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Sex Workers (sex + worker)
Kinds of Sex Workers Selected AbstractsChanges in HIV/AIDS/STI Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices among Commercial Sex Workers and Military Forces in Port Loko, Sierra LeoneDISASTERS, Issue 3 2004Mandi M. Larsen Sierra Leone suffered from 11 years of civil war (1991,2002) resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and mutilations together with massive population displacement. In 2001, ARC International, Sierra Leone conducted a baseline survey of 201 commercial sex workers (CSWs) and 202 military respondents on the knowledge, attitudes and practices surrounding HIV/AIDS and STIs in Port Loko, Sierra Leone. In 2003, a comparable post-intervention survey of 202 CSWs and 205 military respondents was performed. Comparison of baseline and post-intervention results showed that HIV/AIDS knowledge increased among both groups, with those able to name three effective means of avoiding AIDS increasing from 5 per cent to 70 per cent among CSWs, and 11 to 75 per cent among the military. Reported condom use during last sex increased among CSWs from 38 to 68 per cent and among military from 39 to 68 per cent. These results demonstrate that, despite the challenges inherent in a post-conflict country, good-quality AIDS-prevention programmes can be effective. [source] Use of Commercial Sex Workers Among Hispanic Migrants In North Carolina: Implications for the Spread of HIVPERSPECTIVES ON SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, Issue 4 2004Emilio A. Parrado CONTEXT: Rates of HIV and AIDS have risen among U.S. Hispanics and in migrant-sending regions of Mexico and Central America, pointing to a link between migration and HIV. However, little is known about male migrants' sexual risk behaviors, such as the use of commercial sex workers. METHODS: The prevalence and frequency of commercial sex worker use was examined among 442 randomly selected Hispanic migrants in Durham, North Carolina. Logistic and Poisson regression techniques were used to model predictors of commercial sex worker use, and descriptive data on condom use with commercial sex workers were examined. RESULTS: Twenty-eight percent of respondents reported using the services of a commercial sex worker during the previous year; rates reached 46% among single men and 40% among married men living apart from their wives. Men with spouses in Durham were less likely than other men to use commercial sex workers (odds ratio, 0.1). Among men who used commercial sex workers, the frequency of visits declined with greater education (incidence rate ratio, 0.9) and increased with hourly wage (1.1). Frequency and use declined with years of residence, although the results were of borderline significance. Reported rates of condom use with commercial sex workers were high, but were likely to fall if familiarity with a commercial sex worker increased. CONCLUSIONS: Commercial sex workers represent an important potential source of HIV infection. Educational and behavioral interventions that take into account social context and target the most vulnerable migrants are needed to help migrants and their partners avoid HIV infection. [source] The mental health of female sex workersACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 2 2010W. Rössler Rössler W, Koch U, Lauber C, Hass A-K, Altwegg M, Ajdacic-Gross V, Landolt K. The mental health of female sex workers. Objective:, There is limited information available about the mental health of female sex workers. Therefore, we aimed to make a comprehensive assessment of the mental status of female sex workers over different outdoors and indoors work settings and nationalities. Method:, As the prerequisites of a probability sampling were not given, a quota-sampling strategy was the best possible alternative. Sex workers were contacted at different locations in the city of Zurich. They were interviewed with a computerized version of the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Additional information was assessed in a structured face-to-face interview. Results:, The 193 interviewed female sex workers displayed high rates of mental disorders. These mental disorders were related to violence and the subjectively perceived burden of sex work. Conclusion:, Sex work is a major public health problem. It has many faces, but ill mental health of sex workers is primarily related to different forms of violence. [source] Acute urethritis caused by Neisseria meningitidisINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF UROLOGY, Issue 6 2003NORIYUKI KANEMITSU Abstract A 48-year-old heterosexual Japanese man visited the outpatient clinic of Nagoya Urology Hospital, complaining of burning pain at voiding and pus discharge from the urethral orifice. These symptoms appeared the day following oral-genital contact (fellatio) with a commercial sex worker. On the basis of the presumptive clinical diagnosis of gonorrhea because of the microscopic detection of diplococci in the urethral