Bad Date Lists: Exploring Community-based Violence Intervention Tools in the Commercial Sex Trade

• In Event: Technological Dimensions of Victimization and Prevention

Abstract

In the US, the commercial sex trade is largely criminalized, driving sex work underground and leaving sex workers vulnerable to a number of occupational health and safety risks, including physical and sexual victimization. As a result, sex workers have begun to use electronic occupational health and safety tools to mitigate these risks. An example is a “Bad Date List” (BDL), which is a community-based violence intervention tool utilized by sex workers to anonymously share information regarding “bad dates.” A Bad Date may be any person who threatens, behaves violently towards, robs, extorts, or engages in any behavior that violates the agreed upon terms and boundaries of the exchange. To explore how BDL’s may protect sex workers from victimization through dissemination of information, we collected all publicly available BDLs in the US (n = 120) and examined them using a Directed Qualitative Content Analysis to explore the information they report and how that information may motivate sex workers to take additional precautions while working. Practical and theoretical implications of our results are discussed.

Authors

• Lauren N. Moton, New York University

• Stacie Merken, Indiana University South Bend