Sex work and sexual violence laws in each jurisdiction

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Scoular, Jane and Howard, Rachel and Brents, Barbara G. and Sanders, Teela and Abel, Gillian; Sanders, Teela and Scoular, Jane and Brents, Barbara G. and Balderston, Susie and Abel, Gillian, eds. (2025) Sex work and sexual violence laws in each jurisdiction. In: Voicing Consent. Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., Cham, pp. 19-52. ISBN 9783031777158 (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-77715-8_2)

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Abstract

This chapter lays out the various formal laws, legal regulations and court cases that directly concern prostitution, sexual violence, workers’ rights, and criminal justice processes, as pertinent to addressing unwanted sexual contact in the context of sex work. We discuss the formal law for each of our case-study jurisdictions: the UK (England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), Aotearoa New Zealand, and the USA (including Nevada, the only state where legal brothels exist). These details provide a legal backdrop for the empirical chapters that follow, which explore whether and how the legislative context affects sex workers’ attitudes, perceptions of, and behaviours towards the formal law and their experiences of the law.

ORCID iDs

Scoular, Jane ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6686-6494, Howard, Rachel, Brents, Barbara G., Sanders, Teela and Abel, Gillian; Sanders, Teela, Scoular, Jane, Brents, Barbara G., Balderston, Susie and Abel, Gillian
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)