discharge, he was treated with levofloxacin (300 mg per day) for 7 days. His symptoms responded quickly and urinalysis taken 7 days later was normal. Microbiological examinations isolated Neisseria meningitidis in the urethral discharge by culture with the use of enzymatic profiles. Further prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) through oral-genital contact would lead to an increase in meningococcal urethritis. [source] Street Smarts and Urban Myths: Women, Sex Work, and the Role of Storytelling in Risk Reduction and RationalizationMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2005BRENDA ROCHE Storytelling has a strong tradition in inner-city American communities. In this article, we examine patterns of storytelling among a sample of drug-using women from New York City who engage in street-based sex work. We consider two particular formats of storytelling for analysis: "street smarts" and "urban myths." Street smarts are stories of survival, and urban myths are compilations of street legends spread by word of mouth. The narratives are filled with tales of extreme risk across situations. The women used the stories to delineate the boundaries of risk as well as to rationalize risks they deemed to be inevitable but temporary in their lives. Few of the women capitalized on the greater instructive quality of the stories toward increased risk reduction, which may relate to the women's distance from an identity of "sex worker." If properly harnessed, the strength of storytelling suggests new avenues for risk-reduction interventions. [source] Use of Commercial Sex Workers Among Hispanic Migrants In North Carolina: Implications for the Spread of HIVPERSPECTIVES ON SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, Issue 4 2004Emilio A. Parrado CONTEXT: Rates of HIV and AIDS have risen among U.S. Hispanics and in migrant-sending regions of Mexico and Central America, pointing to a link between migration and HIV. However, little is known about male migrants' sexual risk behaviors, such as the use of commercial sex workers. METHODS: The prevalence and frequency of commercial sex worker use was examined among 442 randomly selected Hispanic migrants in Durham, North Carolina. Logistic and Poisson regression techniques were used to model predictors of commercial sex worker use, and descriptive data on condom use with commercial sex workers were examined. RESULTS: Twenty-eight percent of respondents reported using the services of a commercial sex worker during the previous year; rates reached 46% among single men and 40% among married men living apart from their wives. Men with spouses in Durham were less likely than other men to use commercial sex workers (odds ratio, 0.1). Among men who used commercial sex workers, the frequency of visits declined with greater education (incidence rate ratio, 0.9) and increased with hourly wage (1.1). Frequency and use declined with years of residence, although the results were of borderline significance. Reported rates of condom use with commercial sex workers were high, but were likely to fall if familiarity with a commercial sex worker increased. CONCLUSIONS: Commercial sex workers represent an important potential source of HIV infection. Educational and behavioral interventions that take into account social context and target the most vulnerable migrants are needed to help migrants and their partners avoid HIV infection. [source] The mental health of female sex workersACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 2 2010W. Rössler Rössler W, Koch U, Lauber C, Hass A-K, Altwegg M, Ajdacic-Gross V, Landolt K. The mental health of female sex workers. Objective:, There is limited information available about the mental health of female sex workers. Therefore, we aimed to make a comprehensive assessment of the mental status of female sex workers over different outdoors and indoors work settings and nationalities. Method:, As the prerequisites of a probability sampling were not given, a quota-sampling strategy was the best possible alternative. Sex workers were contacted at different locations in the city of Zurich. They were interviewed with a computerized version of the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Additional information was assessed in a structured face-to-face interview. Results:, The 193 interviewed female sex workers displayed high rates of mental disorders. These mental disorders were related to violence and the subjectively perceived burden of sex work. Conclusion:, Sex work is a major public health problem. It has many faces, but ill mental health of sex workers is primarily related to different forms of violence. [source] ,The Perfect Business': Human Trafficking and Lao,Thai Cross-Border MigrationDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 5 2010Sverre Molland ABSTRACT Over the past few years some governments and development organizations have increasingly articulated cross-border mobility as ,trafficking in persons'. The notion of a,market,where traffickers prey on the ,supply' of migrants