Vulnerability and involvement in drug use and ... - Sex Work Europe

5 ‘Trapping’ and ‘exiting’
Analytical procedure
Here ‘exiting’ means a process of withdrawing from an activity, particularly the processes of
exiting from problematic drug use and/or sex work. Three steps were used to understand
these processes in the context of linkages between problematic drug use and sex work.
● Step one was the categorisation of each participant according to their exposure
to the three factors so far discovered to have ‘trapping potential’.
● Step two was making predictions. The more ‘trapping factors’ a participant had
been exposed to the more strongly the prediction that they might become ‘trapped’
in the mutually re i n f o rcing aspects of problematic drug use and sex work.
● Step three was a comparison of participants’ exiting experiences with the
‘trapping predictions’.
Step one: categorising participants according to their exposure to ‘trapping factors’
In this report so far, it has been shown that outdoor and independent drift sex work sectors
a re linked to problematic drug use. Participants who mainly worked in these sectors are
categorised as exposed to this ‘trapping factor’.
The mean age both of first ‘hard drug’ use and of first sex work was lower among
participants reporting problem drug use than among those reporting no problem drug use.
Further, since youth vulnerability is a principal concern, participants with pre-18 experience
of ‘hard drug’ use and/or pre-18 experience of prostitution are categorised as exposed to
this trapping factor.
The third and final trapping factor acknowledges the potential reinforcing effects of other
vulnerability experiences. Statistically significant relationships were found between sex
workers’ problematic drug use and their experience of being ‘looked after’ and of
homelessness/ insecure housing. The qualitative data and emerging findings from other
studies in the Vulnerable Groups Research Programme suggest that running away fro m
home or leaving home before age 16; having criminal convictions; and reporting one or
more abusive pimps may also have trapping potential. Experience of one or more of these
are categorised as the third trapping factor.
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