1 Regulating Sex Work Adrienne D. Davis VERY ROUGH DRAFT ...

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In contrast to this institutional form, face-to-face sexual services that occur in commercial establishments can pose a greater risk to workers. Brothels typically have private rooms in which the prostitutes provide services to clients; similarly, some dance clubs offer separate rooms or lounges for customers who want private lap-dances or massages. It is during these interactions, while isolated from others, that clients are most likely to assault or threaten workers. [find a good quote] In addition, as described above, many assaults and threats against sex professionals occur when they are leaving the establishment, i.e., in parking lots, on the street, etc. Although commercial establishments have a heightened risk of violence, these institutions are arguably the easiest to regulate for worker safety. Mandatory protections in sexual commercial establishments might include bodyguards, panic buttons, a security service, escorts out of the workplace, and surveillance if appropriate. 251 [fill in other relevant guidelines from New Zealand?] All of the regulations of this institutional form rest on two principles. The first is to ameliorate the risk correlated with isolation through surveillance and/or empowering the worker to quickly call on others. The second is to make the operator, not the worker, responsible for the risk reduction. As in other workplaces compliance with these requirements would be a condition of licensing for operators of these establishments. 252 “Scores” akin to restaurant sanitation ratings could be publicly posted to alert workers and customers alike to the potential for conditions that might compromise their safety. It is the final institutional form that generates the greatest risk of violence. In this sexual geography, workers physically interact with clients but outside of dedicated commercial establishments. Unlike those who work in brothels or clubs, these sex workers largely provide their sexual services in private homes, theirs or their clients’, rented spaces such as hotel rooms, or on the street or other public places. 253 They might work independently or for a third party intermediary, such as an escort service or [what is the term for an agency that sends outcall dancers?]. The defining characteristic of this sexual geography is its absence of an institutional infrastructure. Unlike brothel or club workers, outcall, street, and home-based workers serve clients in unregulated private contexts without any structural supports. These workers may serve multiple clients simultaneously, but do so without co-workers, managers, or even other customers who have a stake in the on-going stability of the enterprise, including the safety of its workers. 254 The presence of other stakeholders can provide formal or informal security for sex workers. In addition, in outcall or street work, unlike brothels and clubs, the law cannot mandate a thick security apparatus—panic buttons, security guards or bouncers, surveillance—because there is no stable worksite to regulate. <strong>Sex</strong> professionals working out of their own home have greater control over their circumstances, but even they may struggle to reduce risk. 255 If the worker is an independent contractor, working without a 251 Some brothels and clubs already include these safeguards. <strong>Work</strong>ers recognize and discuss risk management as they differentiate among worksites. See, e.g., BROOKS, supra note [x], at [pincite.] [Contra the bodyguard concern, informal practices at brothels include “a madam’s stationing herself near a room if she is concerned about the safety of a particular prostitute.” McGinley 105 fn omitted] 252 253 Duke LAX rented house. 254 Domestic worker literature. 255 Many high-end prostitutes would resist this regulation, contending that they rely on closely monitored referral networks to carefully screen their clients and protect themselves. My point is that if they 42
manager or intermediary, then she must absorb the costs of security completely on her own and cannot achieve the economies of scale that brothel and club operators can achieve with security systems and guards. Independent sex professionals may also resist revealing their profession to others and may resist the security apparatus that could compromise their privacy. Hence, because of its lack of institutional infrastructure and isolation, this sexual geography poses the greatest risk of violence and is the hardest to regulate. Recognizing these particular risks posed by outcall work, New Zealand has issued specific guidelines and protocols that include panic buttons, cell phones, as well as recommendations to carry flashlights in case of poor lighting. 256 [check other recommendations re outcall workers] Another protocol might be check-in systems, in which sex workers can confidentially document their schedule with the relevant customer information. This could function akin to an answering service or we could anticipate software companies creating applications that would store such information on the internet. (Regulations might also mandate body guards for outcall workers and those who work out of their own homes or other isolated venues, although this might make the cost unaffordable to most customers.) Finally, hotels could target sex work, offering rooms that provide security akin to brothels. For both third party intermediaries and sole proprietors, adhering to regulations would be a condition of licensing. In sum, when viewed on a continuum of sexual geographies, the more isolated the work the more danger it presents to the worker. Virtual interactions and minimal physical interactions with third party intermediaries are the safest as long as workers preserve their anonymity. Commercial establishments, i.e., club dancing and brothel prostitution, can pose significant risks but are the most susceptible to regulatory interventions that can increase worker safety. Regulations can require operators to provide a thick security apparatus as a condition of licensing. Finally, unlike brothels and clubs, in informal sexual geographies without a stable infrastructure workers are at the most risk. There is no stable worksite to regulate, i.e., require panic buttons, security, surveillance, and the worker is isolated from others who might provide formal or informal security. These workplaces will pose the greatest regulatory challenge, but New Zealand’s protocols provide a starting point. No regulation will eliminate the risk of violence of course; that is as impossible as it is in non-sexual workplaces. However, by taking seriously the institutional forms violence takes in sexual workplaces, we can certainly align sex work with the harm reduction approach found in other workplace safety regulation. Others have differentiated forms of sex work. 257 Yet, none of these differentiate professional sex along its institutional or organizational form, or what I call its sexual geography. The innovation of the sexual geography approach is that it replaces the common sex work classifications with one based on institutional form and risk. Most classifications of sex work tend/distinguish it according to legality or morality. In miscalculate, there are no protections in place from client violence. In particular, those who work out of their homes are vulnerable to stalking and harassing behavior. 256 From the health axis of risk management, the New Zealand guidelines also encourage outcall workers to inspect the premises and [fill in]. See infra note [x] and accompanying text. 257 And sex workers themselves have finely tuned senses of internal differentiation. Dancers often distance themselves from prostitutes[Strippers separate from]. 43
Page 1 and 2: Regulating Sex Work Adrienne D. Dav
Page 3 and 4: and the diversity of sex work. Even
Page 5 and 6: which is not. Sex in the course of
Page 7 and 8: Elizabeth Emens has called a “lit
Page 9 and 10: injuries and harms of commodified s
Page 11 and 12: Grounded in labor discourse, the te
Page 13 and 14: criminalization of markets for sex
Page 15 and 16: libertarian position: “A woman’
Page 17 and 18: In sum, exceptionalists take a libe
Page 19 and 20: compensation statutes, as well as s
Page 21 and 22: stakeholders in the sex trade, cust
Page 23 and 24: egulated by discrimination law, eit
Page 25 and 26: egulations. 128 Although criticized
Page 27 and 28: most vulnerable to workplace violen
Page 29 and 30: and other employment terms on the b
Page 31 and 32: Hence, privacy and sexual gratifica
Page 33 and 34: diversity of workplaces. Within the
Page 35 and 36: states. 197 Finally, the “status
Page 37 and 38: gender ratios, homosociality, and a
Page 39 and 40: fact, anti-prostitution activist an
Page 41: other types of risks and hazards, s
Page 45 and 46: Let me anticipate some objections.
Page 47 and 48: When confronting harassment by cust
Page 49 and 50: discriminatory preferences, however
Page 51 and 52: Alternatively, sex work could be re
Page 53 and 54: For several reasons, historically m
Page 55 and 56: prostitute, while suffering stigma
Page 57 and 58: legally, independently “undergrou

1 Regulating Sex Work Adrienne D. Davis VERY ROUGH DRAFT ...

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