Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction
- Part One Lead-up to the passing of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act
- Part Two Implementation and impact of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act: the first five years
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
eight - Brothel operators’ and support agencies’ experiences of decriminalisation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction
- Part One Lead-up to the passing of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act
- Part Two Implementation and impact of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act: the first five years
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
Summary
The material presented in this chapter is based on a research project carried out by the Crime and Justice Research Centre of Victoria University (Mossman, 2007). The research was commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to assist the Prostitution Law Review Committee (PLRC) in its review of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act (PRA). The research brief was to interview brothel operators and community support agencies to ascertain their perspectives on the impact of the PRA on sex workers and the sex industry generally.
This particular study was one of a series of research projects outlined in an evaluation framework to review the PRA developed for the Ministry of Justice in 2005 (Mossman, 2005). The framework was created through careful consideration of the content and aims of the PRA as well as the specific review requirements laid out in the Act, with the objective of developing a series of research tasks that would best address the requirements for this review (Mossman, 2005).
What became clear in developing the evaluation framework was the importance of considering a wide range of perspectives. Of key importance were the views and experiences of the impact of the PRA on the sex workers themselves, a topic that was comprehensively studied by the University of Otago, Christchurch School of Medicine (CSoM) in one of the largest pieces of research on sex workers in New Zealand and also internationally (Abel et al, 2007). Details of this study are presented in Chapter Ten and some of the findings are discussed in Chapters Eleven to Fourteen. Another important group were the various government agencies (for example, the police force, Ministry of Health and Department of Labour) and territorial authorities that had specific responsibilities under the PRA. The Ministry of Justice was given the task of assessing the perspectives of these groups, together with special interest groups and the general public. This left the perspectives of two other key groups: the community agencies that are active in providing support, advocacy, education and health services to sex workers, such as the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective (NZPC), health services, youth organisations, and cultural and religious groups; and the brothel operators, another group directly affected by the PRA.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Taking the Crime out of Sex WorkNew Zealand Sex Workers' Fight for Decriminalisation, pp. 119 - 140Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2010