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Who Needs Evidence? Radical Feminism, the Christian Right and Sex Work Research in Northern Ireland

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Reflexivity and Criminal Justice

Abstract

This chapter describes my experiences of conducting research on commercial sex in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which was conducted as part of a larger British Academy–Leverhulme Trust-funded study that examined the policing and legal regulation of commercial sex in Belfast (Northern Ireland) along with three other cities: Manchester (England), Berlin (Germany) and Prague (Czech Republic). This study provided the first empirical analysis of commercial sex in the jurisdiction and was instrumental in shedding light on prevalence rates for those involved in the industry as well as providing demographic information on the age, nationality and sexual orientation of sex workers along with the sector worked in, whether on-street or off-street (Ellison 2015). While academics and researchers are now well attuned to the varieties and differences in the organisation of commercial sex both within and between jurisdictions, what is less well studied and understood are the ways in which attitudes to commercial sex are deeply embedded in local political cultures (Ellison 2015; Zimmerman 2012). In the chapter, I consider my role as a researcher and highlight some of the difficulties that I experienced conducting what was seen as controversial research in the politically, socially and culturally conservative context of Northern Ireland. In this respect, I situate the discussion within the Northern Ireland Assembly’s decision to legislate for Lord Morrow’s (of the Democratic Unionist Party, henceforth DUP) Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Further Provisions and Support for Victims) Bill that included a number of provisions to provide support to victims of human trafficking but controversially also included specific provisions to make it a criminal offence to ‘pay for the sexual services of a person’ (Clause 15) in emulation of the so-called ‘Nordic model’ of criminalisation of demand.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I use commercial sex or sex work in preference to prostitution in this chapter since the former is arguably a more reflexive and less stigmatising term than the latter. However, where I refer specifically to legislation or official policy I use the term prostitution.

  2. 2.

    The Policing and Regulation of Sexual Commerce: A Four-City Case Study, British Academy–Leverhulme Trust (2013). Graham Ellison was PI on the project, Ron Weitzer Was CI. Ellison was solely responsible for the data collection in Manchester and Belfast.

  3. 3.

    The earlier terminology of the Bill was criticized for implying that only women sell sex. In the version that was legislated for the terminology adopted was more gender neutral.

  4. 4.

    Since the legislation passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly is mainly geared to criminalising commercial sex between consenting adults this is the aspect of sexual commerce that I focus on in this chapter.

  5. 5.

    In something indicative of this, some political parties in Northern Ireland told me in the course of my interviews that Lord Morrow’s Bill was deeply flawed, but also added that they would be voting for it anyway ‘because there are no votes in prostitutes’.

  6. 6.

    A subsequent investigation revealed that Mr Wells’ accusations against Department of Justice officials were entirely spurious.

  7. 7.

    A London-based fundamentalist Christian lobbying group.

  8. 8.

    Several DUP party members have made homophobic statements. For example, Ian Paisley Jnr famously claimed that he was ‘repulsed’ by homosexuality (BBC 2007).

  9. 9.

    From what I was told, a telephone complaint was made by Mr Givan to Queen’s University’s Director of Communications.

  10. 10.

    While the political institutions were established in 1998, in reality, it is only since 2007 that they became operational when Sinn Fein decided to take their seats.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland

    Graham Ellison

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  1. Graham Ellison
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Sarah Armstrong

  2. Menzies Building, Monash University, School of Social Sciences, Clayton, Australia

    Jarrett Blaustein

  3. Law School, Old College, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Alistair Henry

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Ellison, G. (2017). Who Needs Evidence? Radical Feminism, the Christian Right and Sex Work Research in Northern Ireland. In: Armstrong, S., Blaustein, J., Henry, A. (eds) Reflexivity and Criminal Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54642-5_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54642-5_13

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