that flows across international borders to meet the ,demand' for labour has become a central trope among anti-trafficking development organizations. This article problematizes such,economism,by drawing attention to the oscillating cross-border migration of Lao sex workers within a border zone between Laos and Thailand. It illuminates the incongruity between the recruitment of women into the sex industry along the Lao,Thai border and the market models that are employed by the anti-trafficking sector. It discusses the ways in which these cross-border markets are conceived in a context where aid programming is taking on an increasingly important role in the politics of borders. The author concludes that allusions to ideal forms of knowledge (in the guise of classic economic theory) and an emphasis on borders become necessary for anti-trafficking programmes in order to make their object of intervention legible as well as providing post-hoc rationalizations for their continuing operation. [source] Changes in HIV/AIDS/STI Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices among Commercial Sex Workers and Military Forces in Port Loko, Sierra LeoneDISASTERS, Issue 3 2004Mandi M. Larsen Sierra Leone suffered from 11 years of civil war (1991,2002) resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and mutilations together with massive population displacement. In 2001, ARC International, Sierra Leone conducted a baseline survey of 201 commercial sex workers (CSWs) and 202 military respondents on the knowledge, attitudes and practices surrounding HIV/AIDS and STIs in Port Loko, Sierra Leone. In 2003, a comparable post-intervention survey of 202 CSWs and 205 military respondents was performed. Comparison of baseline and post-intervention results showed that HIV/AIDS knowledge increased among both groups, with those able to name three effective means of avoiding AIDS increasing from 5 per cent to 70 per cent among CSWs, and 11 to 75 per cent among the military. Reported condom use during last sex increased among CSWs from 38 to 68 per cent and among military from 39 to 68 per cent. These results demonstrate that, despite the challenges inherent in a post-conflict country, good-quality AIDS-prevention programmes can be effective. [source] Drug-related behaviors independently associated with syphilis infection among female sex workers in two Mexico,US border citiesADDICTION, Issue 8 2010Oralia Loza ABSTRACT Aims To identify correlates of active syphilis infection among female sex workers (FSWs) in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. Design Cross-sectional analyses of baseline interview data. Correlates of active syphilis (antibody titers >1 : 8) were identified by logistic regression. Setting Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, two Mexican cities on the US border that are situated on major drug trafficking routes and where prostitution is quasi-legal. Participants A total of 914 FSWs aged ,18 years without known human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection who had had recent unprotected sex with clients. Measurements Baseline interviews and testing for syphilis antibody using Treponema pallidum particle agglutination (TPPA) and rapid plasma reagin (RPR) tests. Findings Median age and duration in sex work were 32 and 4 years, respectively. Overall, 18.0% had ever injected drugs, 14.2% often or always used illegal drugs before or during sex in the past month, 31.4% had clients in the last 6 months who injected drugs, and 68.6% reported having clients from the United States. Prevalence of HIV and active syphilis were 5.9% and 10.3%, respectively. Factors independently associated with active syphilis included injecting drugs (AOR: 2.39; 95% CI: 1.40, 4.08), using illegal drugs before or during sex (AOR: 2.06; 95% CI: 1.16, 3.65) and having any US clients (AOR: 2.85; 95% CI: 1.43, 5.70). Conclusions Among female sex workers in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, drug-using behaviors were associated more closely with active syphilis than were sexual behaviors, suggesting the possibility of parenteral transmission of T. pallidum. Syphilis eradication programs should consider distributing sterile syringes to drug injectors and assisting FSWs with safer-sex negotiation in the context of drug use. [source] Drug use among female sex workers in Hanoi, VietnamADDICTION, Issue 5 2005Trung Nam Tran ABSTRACT Aims To describe the drug use practices among female sex workers (FSWs) in Hanoi and to identify factors associated with their drug injecting. Design, setting and particicipants A two-stage cluster survey of 400 FSWs was conducted from June to September, 2002. Participating FSWs were both establishment- (160) and street-based (240), who were practising in seven urban and one suburban districts of Hanoi. Measurements Subjects were interviewed face to face using a structured questionnaire. Findings Among the middle-class FSWs, 27% used drugs, of whom 79% injected. Among low-class FSWs, 46% used drugs and 85% injected. Among