Stigma, Ignorance, and Resistance: Agnotological issues in sex work law and policy making

• In Event: Sex-related crimes and Criminal Law

Abstract

Sex work laws are subject to intense debate globally, with conflicting views regarding the ideal approach. In the context of such debates, numerous studies have been undertaken in recent years documenting the tangible impacts of different forms of legislation on sex workers. However, in many cases new legislative approaches have been pursued and adopted despite the findings of empirical studies, and the advocacy of sex workers highlighting their harms. This raises important questions regarding which evidence is prioritised and/or side-lined in public debates and policy making spaces, whose voices are privileged, and the strategies that are used by those advocating for laws that sex workers oppose.
Drawing on examples from sex work policy making in New Zealand, Scotland, and the Republic of Ireland, In this paper I will explore what the lens of agnotology can offer to the analysis of sex work law debates and processes. I examine the ways in which ignorance may be manufactured by those in positions of power in order to (re)produce particular ideas about sex workers and sustain a narrative that favours criminalising policy approaches. I consider how this deliberate production of ignorance serves to reproduce and maintain stigma, subsequently undermining the resistance of sex workers and functioning as a barrier to decriminalisation and the realisation of rights.

Author

• Lynzi Armstrong, Victoria University of Wellington