NCJ Number
224405
Editor(s)
Gayle Letherby,
Kate Williams,
Philip Birch,
Maureen Cain
Date Published
2008
Length
410 pages
Annotation
This book contains 18 chapters by writers and researchers from various disciplines divided into 2 subsections--“Sex for Sale” and “Sex as Violence”--which examine specific features of sexual behavior that have been criminalized under law, with attention to trends and events in the United Kingdom.
Abstract
The nine chapters in the subsection on “Sex for Sale” have five linking themes. The themes pertain to differences in the practice of and policy for indoor and outdoor sex work in the United Kingdom, transnational perspectives on sex work, methods of researching sex for sale, engendering sex work, and ambiguity and ambivalence in public policy and popular attitudes toward sex work for profit. Four chapters examine how characteristics of the location where sex work is conducted shape both the public’s response to it and the sex worker’s experience. Other chapters in this subsection address the motivations, experiences, methods, and health issues related to male sex work; as well as trafficking in human beings for forced labor, including sex work. The nine chapters that focus on “Sex as Violence” address three themes: sex-crime policy, offending behavior, and public protection and public communications systems that target violent sexual offenders. These chapters provide a critique of current policies, debates, and interventions that address sex as violence, with attention to the effectiveness and harms of various public and governmental responses to violent sexual offenses and offenders. Topics addressed include the adverse effects of labeling juvenile prostitutes as victims of child sexual abuse, reasons why rape law reform has not increased the proportion of rape convictions in European countries, explanations for the increase in sex crimes during war, attachment styles and emotional loneliness as factors in sexual offending, the characteristics of women sex offenders, and public protection from known sex offenders living in communities. Chapter references and a subject index