Sex workers are not only acted upon by medical, moral and legal discourses due to the risk they present to their own health but also due to the perceived risk they pose to the health of others. The diverse settings and different ways in which sex can be sold, combined with previous life experiences contribute to the wide variation in need and risk. This thesis investigates the differential understandings of need, risk, access to and provision of health care between sex workers and health care service providers. Simultaneously it offers an explanation for the continuation of need when health care provision exists. Four discursive themes directed the research: need, risk, access and provision. Data was obtained from semi-structured interviews with street and non-street sex workers and service providers. Discourse analysis was performed to ascertain the conditions, rules and authority under which statements in relation to the discursive themes are constructed. Thematic indexing enabled the analysis of the discursive themes within the empirical data, considering the inter-relationship with discursive constructs (i.e. stigma, safety, pollution, rights and power) identified within previous moral, medical and legal discourse. Sex workers and service providers identified need and risk as problematic drug use, damaged mental health, STIs and violence, but categorise and prioritise differently. Complex constructions were identified, suggesting underlying influences that direct them. Contradictions and tensions exist within the differential construction of the discursive themes, made more problematic by the chaotic lifestyle of many sex workers. The differential understandings must be recognised or the sex worker will continue to be 'maintained' within the complex and interlinked relationships of prostitution, damaged mental health and problematic drug use, the latter two made worse by prostitution but not solely a result of prostituting.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:428357 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Leaney, Zelda |
| Publisher | University of Bath |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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