Social and Criminal Justice Responses to Sex Work

Social and Criminal Justice Responses to Sex Work

Abstract

This research paper will be evaluating how the criminal justice responds to battering of sex workers. Of greatest focus is the continuing violence on women who sell sex. Indeed, the issue of sex-based violence has been ignored by society and media for a long time. A normative approach is critical in understanding how women issues have been addressed, and especially sexually motivated violence against women. Normative is a term derived from norm and is usually used to describe some form of general established rules or guidelines which aught to regulate behavior. In other words, a normative idea means the idea that defines what aught to be (Hechter and Dieter, 2005.).

Introduction

In contemporary society, social life is surrounded by and controlled by normative cultural ideas such as being responsible and cautious, self-control/ regulate, and avoiding unhealthy activities among other related messages. As a result, many people in society today concern themselves largely with normative issues such as reducing fear and attaining sense of safety. Ironically, ever since post world war period, many individuals have increasingly taken part any shown interest to voluntarily participate in risky activities such as mountain climbing (Lerner, 2006). This paper seeks to discuss how normative ideas about appropriate gendered behavior for women have influenced the social and criminal justice responses to sex work.

Research Questions

The following questioned were used to guide this study

1. Should women who sell sex be bashed?
2. How are social and criminal justice responses influenced by normative ideas about women?

Literature Review

Theories pertaining to violence against women abound (Middendorp, 2010). Middendorp writes, “Street sex workers in Australia encounter brutal treatment including abuse, harassment, rape, and assault” (p. 23). The women are exposed to the risk of developing mental illness, drug and alcohol related problems. While it is hard to avoid the paradoxical conclusion that society is scandalized by prostitution, it is our values that help keep street sex work viable in the streets, (Middendorp, 2010).

When referring to commercial sex, (Coontz, 2004) defines it as “social practices such as erotic dancing, strip shows, cybersex, phone-sex, escort services, prostitution, trafficking, and pornography” (p. 60). Feminist philosophers focus their debate on pornography and prostitution hence the other social activities are subsumed in either of these two wider categories (Coontz, 2004, P. 61). Scully (2005) explores the interaction between the criminal justice system and commercial sex. Scully observes that criminal justice systems have the important social duty to ensure safety and sovereignty of the people. Coontz (2004) argues that the legal systems have remained skeptical to the fact that women are capable of telling the truth. Put differently, the rights to safety and sovereignty have been gendered such that men have more rights than women.

Lerner (2006) looks the issues from a common law perspective. He argues that the law concerning rape crafted within the English common law framework requires men to be protected from possible false accusations by women, which literally means that women are prone to initiating false complaints. This is why a woman, who brings a case in court for rape allegations, is required by the law to furnish the court with other substantive evidence before legal action can be taken against the accused man (Lerner, 2006). This requirement in actual sense places the woman in an accomplice position to the man who raped her until the adduced evidence proves otherwise.

In the cases of domestic violence and criminal assault, the criminal legal system has tended to portray women as not as worthwhile as men to warrant criminal law application (Coontz, 2004). This can be seen for instance in cases where the woman is required to obtain a court injunction that will only have the effect of warning a man who sexually molested her, not to repeat again. In fact, the woman who is the victim in such circumstances is subjected to a legal process, which in the end only goes as far as decriminalizing the criminality or abuse she suffered (Coontz, 2004).

Methodology

This study adopted a critical social approach that is favored by Lyng (2005). This method was preferred over surveys or questionnaires because provides an in-depth view of the area under investigation. Several participants accepted to be interview, acting as advocates of the sex workers. Battering of sex workers is a common phenomena but it is not given coverage, as it should be because of lack of education and communication. The non-participant observation was also use din this study in a courtroom. This method appeared appropriate because of the nature of the study. In this manner, it was able to see the subjects of the study in their natural environment. It also provided a clear picture of how courts deal with the issue of prostitution.

Findings/ Analysis

On completion of both interview and visits to the courtrooms, it was evident that little information is available on the battering of sex workers. It was also found out that men in society might rape women while believing their behavior lies within the normative cultural boundaries. This view was advance by Diana Scully while attempting to establish a link between pornography and rape. Diana Scully observed that the coming up of cultural products like pornography in society serve to nurture and develop violence in men’s fantasies, both in quantity and quality. Scully argued that where society view/portray women as deriving pleasure from the pornographic violence, rape becomes a trivial subject and more men are encouraged to engage in such acts especially mythical facts such as ‘women secretly want to be raped’ (Lyng, 2005).

The criminal justice system has either disregarded or inadequately responded to crimes against sex workers (Hechter & Dieter, 2005). Most initiatives by governments, which are meant to improve sex workers’ safety, have greatly ignored the street sex workers. Instead, they have focused on brothels. As a result, the street workers are exposed to great health and safety risks since the environment in which they operate is unregulated. The criminal justice system through historical rulings on record, has failed to comprehend that women get to be raped without their consent in the course of their sex work. For example, in one of the court rulings an offender who was found guilty of using a knife to force into kidnapping, raping, and sexually assaulting a 28-year-old woman, was given a maximum sentence of only 3 years and 4 months. However, the sentence was increased to 4 years and 6 months after the prosecution appealed against what they considered inadequate sentence. In the earlier ruling, the judge had stated that were it not for her occupational history, the victim would have suffered lesser trauma following the assault (R v Hakopian, County Court of Victoria, 8 August 2012)

In contemporary liberal civil society, rights and freedoms of men are established by the social contract, based on which women’s subjection is also established. From interviews, it was found that men derive sexual access to women through implicit agreement (Lyng, 2005). This explains the existence of prostitution from the masculinity viewpoint in the contemporary socio-political systems since she contended that men derive specific rights to women by use of either informal prostitution contracts or the formal marital contracts (Lyng, 2005).

Generally, many feminists agree that women are harmed in the course of sex work. Some feminists associate such harm to the contingent characteristics within the social environment where the practice is done. However, according a female prostitute’s work is not the same as any other job since it displays the woman status as inferior in the socio-political realm. Furthermore, through prostitution, the woman sells her body and herself to undermine her integrity and identity that are founded upon her body and sexual capacity (Lyng, 2005). Similarly, prostitution actually reflects a kind of transaction where one individual is expected to take care of the other person’s desire hence the former becomes a social subordinate because the service she rendered cannot be reciprocated and in this sense, her job is different from any other low-status job (Lyng, 2005).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it must be emphasized that normative ideas, which appropriate gendered behavior for women have greatly influences the social and criminal justice responses to sex work in society today. The normative ideas of what is to be taken as either appropriate of inappropriate behavior for women in society has tended to directly extend the gender based cultural constructions into criminal judicial system hence continue to position women to levels of lesser significance even in circumstance where the women are victims of violence and sexual assault.

References

Coontz, P. (2004). Gender and Judicial Decisions: Do Female Judges Decide Cases Differently Than Male Judges?’ Gender Issues vol 18, pp. 59-73.

Hechter, M. & Karl-Dieter, O. (2005). Social Norms New York: Russell Sage Foundation

Lerner, G. (2006). The Creation of Patriarchy, New York: Oxford University Press, pp.124-137

Lyng S, (2005). Gender, Space, and Fear: a study of women’s edgework.  Journal of Sports and Social Issues 32 (1) (2008), pp. 24–47.

Middendorp, C. (2010). Is it OK to bash women if they are selling sex? Retrieved from http://www.workrights.com.au/work-rights-articles/2010/3/16/is-it-ok-to-bash-women-if-they-are-selling-sex/

R .v. Hakopian, County Court of Victoria: 8 August 2012.

 

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