ArticleBMJ open2014
Criminalisation of clients: reproducing vulnerabilities for violence and poor health among street-based sex workers in Canada-a qualitative study.
Article in BMJ open, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Systematic review of sexual violence against sex workers: implications for mental and sexual health.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- Associations between sex work laws and sex workers' health: A systematic review and meta-analysis of quantitative and qualitative studies.PLoS medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Mental health and substance use among women frequenting high-risk venues in Haiphong, Vietnam: findings from an adapted PLACE survey.The International journal on drug policy · 2026Article
- Difficulty accessing contraceptives in a 2010-2022 prospective cohort of sex workers in Vancouver, Canada: intersectional influence of im/migration status and racialization.Reproductive health · 2025Article
- "They look you up and down like you are nothing": A qualitative exploration of sex workers' health needs and interactions with UK healthcare services.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2025Article
- Sex workers' engagement with mutual aid on-the-ground and online: Exploring access to grassroots support networks among a community-based cohort in Vancouver, Canada (2020-2024).Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- The Multiple Perspectives Approach to Understanding Sexual-Economic Exchange.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Review
- The (mis)use of evidence in contested rights: commentary on the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls' report on "prostitution and violence".Sexual and reproductive health matters · 2024Article
- Vaccine value profile for Neisseria gonorrhoeae.Vaccine · 2024Article
- IMPACTS OF SEX WORK CRIMINALIZATION AND CENSORSHIP FOR INDOOR WORKERS: EXPLORING HOW BARRIERS TO ONLINE ADVERTISING SHAPE OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY.Sexuality research & social policy : journal of NSRC : SR & SP · 2024Article
- "If you're strung out and female, they will take advantage of you": A qualitative study exploring drug use and substance use service experiences among women in Boston and San Francisco.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2024Article
- Negative changes in illicit drug supply during COVID-19: Associations with use of overdose prevention and health services among women sex workers who use drugs (2020-2021).The International journal on drug policy · 2023Article
- Article
- Who Asks About HIV/STI Status?: An Analysis of Women Who Sell Sex and Inject Drugs.AIDS and behavior · 2023Article
- Increasing trends and incidence of nonfatal overdose among women sex workers who use drugs in British Columbia: The role of criminalization-related barriers to harm reduction.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2023Article
- Article
- Sexual Violence and Low Rates of HIV Post-exposure Prophylaxis Access Among Female Sex Workers in Brazil.AIDS and behavior · 2022Article
- Protection or police harassment? Impacts of punitive policing, discrimination, and racial profiling under end-demand laws among im/migrant sex workers in Metro Vancouver.SSM. Qualitative research in health · 2022Article
- Article
- Violence, policing, and systemic racism as structural barriers to substance use treatment amongst women sex workers who use drugs: Findings of a community-based cohort in Vancouver, Canada (2010-2019).Drug and alcohol dependence · 2022Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo explore how criminalisation and policing of sex buyers (clients) rather than sex workers shapes sex workers' working conditions and sexual transactions including risk of violence and HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
designQualitative and ethnographic study triangulated with sex work-related violence prevalence data and publicly available police statistics.
settingVancouver, Canada, provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of policies that criminalise clients as the local police department adopted a sex work enforcement policy in January 2013 that prioritises sex workers' safety over arrest, while continuing to target clients.
participants26 cisgender and 5 transgender women who were street-based sex workers (n=31) participated in semistructured interviews about their working conditions. All had exchanged sex for money in the previous 30 days in Vancouver. OUTCOME MEASURES: Thematic analysis of interview transcripts and ethnographic field notes focused on how police enforcement of clients shaped sex workers' working conditions and sexual transactions, including risk of violence and HIV/STIs, over an 11-month period postpolicy implementation (January-November 2013).
resultsSex workers' narratives and ethnographic observations indicated that while police sustained a high level of visibility, they eased charging or arresting sex workers and showed increased concern for their safety. However, participants' accounts and police statistics indicated continued police enforcement of clients. This profoundly impacted the safety strategies sex workers employed. Sex workers continued to mistrust police, had to rush screening clients and were displaced to outlying areas with increased risks of violence, including being forced to engage in unprotected sex.
conclusionsThese findings suggest that criminalisation and policing strategies that target clients reproduce the harms created by the criminalisation of sex work, in particular, vulnerability to violence and HIV/STIs. The current findings support decriminalisation of sex work to ensure work conditions that support the health and safety of sex workers in Canada and globally.
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