Background

Sex work is commonly understood to be a risky occupation. Sex work law debates coalesce around the issue of harm, with differing perspectives regarding what constitutes harm, how harm is produced and what needs to change to mitigate it. While sex work is often portrayed as inherently harmful, sex workers and researchers have challenged this assumption, calling attention to the relationship between harm and policies in place. Criminalisation, in its many and varied forms, is thought to exacerbate harms that can occur in sex work, while decriminalisation is understood as creating conditions conducive to minimising harm. However, the decriminalisation of sex work remains rare, and more research which examines how decriminalisation works in relation to harms is critical. This paper uses the concept of social harm to unpack the implications of sex work policies and examine the experiences of sex workers in New Zealand, where sex work is decriminalised.

Methods

Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 46 sex workers in New Zealand in 2018 and 2020 across two studies focused on examining experiences and perceptions of stigma and discrimination in this context. The interviews were thematically analysed using NVivo data analysis software.

Results

The experiences of participants demonstrate how involvement in sex work had improved their lives in multiple ways. Participants described the importance of sex work in improving their quality of life by ensuring that they could better meet their everyday needs, the autonomy this afforded them and how decriminalisation helped to enable this. The validating impact of decriminalisation in acknowledging sex workers as people with rights is also evident in participant’s experiences.

Conclusions

Social harm is a framework that can help illuminate socio-economic harms which influence pathways into sex work for some people and the compounding harms of criminalising regimes. The benefits of engaging in sex work are often overlooked in policy debates. Although sex work is not easy work, engaging in sex work can have positive impacts on the lives of people who pursue it. Full decriminalisation of sex work is the only responsible option for societies seeking to reduce harm.

中文翻译：

---

“我可以过我想要的生活”：新西兰/新西兰的社会危害、人类需求和性工作非刑事化

 背景

性工作通常被认为是一种危险的职业。性工作法的争论围绕着伤害问题展开，对于伤害的构成、伤害如何产生以及需要改变什么来减轻伤害有不同的观点。虽然性工作通常被描述为本质上有害，但性工作者和研究人员对这一假设提出了挑战，呼吁人们关注伤害与现行政策之间的关系。人们认为，多种形式的刑事定罪会加剧性工作中可能发生的伤害，而非刑罪化则被认为是创造有利于最大限度减少伤害的条件。然而，性工作的非刑事化仍然很少见，因此进行更多研究来检验非刑事化如何与伤害相关是至关重要的。本文使用社会危害的概念来揭示性工作政策的影响，并研究性工作非刑事化的新西兰性工作者的经历。

 方法

2018 年和 2020 年，我们对新西兰的 46 名性工作者进行了半结构化深度访谈，这两项研究的重点是考察在这方面的经历和对耻辱和歧视的看法。使用 NVivo 数据分析软件对访谈进行主题分析。

 结果

参与者的经历表明，参与性工作如​​何以多种方式改善了他们的生活。参与者描述了性工作在改善他们的生活质量方面的重要性，确保他们能够更好地满足他们的日常需求，这为他们提供了自主权，以及非刑事化如何帮助实现这一目标。在参与者的经历中，非刑事化对承认性工作者是有权利的人的有效影响也很明显。

 结论

社会危害是一个框架，可以帮助阐明影响某些人从事性工作的途径的社会经济危害以及刑事化制度的复合危害。在政策辩论中，从事性工作的好处常常被忽视。尽管性工作并不容易，但从事性工作可以对从事性工作的人的生活产生积极影响。性工作的全面非刑事化是社会寻求减少伤害的唯一负责任的选择。