Commitments to Sex Work: An Exploration of Intersectionalities

• In Event: Quitting the Sex Trade: Pimps and Sex Workers and their Various Forms of Exiting

Abstract

Existing literature on the decision to engage in street sex work often focuses on the social and structural factors that had initially pulled or pushed an individual into the sex market. Such factors have also been associated with strategies used to "exit" sex work, an event that marks the end of involvement. Infrequently considered in this discussion of sex work trajectories is desistance, which entails a decision-making process to stop selling sex resulting from social transitions (turning points) and identity transformation (Laub & Sampson, 2001). Some scholars hold that desistance is achieved only when primary concerns in life are addressed and that merely hoping for change can lead to self-reflection by way of internal-dialogue, through which personal agency is realized (e.g., Vaughan, 2007; O’Neill & Campbell, 2010; Archer, 2007). Given the complexities of personal identity, rather than continue to employ standard methodology and produce quantitative findings exit strategies, I explore patterns of continuity in and desistance from sex work using 2013-2014 data from an ethnographic and qualitative biographical study involving interviews with 15 transgender and 19 females ages 18 to 30 who had sold sex in NYC. The theme related to sex work commitments, grounded on intersectionalities, is discussed.

Author

• Amalia Paladino, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY