The Perils of “Protection”: Sex Workers’ Experiences of Law Enforcement in Ontario

New resource from the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network: The Perils of “Protection”: Sex Workers’ Experiences of Law Enforcement in Ontario (pdf).

 

Excerpt: The Sex Work Documentation Project was borne from a need identified by sex worker advocates and allies to document sex workers’ experiences with law enforcement — exploring the ways in which myriad criminal, immigration, human trafficking, municipal and other laws and law enforcement practices affect sex workers’ lives.

Inspired by participatory models of research, the project involved sex workers and sex worker advocates in the development of the research questions, questionnaire, methodology, analysis and presentation of the findings. It also modeled the ethical process and consent documentation from other participatory models of research with sex working communities. As a member of the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform — an alliance of more than 28 sex worker rights and close allied groups working towards the safety of communities and reform of Canada’s sex work laws — and as a result of our work with sex workers and sex worker rights communities, we were able to connect with sex workers across Ontario who had encountered law enforcement in the context of their sex work, to tell their stories.

 

Read full post on the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network site

Read The Perils of “Protection”: Sex Workers’ Experiences of Law Enforcement in Ontario (pdf).

Learn more about the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network