Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T09:13:09.565Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anti-Social Powers and the Regulation of Street Sex Work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2009

Tracey Sagar
Tracey Sagar*
Affiliation:
Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice, Swansea University E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article focuses on the use of anti-social behavior powers in relation to a group of vulnerable women – street sex workers. It illustrates how the use of legal tools – anti-social behavior orders and public nuisance injunctions – against sex workers has been both misplaced and ineffective. The article also considers the use of anti-social powers in light of the government's leaning towards the coercive (or some might argue the compulsory) rehabilitation of sex workers. In doing so, it draws attention to the lack of research on the impact of both exclusion orders and rehabilitation orders for sex workers. Whilst it is important to fill this knowledge gap, it is argued that future investigations in this area would benefit from social network research approaches.

Type
Themed section on Disciplining Difference
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 101 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bindel, J. (2008a), ‘It's abuse and a life of hell’, The Guardian, 29 February.Google Scholar
Bindel, J. (2008b), ‘Revealed: the truth about brothels’, The Guardian, 10 September.Google Scholar
Birmingham City Council, Legal Services (2004), ‘Crime and disorder, anti-social behaviour’, Briefing Note (2002/2004).Google Scholar
Brown, A. (2004), ‘Anti-social behaviour, crime control and social control’, The Howard Journal, 43, 2, 203–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coy, M. (2008), ‘Young women, local authority care and selling sex: findings from research’, British Journal of Social Work, 38, 1408–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cusick, L. (2005), ‘Prioritizing punitive responses over public health: commentary on the Home Office Consultation document Paying the Price’, Critical Social Policy, 25, 4, 596–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cusick, L. and Self, H. (2005), ‘Response to the proposals set out in “Being outside: constructing a response to street prostitution a report of the Expert Group on Prostitution in Scotland”’, for the UK Network of Sex Work Projects UKNSWP, available at http://www.nswp.org/pdf/cusick-self-20060818.pdf.Google Scholar
Fischer, B. (2003), ‘Doing good with a vengeance: a critical assessment of the practices, effects and implications of drug treatment courts in North America’, Criminal Justice, 3, 3, 227–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garret, P. M. (2007), ‘Making “anti-social behaviour”: a fragment of the evolution of “ASBO politics” in Britain’, British Journal of Social Work, 37, 839–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansard (2009), General Committee Debates, Public Bill Committee, Policing and Crime Bill, Tuesday 10 February 2009 (afternoon), available at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmpublic/policing/090210/pm/90210s01.htmGoogle Scholar
Home Affairs Select Committee (2005), Memorandum submitted by NAPO to Home Affairs Select Committee, Fifth Report, 22 March 2005, available at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmhaff/80/80we20.htmGoogle Scholar
Home Office (2000), Anti-Social Behaviour Orders: Guidance on Drawing up Local ASBO Protocol, London: Home Office.Google Scholar
Home Office (2003), Respect and Responsibility: Taking a Stand Against Anti-Social Behaviour, London: Home Office.Google Scholar
Home Office (2004), Paying the Price: A Consultation Paper on Prostitution, London: Home Office.Google Scholar
Home Office (2006), A Co-ordinated Prostitution Strategy and a Summary of Responses to Paying the Price, ref.272136, COI on behalf of the Home Office, London.Google Scholar
Home Office (2007), ‘Drug Interventions Programme (DIP): good practice guide to increasing the engagement of adults involved in prostitution within the Drug Interventions Programme’, available at http://drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk/publication-search/dip/prostitution_guidance?view=Binary.Google Scholar
Hunter, C. and Nixon, J. (2001), ‘Taking the blame and losing the home: women and anti-social behaviour’, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 23, 4, 395–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, G., May, T. and the Drug Strategy Directorate (2004), Solutions and Strategies – Drug Problems and Street Sex Markets: Guidance for Partnerships and Providers, London: Home Office.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, H. and Sagar, T. (2001), ‘The Crime and Disorder Act 1998: Prostitution and the Anti-Social Behaviour Order’, Criminal Law Review, 873–85.Google Scholar
Lambeth Council (2008), ‘First injunctions issued in Lambeth's sex trade clampdown’, available at http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/News/PressReleases/PressReleaseArchive/2008/121108FirstInjunctionsIssuedInLambethsSexTradeClampDown.htm, accessed 26 April 2009.Google Scholar
Lister, R. (2006), ‘Children (but not women) first: New Labour, child welfare and gender’, Critical Social Policy, 26, 2, 315–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longshore, D. and Teruya, C. (2006), ‘Treatment motivation in drug users: a theory-based analysis’, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 81, 2, 179–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lopez-Jones, N. (ed.) (2000), Some Mother's Daughter – The Hidden Movement of Prostitute Women against Violence, London: Crossroads Books.
