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Theorizing Prostitution

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Post-War Prostitution

Part of the book series: Studies of Organized Crime ((SOOC,volume 17))

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Abstract

This chapter sets the stage of the research by providing an overview of the contemporary theoretical debate on prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes. On the one hand, abolitionists view prostitution as gender-based violence since, in this view, women never engage in prostitution out of free choice. On the other hand, pro-sex-work scholars emphasize women’s right to self-determination and to earn money in the sex industry. The two dominant perspectives on prostitution are discussed not as two opposing views on reality, but rather as two instrumental discourses aimed at achieving different goals. This analysis seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the hegemonic discourse on prostitution.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Weitzer (2007) has identified and debunked various core claims regarding human trafficking for sexual purposes by those campaigning against it in his article “The Social Construction of Sex Trafficking.” My summary takes these claims into consideration, but I have organized it differently so as to encompass other critiques of the abolitionist perspective as well.

  2. 2.

    The other “scapes” identified by Appadurai are ethnoscapes, technoscapes, financescapes, and mediascapes.

  3. 3.

    The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (www.nswp.org) is a prominent organization that advocates for the rights of sex workers.

  4. 4.

    Moral entrepreneurs can give rise to what Stanley Cohen coined a “moral panic,” observing that every now and then, societies are seized by “waves of indignation about non-existing or relatively minor threats” (Goode & Ben-Yehuda, 2009, p. 48). He described such periods of moral panic as “a condition, episode, person or group of persons [that] emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests” (Cohen, 1972, p. 1). However, the moral indignation over UN peacekeepers’ engagement in prostitution in war-torn and other vulnerable regions where they are expected to do good is not so widespread as to be defined as a moral panic.

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  1. Verwey-Jonker Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Roos de Wildt

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de Wildt, R. (2019). Theorizing Prostitution. In: Post-War Prostitution. Studies of Organized Crime, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19474-1_2

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