In England, sex workers are placed at the edges of the law. How the social and legal status of sex workers impacts on their perception of and interaction with the law in a semi-legal setting has not yet been explored. Drawing on fifty-two qualitative interviews with indoor and outdoor sex workers in England, this study investigates their disposition to the law, legality and the state. The commonalities and discrepancies between the experiences of indoor and outdoor sex workers reveal the influence of the combination of legal framework and social status on sex workers’ legal consciousness. This study finds that, even in a setting of semi-legality, sex workers attempt to avoid contact with state authorities. However, this aversion to the current law does not prevent them from making claims for legal change. Surprisingly, indoor and outdoor sex workers hold opposing views on the appropriate level of regulation and state involvement in the sex industry. Remarkably, although outdoor sex workers have more negative experiences with arbitrators of the law, they desire the law's protection. In contrast, indoor sex workers’ main grievance is for sex work to be a legitimate industry that can operate with only minimal state control. These differences in outdoor and indoor workers’ legal claims are explicable by sharp cleavages in social status, vulnerability and degree of criminalisation. These findings demonstrate that intra-group differences in the legal consciousness of marginalised groups are key to understanding the role of social and legal status in shaping legal claims.

中文翻译：

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在法律的边缘：英国性工作者的法律意识

在英格兰，性工作者被置于法律的边缘。尚未探讨性工作者的社会和法律地位如何影响他们在半合法环境中对法律的看法和与法律的互动。本研究通过对英格兰室内和室外性工作者的 52 次定性访谈，调查他们对法律、合法性和国家的态度。室内外性工作者经历的异同，揭示了法律框架与社会地位相结合对性工作者法律意识的影响。这项研究发现，即使在半合法的环境中，性工作者也试图避免与国家当局接触。然而，这种对现行法律的厌恶并不妨碍他们提出法律变更的要求。出奇，室内和室外性工作者对性行业的适当监管水平和国家参与持相反意见。值得注意的是，虽然户外性工作者对法律仲裁员的负面体验较多，但她们渴望得到法律的保护。相比之下，室内性工作者的主要不满是，性工作是一个合法的行业，可以在国家控制最少的情况下运作。户外和室内工人的法律主张的这些差异可以通过社会地位、脆弱性和刑事定罪程度的尖锐分歧来解释。这些发现表明，边缘化群体法律意识的群体内差异是理解社会和法律地位在塑造法律主张中的作用的关键。