Lowman, J. (1992), ‘Street prostitution control: some Canadian reflections on the Finsbury Park experience’, British Journal of Criminology, 32, 1, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsden, P. (2006), ‘Network methods in social epidemiology’, in Oakes, J. M. and Kaufman, J. S. (eds.), Methods in Social Epidemiology, Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
McLeod, E. (1982), Working Women: Prostitution Now, London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
McNaughton, C. C. and Sanders, T. (2007), ‘Housing and transitional phases out of ‘disordered’ lives: the case of leaving homelessness and street sex work’, Housing Studies, 1466–1810, 22, 6, 885–900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McSweeney, T., Stevens, A., Hunt, N. and Turnbull, P. J. (2007), ‘Twisting arms or a helping hand?’, British Journal of Criminology, 47, 470–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melrose, M. (2007), ‘The government's new prostitution strategy: a cheap fix for drug-using sex workers?’, Community Safety Journal, 6, 1, 18–26.Google Scholar
Nixon, J. and Hunter, C. (2009), forthcoming), ‘Disciplining women and the governance of conduct’, in Millie, A. (ed.), ‘Securing Respect: Behavioural Expectations and Anti-Social Behaviour in the UK’, Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
O'Neill, M. (2007), ‘Community safety, rights and recognition: towards a coordinated prostitution strategy?’, Community Safety Journal, 6, 1, 45–52.Google Scholar
Pitcher, J., Campbell, R., Hubbard, P., O'Neill, M. and Scoular, J. (2006), Living and Working in Areas of Street Sex Work, Bristol: Policy Press, published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Sagar, T. (2002), ‘Reconstructing the approach to street prostitution: a framework for the implementation of inclusive multi-agency crime prevention strategies’, Doctorial Thesis, Cardiff Law School.Google Scholar
Sagar, T. (2007), ‘Tackling on-street sex work: anti-social behaviour orders, sex workers and inclusive inter-agency initiatives’, Criminology and Criminal Justice, 7, 2, 153–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sagar, T. (2008), ‘Public nuisance injunctions against on-street sex workers?’, Criminal Law Review, 5, 353–70.Google Scholar
Sanders, T. (2004), ‘A continuum of risk? The management of health, physical and emotional risks by female sex workers’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 26, 5, 557–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sanders, T. (2007), ‘Becoming an ex-sex worker: making transitions out of a deviant career’, Feminist Criminology, 2, 1, 74–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seddon, T. (2007), ‘Coerced drug treatment in the criminal justice system: conceptual, ethical and criminological issues’, Criminology and Criminal Justice, 7, 3, 269–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scoular, J. and O'Neill, M. (2007), ‘Regulating prostitution: social inclusion, responsibilization and the politics of prostitution reform’, British Journal of Criminology, 47, 764–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sloss, C. M. and Harper, G. W. (2004), ‘When street sex workers are mothers’, Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 33, 4, 329–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spinney, A., Nixon, J. And Hunter, C. (2006), ‘The gendered nature of policy discourse: patriarchy pathology or is there a third way?’, paper presented at the ENHR conference ‘Housing in an expanding Europe: theory, policy, participation and implementation’, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2–5 July 2006.Google Scholar
UKNSWP (2004), ‘United Kingdom network of sex work projects response to “Paying the Price”’, available at http://www.uknswp.org/UKNSWP_Paying_the_Price_response.pdfGoogle Scholar
Weitzer, R. (2007), ‘The social construction of sex trafficking: ideology and institutionalization of a moral crusade’, Politics and Society, 35, 3, 447–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfenden, Sir John (1957), Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, Cmnd 247, London: HMSO.Google Scholar