Code of Federal
Regulations, (2008). Prostitution and commercialized vice (AE
2.106/3:22/). Retrieved from website:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2008-title22-vol1/pdf/CFR-2008-title22-vol1-sec40-24.pdf
Weitzer, R. (2010). The Movement to Criminalize Sex Work
in the United States. Journal Of Law & Society, 37(1), 61-84.
doi:10.1111/j.1467-6478.2010.00495.x
Ok, so I had a really hard time with this blog assignment because finding a government document that was solely about Prostitution and not Sex-trafficking was rather hard. Actually, I don't even think I really managed with the one document that I was able to get. As I read through it, it was more centered on illegal aliens engaging in prostitution, or those who were coming to the country solely for prostitution work. It didn't seem to give me any real statistics, but I was desperate for any type of document that had to do with prostitution. It defined prostitution as this though: "The term prostitution means engaging in promiscuous sexual intercourse for hire. A finding that an alien has "engaged" in prostitution must be based on elements of continuity and regularity, indicating a patter of behavior or deliberate course of conduct entered into primarily for financial gain or for other considerations of material value as distinguished from the commission of casual or isolated acts." Wordy, lengthy and a bit hard to understand, the document also doesn't really mention why it is stating this information, though i think it was basically so that someone could read and go through the federal regulations, or have it accessible to those who would need it.
As for my article, it also has a lot to do with sex-trafficking, but it does focus more on prostitution and the criminalization/demonetization of such practices by moral crusades. It was an interesting perspective to read. The statistical information I got from it was that in November 2008, residents of San Fransisco, California voted on a ballot that would make the criminalization of prostitution in the city no more. It was interesting to note that while the ballot failed, it was endorsed by 42 percent of the voters. It doesn't really say how the data was collected, but I'm sure the percentages were public knowledge, available and accessible.
Hi Cory,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post on how statistics were gathered and used in a government document and a scholarly journal article.
It may be very difficult for the federal government to count prostitutes, except for the ones that get arrested or deported. Would independent prostitutes step forward and identify prostitution as their occupation on a Census form? If it is not legal, they probably would identify some other profession...
Where did you look for the government statistics on prostitution? What was your search string? I took a look at the Department of Justice Statistics website and located these statistics:
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=40
Where did you locate your scholarly journal article? There are a lot of scholarly journal articles on prostitutes in Academic Search Premier that have statistical information...my search string was "prostitute" AND "sex worker"...
Keep me posted...
Sincerely,
Professor Wexelbaum
I did in fact use Academic Search Premier for my scholarly article. The search string that I used was Prostitution and United States. Clearly I still need to work on narrowing down and finding better search strings because I am still having trouble finding relevant information.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed your point about the government counting reports, because you're right, I highly doubt many prostitutes would willingly tell the government that they are prostitutes. The website that I used to find the document I used was http://catalog.gpo.gov/F
I also tried finding some documents by searching with google but that didn't pan out well.
Thank you for sharing those statistics as well, but it looks like those statistics are on sex-trafficking which is different from prostitution by motivation and coercion.
Hi Cory,
ReplyDeleteHave you tried finding statistics on prostitution in countries where it is legal? (The Netherlands, for example.) In the Netherlands, prostitutes even belong to a union.
Also, if you do your search in databases for prostitut*, as opposed to "prostitution", as well as using the term "sex worker", you might find some different results.
Here is a Dutch website about prostitution in the Netherlands...http://www.prostitutie.nl/index.php?id=2&L=1
Prostitution in Europe:
http://www.sexworkeurope.org/
Might help you find some more statistics, in regard to those prostitutes who are not victims of sex trafficking. I look forward to hearing about what you find!
Sincerely,
Professor Wexelbaum
Thank you for the response! I checked out those links you gave me and found them very informative with a different perspective. I also tried the different search string and found some articles that I wouldn't have otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Cory. Your research project has made me think about a lot of things in regard to prostitution. I asked a colleague of mine who studies labor issues about prostitutes, and those who work in countries where it is legal...he gave me some titles of memoirs of prostitutes which I have to read this summer (and double check that we actually own copies of them in the library).
ReplyDeleteOn a somewhat related note, I remember when I was in college, there was a graduate student who gave a presentation to us about how she financed her graduate education by working as a strip tease dancer. Not exactly the same as prostitution, but similar issues...
Sincerely,
Professor Wexelbaum