CRIMINALIZATION IN THE SEX TRADE

Both prevention and intervention efforts have emphasized community collaborations between community organizations, healthcare, and government agencies, most often including law enforcement.

 

In order to successfully intercede in labor/sex trafficking, public health must fully understand how anti-trafficking approaches have been leveraged against marginalized individuals and communities, particularly through their criminalization and surveillance. This includes people trading sex who are not being trafficked, or not being forced, coerced, or defrauded into participating. The sex worker rights movement has long called for the decriminalization of the sex trade. Evidence suggests that full decriminalization may prevent more violence than other models, like full criminalization and partial criminalization (End Demand/the Nordic model). Systems of criminalization create conditions that set the stage for sex trafficking, increased proximity to state violence, increased social stigma, and reduced access to resources. Often, public health approaches to supporting both trafficking survivors and other participants in the sex trade involve partnerships with law enforcement. The following resources are curated to illustrate the harms of partnership with law enforcement when taking health approaches to reducing the harm in the sex trade. Updated 3/23/22.