drug-using FSWs, 86% had started using drugs within the past 6 years. Among drug-injecting FSWs, 81% had started injecting within the past 4 years. Cleaning of injecting equipment was not common among those who shared. Having drug-injecting ,love mates', drug-using clients, longer residence in Hanoi, more clients and not currently cohabiting were found to be independently associated with drug injecting among FSWs. Conclusions The high prevalence of injecting drug use among FSWs makes them susceptible to HIV infection, and is a threat to their clients. There is a strong relationship between drug-using FSWs and male drug-using clients and non-client partners. Intervention to prevent drug use initiation among non-drug-using FSWs and harm reduction among drug-using FSWs are urgently needed. [source] ,The Worst Thing is the Screwing' (1): Consumption and the Management of Identity in Sex WorkGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 2 2000Joanna Brewis This paper reviews qualitative data from academic research into prostitution, accounts from prostitutes themselves in the UK and Australia, and data from one of the authors' own research in New South Wales to analyse the ways in which female sex workers negotiate and construct their sense of themselves. This analysis is informed by the suggestion that, in the act of commercial sex, the prostitute's own body is being consumed by the client, which can be seen to place certain pressures on the relationship between sex workers' professional and personal identities. Our review suggests that individual workers' tactics for managing the contradictions of working as a prostitute and preserving self-esteem are both similar and different, even within two broadly culturally commensurable contexts, and, moreover, that not all prostitutes necessarily want to maintain a strict divide between work sex and non-work sex in every encounter. Moreover, even for those who do, the trials of maintaining the divide are considerable, as is the permeability of boundaries between work and intimate sex. [source] Prostitution: Collectives and the Politics of RegulationGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 2 2000Jackie West The regulation of prostitution is changing as rapidly as its organization and sex workers have had more influence on this than usually recognized in either theory or research on prostitutes' rights. Using examples from the UK, Australia, the Netherlands and New Zealand, the paper shows how elements of prohibition, legalization and decriminalization are variously adopted in response to specific interests and their political representation. With the focus on law reform, the impact of collectives is compared to that of other contemporary players in the politics of prostitution, including community groups, councils, the police and the sex industry itself. But attention is also paid to health and occupational initiatives, and the conditions promoting the self-regulation of sex work both by prostitutes and employers. The paper also argues that the role of collectives, together with changes in the wider regulatory context, reflect and reinforce increasing differentiation within prostitution. [source] Leprosy in type I reaction and diabetes mellitus in a patient with HIV infectionINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, Issue 10 2002Alamengada D. Belliappa MBBS A 24-year-old man was referred to our department with history of a pale red raised lesion over the right side of the face with impaired sensation of 3 months' duration. He also had generalized weakness and increased thirst for the past 1 month. He had been treated with multidrug therapy for leprosy for 3 months and oral prednisolone for 1 month by his general practitioner. He also presented with a history of multiple sexual exposures with commercial sex workers and an ulcer over the penis 2 years ago, which healed spontaneously. [source] Trafficking: A Perspective from AsiaINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 3 2000Ronald Skeldon The main theme of this article is market development and trafficking as a business. It touches upon most of the aspects of the phenomenon, which have been encountered elsewhere, and translates them into the relatively unfamiliar context of many of the Asian and South-East Asian economies. Equally, the literature cited is also probably unfamiliar. Themes touched upon include democratization, inter-state relations, human rights, and scale and perspectives, together with the problems of definitions, theory, and the reliability of data. The directions and characteristics of trafficking flows together with routes and border control are also considered. Coordinated official responses to criminality and criminal organizations, as well as to trafficked individuals, are beginning to emerge. There is a note of caution sounded that contextual and cultural perspectives, particularly on sex workers, must be viewed somewhat differently to those in Western societies. The article concludes that as long as countries in Asia