How crime-based legal regimes shape sexual harm: Sex work, consent and vulnerability.

Crime-based and carceral legal regimes shape sexual harm by structuring how consent is negotiated, enforced and recognized. Using a social harm framework, this study examines sex work not as an exceptional case but as a critical site for analysing how crime-based governance operates through the inte...

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Publicado en:British Journal of Criminology Vol. 66; no. 4; pp. 767 - 787
Autores principales: Brents, Barbara G, Abel, Gillian, Scoular, Jane, Sanders, Teela, Fraser, Cherida, Wakefield, Chris, Lanti, Alessandra
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Oxford University Press / USA Jul2026
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: How crime-based legal regimes shape sexual harm: Sex work, consent and vulnerability.
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          Brents, Barbara G
          Abel, Gillian
          Scoular, Jane
          Sanders, Teela
          Fraser, Cherida
          Wakefield, Chris
          Lanti, Alessandra
        affil:
          Department of Sociology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
          Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand
          School of Law, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland
          School of Criminology, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
          NZPC: Aotearoa New Zealand Sex Workers' Collective, Te Aro, Wellington, New Zealand
          Department of Sociology, Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, United States
          Independent Researcher, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
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        United States
        Nevada
        Sex work
        Consent (Law)
        Correctional institutions
        Sex crimes
        Decriminalization
        Criminal law
        Legal liability
        Access to justice
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        subj:
          Sex work
          Consent (Law)
          Correctional institutions
          Sex crimes
          Decriminalization
          Criminal law
          Legal liability
          Access to justice
          United States
          Nevada
          Other Residential Care Facilities
          Provincial correctional services
          Correctional Institutions
          Federal correctional services
      keyword:
        access to justice
        conditional consent
        consent
        copyrightHolder:Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (formerly ISTD)
        copyrightYear:2026
        crime-based governance
        criminalization
        decriminalization
        dynamic consent
        harm reduction
        inLanguage:en
        non-payment
        publisher:Oxford University Press
        sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azag008
        sex work law
        sexual violence law
        social harm
        stealthing
        access to justice
        conditional consent
        consent
        copyrightHolder:Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (formerly ISTD)
        copyrightYear:2026
        crime-based governance
        criminalization
        decriminalization
        dynamic consent
        harm reduction
        inLanguage:en
        non-payment
        publisher:Oxford University Press
        sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azag008
        sex work law
        sexual violence law
        social harm
        stealthing
      ab: Crime-based and carceral legal regimes shape sexual harm by structuring how consent is negotiated, enforced and recognized. Using a social harm framework, this study examines sex work not as an exceptional case but as a critical site for analysing how crime-based governance operates through the interaction of sex work law and sexual violence law to structure vulnerability and access to justice. Drawing on survey data from 483 sex workers and former sex workers and 41 interviews across four legal regimes—criminalization (United States), partial criminalization (Great Britain), legalization (Nevada) and decriminalization (Aotearoa New Zealand)—we analyse negotiations of conditional and dynamic consent. We show that criminalized and partially criminalized regimes do not merely fail to prevent harm; they actively produce it by restricting communication, collective safety and legal redress. Common violations, particularly stealthing and non-payment, are widespread yet routinely misrecognized as legally actionable harm. Decriminalization improves risk management, recognition and access to redress but does not eliminate harm due to enduring limits of crime-based sexual violence law. These findings show how carceral governance narrows legally recognizable harm and shifts responsibility for safety onto individuals.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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