Legal Service Needs and Utilization of Women Who Trade Sex

Abstract

Women who trade sex for money or drugs experience extensive victimization and criminalization and could benefit from legal services. In this study, 91 women currently trading sex disclosed experiences of community, intimate partner, societal, and police abuse, and a history of arrests and incarcerations. The majority of respondents indicated a need for services to help with abuse, violence, and/or legal problems, yet they reported a low perceived need and even lower use of legal services. The women revealed a higher tendency of disclosing their legal and abuse history to spiritual, mental health, and addiction service providers, than to legal service providers. The most frequently reported barrier to their legal service utilization was mistrust of the police and legal system, in part due to prior negative experiences and their own criminal status. Other barriers included fearing and protecting their perpetrators, wanting privacy, and using substances. The implications of the criminalization of sex work are discussed with regard to its impact on female sex traders' vulnerability to abuse and their use of legal services.

Effects of Ecologically‐Based Family Therapy with substance‐using, prostituting mothers

“…Reports indicate that many women seeking substance use treatment engage in prostitution (40 per cent), and the majority (91 per cent) have children in their care (Burnette et al ., ; Sloss, ). Compared to non‐prostituting women, these women report higher rates of substance use and depressive symptoms, but few efforts to document effective intervention with this population are available.…”

“…Interpersonal stress associated with parenting has been linked to greater risk of relapse and poorer substance use outcomes among women (Denton et al ., ; Hodgkinson et al ., ). The majority of women (91 per cent) engaging in prostitution have children in their care (Sloss, ). These women are typically single mothers who report high rates of removal of their children from their custody and poor mother‐child relationship quality (Dalla, ; Dodsworth, ).…”

The Girl Is Mine

“…Articles in this area examined the impact of welfare reform on women’s economic independence (see Ratinthorn, Meleis, & Sindhu, 2009; Scott et al, 2002) and the need for gendered approaches to service delivery (see Karandikar, 2008; Pinkham & Malinowska-Sempruch, 2008; Zweig et al, 2002). Sloss and Harper (2010) discussed the negative consequences of sex work criminalization on women’s help-seeking behavior. Similarly, Wahed and Bhuiya (2007) discussed how the high acceptability of violence against women in Bangladesh was a deterrent for women seeking legal redress from abusers.…”

Narratives of Managing Security Threat and Harassment among Sex Workers in Nairobi, Kenya

“…Such efforts that sex workers use to deal with harassment from law enforcers and vigilante groups serves to show that in the hands of the two, sex work has been demonized as illegal and the only way such people can assume it as correct is only when sex workers part with their money and body and these groups turn their heads the other way pretending to be blind of the existence of sex work as they continue to benefit from such acts. Similarly, Sloss and Harper (2010), produced results that indicated a range of potential harm by police towards female sex workers in America.…”