Voicing Consent
Description
This open access book draws on an international research project, using extensive and multiple methods to explore unwanted sexual contact and violence in sex work populations. A project delivered by a large team of sex workers, peer researchers, and academics, and with practitioner input over a four-year period, the central question they explore is: how do social, legal, and judicial contexts shape the safety and well-being of people engaging in sex work? The book compares survey and interview data conducted in 2023 across four different legal environments: legalisation (Nevada, USA), criminalisation (Northern Ireland), decriminalisation (New Zealand) and partial criminalisation (UK). It explores how the interaction between legal consciousness (how people in sex work interpret law, consent, their rights, and how or whether to report), legal norms (legal theory, case rulings, legal codes) and legal practices (what police, lawyers, and judges actually do) affects unwanted contact against sex workers. This book advances understanding of the various layers regulating sexual autonomy for marginalised peoples - the specific factors that impact the negotiation, experiences, and disposition of crimes of sexual violence in different socio-legal contexts.
Reviews / Votes
" Voicing Consent is both empirically rich and theoretically significant. ... . At 270 pages, the book is rigorous, accessible, and open access, making it available to activists, scholars, and sex workers alike. . Voicing Consent: Sex Workers, Sexual Violation and Legal Consciousness in CrossNational Contexts is a landmark contribution that challenges narrow legal and feminist framings of sexual violence while advancing theoretical understandings of consent and justice." (Michelle Lesley Annett, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, clcjbooks.rutgers.edu, 2025)
More details
Persons
Teela Sanders is Professor of Criminology and currently Dean for Research and Enterprise for the College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities at the University of Leicester, UK.
Jane Scoular is Professor of Law University of Strathclyde, Scotland, and is an internationally recognised scholar whose work is a primary reference in the field of the legal regulation of commercial sex.
Barbara G. Brents is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.
Susie Balderston was Research Fellow in the Law School at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland.
Gillian Abel is a public health academic at the Department of Population Health, University of Otago, New Zealand with over 20 years' experience in the field of sex work research.
Content
Chapter 1. Introduction: Understanding Consent and Legal Consciousness in Sex Work (Jane Scoular, Fanni Gyurko, Barbara G. Brents, Teela Sanders, Gillian Abel).- Chapter 2. Sex Work and Sexual Violence Laws in Each Jurisdiction (Jane Scoular, Rachel Howard, Barbara G. Brents, Teela Sanders, Gillian Abel).- Chapter 3. Negotiating Consent: Setting Boundaries in the Sexual Contract (Gillian Abel, Cherida Fraser, Barbara G. Brents, Teela Sanders, Jane Scoular).- Chapter 4. Defining Violation: Sex Worker Experiences of Unwanted Incidents (Barbara G. Brents, Chris Wakefield, Jane Scoular, Teela Sanders, Gillian Abel).- Chapter 5. After the Violation: Sex Workers' Responses to Unwanted Incidents (Teela Sanders, Harriet Smailes, Barbara G. Brents, Gillian Abel, Jane Scoular).- Chapter 6. Formal Reporting: The Barriers and Enablers of Legal Mobilisation (Teela Sanders, Harriet Smailes, Barbara G. Brents, Jane Scoular, Gillian Abel).-Chapter 7. Bridging Gaps: Peer Recommendations for Better Services (Alessandra Lanti, Jess Hyer-Griffin, Sam Thomson, Cherida Fraser, Caoimhe Ní Dhónaill, and Susie Balderston).- Chapter 8: Legal Consciousness and Sex Work: Towards More Inclusive Policy (Jane Scoular, Fanni Gyurko, Barbara G. Brents, Teela Sanders, Gillian Abel).- Chapter 9. The Sex Work and Sexual Violence Study: Research Methods (Teela Sanders, Susie Balderston, Chris Wakefield, Jane Scoular, Barbara G. Brents, Gillian Abel).- Bibliography.- Appendix 1: Prostitution; Sexual Violence and Workers' Rights Laws Across Sites (Jane Scoular, Barbara G Brents, Gillian Abel, Harriet Smailes).