Network in the North Against Prostitution and Violence The Sami have organized against the institution of prostitution. The Sami are indigenous peoples in what is now Scandinavia, Finland, Lapland, and Russia.

Prostitution Research

• Split at the Root: Prostitution and Feminist Discourses of Law Reform
  

  Margaret Baldwin, 1992

  What are the effects of creating a separation between 'prostitutes' and all 'other women'? What happens when women involved in prostitution are examined by different standards? Baldwin examines the ways in which the prostitute/'other woman' dichotomy gives meaning to sexual abuse of women and girls, how it affects the legal responses to abuse, and its impact on feminist reform strategies.

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• Garden of Truth: The Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota
  

  October 27, 2011
  Melissa Farley, Nicole Matthews, Sarah Deer, Guadalupe Lopez, Christine Stark, Eileen Hudon

  A research study about the prostitution and trafficking of 105 Native Women produced by Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition and Prostitution Research & Education has found that:
  

  
  
  • The women were prostituted and trafficked in multiple locations including indoor (strip cubs, private homes, hotels, bars, escort) and street prostitution.
  
  
  • About half of the women had been trafficked, almost all engaged in prostitution in order to survive, often under pimp or gang control.
  
  
  • Extreme and frequent violence was committed against these women over the course of their lives. 79% had been sexually assaulted by an average of 4 perpetrators. 92% had been raped. 84% had been physically assaulted in prostitution. 72% had suffered traumatic brain injuries from violence in prostitution.
  
  
  • Racism was linked to sexism in prostitution and caused the women great emotional distress.
  
  
  • A majority of the women had symptoms of PTSD and dissociation as a result of sexual violence.
  
  
  • 98% of the women were currently or previously homeless; 92% wanted to escape prostitution but did not have other options.
  
  
  • Many women expressed a need for counseling, health care, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, homeless shelters, and substance abuse treatment centers that
  
  
  • Incorporated Native cultural traditions into the healing services provided.
  
  
  • The authors of the study stress that the women's strengths as well as their vulnerabilities must be seen in the context of a history of colonial harm on Native people, racism, poverty, and a lack of housing, lack of equitable healthcare, and lack of job/educational opportunities.
  
  

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• Prostitution Harms Women Even if Indoors
  

  Melissa Farley 2005

  This article describes the social invisibility of indoor prostitution, the lack of evidence suggesting that indoor prostitution is “safe,” and summarizes testimony of women who reported violence in strip club prostitution and warnings about violence from groups promoting indoor prostitution.

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• Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections
  

  

  Melissa Farley 2007

  A 2-year research study of Nevada legal and illegal prostitution and sex trafficking reveals human rights violations against women in the Nevada legal brothels. This book explains how the multibillion-dollar illegal sex industry in Las Vegas works. Making connections between legal and illegal prostitution, prostitution and sex trafficking, advertising for prostitution, political corruption, pornography, and organized crime, Farley notes that at the root of it all are the men who insist on the right to rent human beings in prostitution � the johns. Sex trafficking happens because johns create the demand for it.

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• Prostitution, Trafficking, and Cultural Amnesia: What We Must Not Know in Order To Keep the Business of Sexual Exploitation Running Smoothly
  

  Melissa Farley 2006

  This article discusses and analyzes empirical data on the harms of prostitution, pornography and trafficking. This information has to be culturally, psychologically, and legally denied because to know it would interfere with the business of sexual exploitation.

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• Reclaiming Their Lives and Breaking Free:
  An Afrocentric Approach to Recovery From Prostitution
  

  Valandra 2007

  Little research has examined the specific healing needs of prostituted African American women. In this qualitative research study, eight African American women who were receiving culturally specific services at an Afrocentric agency participated in a focus group and in-depth semi-structured interviews.

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• Prostitution & Trafficking in Nine Countries: An Update on Violence and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
  

  Farley, M., Cotton, A., Lynne, J., Zumbeck, S., Spiwak, F., Reyes, M.E., Alvarez , D., Sezgin, U. 2003

  Researchers interviewed 854 people currently or recently in prostitution in nine countries (Canada, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, turkey, United States, and Zambia), inquiring about current and lifetime history of sexual and physical violence. Findings contradict common myths about prostitution: the assumption that street prostitution of men and boys is different from prostitution of women and girls, that most of those in prostitution freely consent to it, that most people are in prostitution because of drug addiction, that prostitution is qualitatively different from trafficking, and that legalizing or decriminalizing prostitution would decrease its harm.

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• Prostitution, Violence, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
  

  Melissa Farley, Howard Barkan 1998

  Most discussions of the public health risks of prostitution have focused on sexually-transmitted disease. A recent editorial in a major medical journal acknowledged the danger of violence to those prostituted, yet concluded that the overall health risks of street prostitution were minimal. In this paper, we discuss a study of the childhood violence, and violence in prostitution, of 130 women, men, and transgendered people in San Francisco, and some of the consequent harm to physical and emotional health.

• Prostitution in 5 Countries: Violence and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
  

  Melissa Farley, Isin Baral, Merab Kiremire, Ufuk Sezgin 1998

  Research summary and discussion of the life conditions of 475 people in prostitution in South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, USA & Zambia. These people live in social and legal contexts defining them variously as hated and filthy women, criminals and 'sex workers'. We inquired about respondents' histories of violence in childhood, and in adult prostitution.

• Prostitution: A Critical Review of the Medical and Social Sciences Literature
  

  Melissa Farley & Vanessa Kelly 2000

  This is a review of articles that tend to focus on HIV but simultaneously ignore the massive violence that affects the lives of those in prostitution. The normalization of prostitution in the medical and social sciences literature, the tendency to blame the victim of sexual exploitation, and the ways in which racism and poverty are an inextricable part of prostitution are discussed. The social invisibility of prostitution, needs of women escaping prostitution, and an overview of recent criminal justice responses to prostitution are summarized.

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• A Comparison of Pimps and Batterers
  

  Evelina Giobbe 1993

  A description of the abusive power relationships women in prostitution and their pimps; comparing these dynamics to those of battered women and their partners.