'I Can Lead the Life That I Want to Lead': Social Harm, Human Needs and the Decriminalisation of Sex Work in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Towards a social harm approach in drug policy

In this paper, we explore how the social harm approach can be adapted within drug policy scholarship. Since the mid-2000s, a group of critical criminologists have moved beyond the concept of crime and criminology, towards the study of social harm. This turn proceeds decades of research that highlights the inequities within the criminal legal system, the formation of laws that protect the privileged and punish the disadvantaged, and the systemic challenge of the effectiveness of retribution and punishment at addressing harm in the community. The purpose of this paper is to first identify parallels between the social harm approach and critical drug scholarship, and second to advocate for the adoption of a social harm lens in drug policy scholarship. In the paper, we draw out the similarities between social harm and drug policy literatures, as well as outline what the study of social harm can bring to an analysis of drug policy. This includes a discussion on the ontology of drug crime, the myth of drug crime and the ineffective use of the crime control system in response to drug use. The paper then discusses how these conversations in critical criminology and critical drugs scholarship can be brought together to inform future drug policy research. This reflection details the link between social harm and the impingement of human flourishing, explores the role of decolonizing drug policy, advocates for the centralization of lived experience within the research process and outlines how this might align with harm reduction approaches. We conclude by arguing that the social harm approach challenges the idea that neutrality is the goal in drug policy and explicitly seeks to expand new avenues in activist research and social justice approaches to policymaking.

Motivation of sex workers who provide camming services to engage in sex with their real-life and virtual partners

In this study, the motivations of 80 sex workers who provide camming services (76 females and 4 non-binary/trans/gender fluid individuals; aged from 20 to 49 years, M = 30.68, SD = 6.43; 56.2% married or in a committed relationship, 18.8% in a non-committed relationship and 25% - single) were compared in terms of engaging in sexual activity with their real-life partners versus their virtual partners (predominantly kink-oriented clients). Presented with 16 reasons to engage in sexual activity, the respondents rated the frequency to engage in sex for each of these reasons with their real-life and virtual partners. Results showed that there were five reasons in which there were differences in motivation to engage in sex with real-life versus virtual partners and 11 reasons showed no differences. Specifically, respondents reported engaging in sex more often with their virtual partners to get resources and to experience a specific type of sex (kink), while they reported engaging in sex more often with their real-life partners to experience physical pleasure, motivated by physical desirability of a partner and to express love and commitment. However, for all other reasons that motivate people to engage in sex, including stress reduction, experience seeking, self-esteem boost, social status, revenge, utilitarian reasons, emotional expression, duty or pressure, thrill of the forbidden, mate guarding, and desire to have sex with a person of other gender, respondents engaged in sex equally frequently with their real-life and virtual partners (clients) and there were no statistical differences. This study adds to the existing research on sex work by providing insights into the motivations of sex workers to engage in sex with different partners and demonstrates that apart from common sense differences the reasons to engage in sex with clients and real-life partners are vastly similar.

Sex work stigma and the recuperation of moral personhood through gendered labour: sex worker diaries in Ukraine

Based on a diary writing exercise, this paper illuminates the complex ways in which sex workers in Ukraine actively work through and manage stigma in their daily lives. Pushing beyond the notion of stigma as a static and fixed psychosocial designation that can be readily measured, we argue that stigma is actively confronted by sex workers through various forms of gendered emotional and physical labour that enable them to recuperate a sense of moral personhood. This notion of moral personhood is often tied to wider gender-specific values pertaining to caregiving and motherhood.

Digital Exclusion and the Structural Barriers to Safety Strategies among Men and Non-Binary Sex Workers Who Solicit Clients Online

Background: Evidence shows that online solicitation facilitates sex workers’ ability to mitigate the risk of workplace violence. However, little is known about how end-demand sex work criminalization and the regulation of online sex work sites shape men and non-binary sex workers’ ability to maintain their own safety while soliciting services online. Methods: We conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with men and non-binary sex workers in British Columbia between 2020–2021 and examined their ability to enact safety strategies online in the context of end-demand criminalization. Analysis drew on a structural determinants of health framework. Results: Most participants emphasized that sex work is not inherently dangerous and described how soliciting services online facilitated their ability to enact personal safety strategies and remain in control of client interactions. However, participants also described how end-demand criminalization, sex work stigma, and restrictive website policies compromise their ability to solicit services online and to enact safety strategies. Conclusions: Alongside calls to decriminalize sex work, these findings emphasize the need to normalize sex work as a form of labour, promote access to online solicitation among men and non-binary sex workers, and develop standards for online sex work platforms in partnership with sex workers that prioritize sex worker safety.