Sozialarbeit und Sexarbeit - SOPHIE-BildungsRaum

Social work and sex work
An empirical study about the professional intercourse of social workers
with sex workers
The focus of this work is the professional contact and experience of social workers
from all fields of social work with sex workers. Based on the facts gained from the
research that show social workers’ lack of knowledge regarding the legal standards
of prostitution, as well as a high probability of job-related confrontation, this thesis
analyses, how social workers are trained to deal with prostitution. At first the socio-
political embedding of prostitution is described followed by the requirement of
intensive support due to the specific problems and handicaps arising from the
occupation as a sex worker. How social work serves these needs is examined in the
following chapters. It seems that the task of giving support as well as the
confrontation with this issue are pushed off to the insufficient number of specialized
facilities. In order to achieve the goal of maximizing the resources of social work to
ameliorate the legal and social conditions for sex workers, the author who has been
working as a social worker with sex workers for many years offers recommendations
to the field of social work.
II