Sex Work Governance Models: Variations in a Criminalized Context

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Sociology
• Criminology

Background:

• Current laws effectively criminalize sex workers, leading to severe impacts beyond arrest, including eviction, surveillance, and deportation.
• Though federal, these laws are implemented at the municipal level by local policy communities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and analyze different governance models in the implementation of prostitution laws.
• To understand the variability of a single law across diverse local contexts.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative, inductive study utilizing 65 semistructured interviews with local policy actors (2014-2016).
• Exploration of interactions among actors and organizations in Canadian cities implementing federal prostitution laws.

Main Results:

• Identified five distinct governance models within the criminalization framework.
• Surfaced diverse policy players (traditional and non-traditional) influencing law interpretation and implementation.
• Discovered ideational frames shaping actor dynamics and leading to varied governance models.

Conclusions:

• Demonstrates significant variability in how a single federal law is implemented locally.
• Contributes to understanding prostitution governance and broader policy/governance theory.
• Provides a foundation for future deductive studies on governance models in prostitution and other policy areas.