokusgruppsintervjuer utförda på delar av Falu kommuns socialtjänst. Den insamlade empirin har analyserats utifrån ett intersektionalitetsperspektiv. Resultatet av studien var entydigt, arbete riktat mot prostitution förekommer inte på socialtjänsten i Falu kommun. Verksamheten besitter inga rutiner eller riktlinjer för detta arbete, och inget förebyggande arbete eller något samarbete med andra organisationer eller myndigheter utförs. Det framkom även att handläggarna hade en stereotyp bild av vem som är en potentiell sexsäljare, något som kan komma att påverka vem som skulle kunna få ett eventuellt stöd från socialtjänsten gällande denna problematik.

The aim of this study is to nuance the stigmatized image through which sex workers are often portrayed in today’s society. To this end, we describe and analyze female sex workers' thoughts on and experiences with sex work. Our analysis of these experiences sheds light on how the agency of sex workers can manifest itself within the structure of the environment they live in. We use Goffman's (2011) theory on stigma and Gidden's (1984) structuration theory as our theoretical framework, and conduct four interviews with female sex workers in Stockholm (Sweden). All participants demonstrated agency inter alia through different strategies but, at the same time, had to adjust to society's structure and the stigma attached to it. However, our study suggests that sex work in itself did not have a negative impact on the participants. Instead, the negative aspects that the participants in some cases had experienced through selling sex were consequences of factors both unrelated and indirectly related to sex work, stigma being one of them.

This exploratory study will examine how the Internet is used by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth to cope with homelessness. It will also examine what the potential risks and benefits of LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness using the Internet for support. Many marginalized groups, including homeless people, use the Internet as a resource, as well as a means of finding social acceptance (Berg 2012, ASA 2012). LGBTQ youth also use the Internet to connect with peers (Lever, Grove, Royce and Gillespie 2008). Using an extended case study research design, this work examines how homelessness is navigated by LGBTQ youth, primarily through the Internet, and how traditional means of support (i.e. shelters) can better meet the special needs of this population.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the relationship between spatial politics and sex work in order to demonstrate how spatial exclusion can be used to consolidate power imbalances in the public sphere. To achieve this, this thesis explores and compares the situations between two countries with opposing approaches to sex work – abolitionism in Sweden and decriminalisation in the Netherlands. Frame analysis is used to examine how these two states diagnose sex work as a problem and propose and justify solutions. This thesis finds that, despite the differing ideological standpoints towards sex work, the consequences of the differing legislative approaches of these two countries are more similar than might be expected, in relation to spatial politics. Both approaches to sex work result in the spatial exclusion of sex workers, tangibly from the urban environment and normatively from public debate. This result has significant ramifications. By rendering sex work invisible to the public eye, many sex workers are forced into less stable and less secure working conditions. Given that both the Dutch and Swedish approaches to sex work legislation are justified under the guise of promoting women’s rights, this issue is extremely significant and deserves further analytical interest.

This thesis deals with part of the current research about prostitution/ sex work in Sweden and Germany. While prostitution/ sex work is partly criminalized in Sweden, the German law is currently designed to improve the legal situation of prostitutes/ sex worker. Both countries offer a different range of research on the topic with Sweden having several scholars who focused their research on the field compared to rather little research in Germany. Assistant Professor at the Social Work Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Lara Gerassi, argues that besides the general lack of research on the field of prostitution/ sex work, the research that exists focuses more on the macro level perspectives and leaves the micro level with not a lot of research. Existing research, she claims, then shows little empirical support. The thesis will conclude that there is indeed too little research in both countries, especially within the micro level perspective and that the field needs an increased amount of research to help understand the field better and to be able to adapt the laws and regulations according to the needs.

This dissertation argues that the material conditions of many street sex workers--the physical environments they live in and their effects on the workers' bodies, identities, and spirits--are represented, reproduced, and entrenched in the language surrounding their work. My research is an ethnographic case study of a local system that can be extrapolated to other subcultures and the construction of identities, while situating sex work and the industry as rhetorical constructions. My research offers an example of how an examination of the signs and symbols that comprise "material conditions" can be rhetorically analyzed in order to better understand how goals, agendas, interests, and ideologies are represented and implemented through language.Located central to my analysis are the street sex workers' voices. I use an ideological rhetorical analysis, or rhetorically--the study of how language shapes and is shaped by cultures, institutions, and the individuals within them, and ideologically--the identification and examination of the underlying assumptions of communicative interactions. I delineate how these material conditions are reproduced and, at times, subverted, and I offer an outline for modifying the discourse used in policy in ways that are more empowering and authentic to sex workers' lives.Policy makers, activists, and academics, among others, wrestle with complicated issues to analyze and write laws and policies and to design social services. Discourse is always at the center of these struggles. Because my study investigates the language of policy-making and the people who forge it, it has implications for ethics and policy in relation to gender studies, cultural studies, and ethnographic research.Examining the rhetorical constructions and interactions and their related effects on policy elucidates the discursive complexity that exists in meaning-making systems. This analysis also offers an explanation of how constructions can be made differently in order to achieve representations that are generated by the marginalized populations themselves, while placing responsibility for this marginalization on the society in which these people live.

Robert Agnew’s general strain theory (1992, 2001, 2006a) proposes that strain leads to crime and deviance. Substance use is a specific type of criminal behaviour that the theory attempts to explain. This thesis uses general strain theory to examine how a number of specific types of strain – homelessness, childhood abuse, criminal victimisation, and sex work – are related to substance use. In addition, the relationships between strain and negative emotions are examined. This thesis also examines how the relationships between strain and substance use are conditioned by negative emotionality/low constraint, deviant peers, deviant values, coping skills, self-esteem, and emotional support. Finally, the role of gender in all of the above-mentioned relationships is explored. In short, this thesis represents a fairly comprehensive test of general strain theory as it applies to substance use. In order to conduct this test, data was obtained between May 2009 and August 2010 by administering a survey to 400 homeless street youth in Toronto, Ontario. The results yield substantial support for some of GST’s main propositions. In particular, support is found for hypothesized relationships between strain and substance use as well as strain and negative emotions. Additionally, certain factors are found to condition the relationships between strain and substance use. Finally, gender differences in the relationships between strain and substance use are observed. These supportive results suggest that general strain theory is a novel way of explaining substance use by homeless street youth in Canada. Consequently, suggestions for future research and social policy are offered. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 02:09:39.94

This ethnography explores the practice of sex tourism in Negril, Jamaica, and its sociocultural, economic, and health impacts on the popular tourist destination. Transactional sex with female tourists has become a popular income generator for some young Caribbean males who are excluded from formal employment in the region's leading industry. Like other resort locales, Negril draws both men and women from various parts of the country who choose to engage in sex work in order to benefit from the tourist dollars spent in Jamaica's third most popular resort area. Through the analysis of observations, interviews with residents, tourists, government officials, and health practitioners, as well as life histories of men involved in sex tourism, this study seeks to contribute to current literature on the practice and reveal its impact on the people of this particular locale. Additionally, relevant health data is utilized to examine the connection between sexual health and sex tourism locally, and to offer recommendations for effectively targeting male sex workers through risk reduction programs. This research takes a political economy perspective and applies relevant theoretical contributions from the anthropology of tourism, Caribbean gender theory, and gender performativity.