Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.

CANCELLED: JurisTalk – “The Work of Sex Work: Prostitution, Unfreedom and Criminality at Work”

October 16, 2019 at 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM

Location:617 Robertson Hall
Cost:Free

Speaker:

Dr. Katie Cruz

Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Bristol

The central and uniting demand of the sex worker rights movement around the world is the decriminalization of consensual adult sex work. This is often based on the recognition that criminal law intervention makes sex workers less, rather than more, safe. This paper focuses on a different justification for decriminalization. The “work” position argues that criminalization through a sexual offences framework prevents recognition that sex workers are workers by barring access to labour protections. In this paper, I argue that greater attention needs to be paid to “criminality at work”, so the application of criminal law to personal (sex)work relations in decriminalized contexts where labour law has (de jure) application. I defend a Marxist feminist framework for describing and evaluating criminalization of personal (sex)work relations.

Juris Talks Poster – Dr. Katie Cruz