maintain their policies of restrictive immigration, trafficking can be expected to continue and almost certainly increase. This is because accelerating development creates demand for labour at various skill levels and because even in times of recession migrants and brokers will seek to side-step attempts to expel immigrants and restrict access to labour markets. The elimination of trafficking is unlikely to be realistically achieved through legislation and declarations of intent but by improvements in the socio-economic status of the population. [source] Empowerment to participate: a case study of participation by indian sex workers in HIV preventionJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2006Flora Cornish Abstract The popularity of ,participation' and ,empowerment' in international development discourse is not matched by sophisticated conceptualisation of these terms. Critics have argued that their vagueness allows ,participation' and ,empowerment' to be used indiscriminately to describe interventions which vary from tokenism to genuine devolving of power to the community. This paper suggests that conceptualising empowerment and participation simply in terms of a scale of ,more or less' participation or ,more or less' empowerment does not capture the qualitatively different forms of empowerment that are necessary for different activities. Instead, the paper conceptualises participation in terms of concrete domains of action in which people may be empowered to take part. An ethnographic case study of a participatory HIV prevention project run by sex workers in Kolkata illustrates the argument. Four domains of activity in which sex workers may participate are distinguished: (1) participating in accessing project services; (2) participating in providing project services; (3) participating in shaping project workers' activity; (4) participating in defining project goals. To be empowered to participate in each domain depends upon a different set of resources. Asking the question ,empowerment to do what?' of health promotion projects is proposed as a way of facilitating appropriate project design. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Viral load and physical status of human papillomavirus (HPV) 18 in cervical samples from female sex workers infected with HPV 18 in Burkina FasoJOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY, Issue 10 2009Audrey Damay Abstract Viral DNA load and physical status might be predictive of either high-grade cervical lesions or disease progression among women infected by human papillomavirus (HPV) 16, but these virological markers have rarely been studied in HPV 18 infections. The relationships between HPV 18 DNA load, viral genome physical status and cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions were analyzed among female sex workers infected with HPV18 in Burkina Faso. HPV 18 E2 and E6 genes were quantitated by real-time PCR. Among 21 women infected with HPV 18, 67% of whom were HIV-1-seropositive, 11 (52.4%) had a normal cytology, 8 (38.1%) had low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, and 2 (9.5%) had high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. Total viral load and integrated viral load were higher in women with squamous intraepithelial lesions than in women with normal cytology (P,=,0.01 for both parameters). Total viral load and integrated viral load were higher in HIV-1-seropositive women than in those who were not infected with HIV (P,=,0.01, and P, 0.01, respectively). Total viral load or integrated viral load >1,000,copies/ng of DNA were more frequent in women with squamous intraepithelial lesions than in women with normal cytology (7/10 vs. 1/11; P,=,0.007) and in HIV-1-seropositive women (8/14 vs. 0/7 in HIV-uninfected women; P,=,0.02). Both HPV 18 DNA and integrated DNA loads might represent markers of cervical lesions. Prospective evaluations are needed to establish the value of these parameters to predict high-grade lesion or lesion progression. J. Med. Virol. 81:1786,1791, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Seroprevalence, risk factors, and hepatitis C virus genotypes in groups with high-risk sexual behavior in CroatiaJOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY, Issue 8 2009Tatjana Vilibic Cavlek Abstract The seroprevalence, risk factors and genotypes of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in groups with high-risk sexual behavior (persons with multiple sexual partners, men who have sex with men, commercial sex workers and their clients and persons with sexually transmitted diseases) in seven Croatian cities were analyzed. A total of 821 participants without history of injecting drug use were included in the study. Anti-HCV prevalence among risk groups varied from 2.9% to 8.5% with an overall prevalence of 4.6% (95% CI,=,3.2,6.1) compared with 0.5% (95% CI,=,0.0,1.5) in controls (pregnant females; OR,=,9.66; 95% CI,=,1.32,70.7). HCV-RNA was detected in 73.1% anti-HCV positive patients. Three of the seronegative cases (2.1%) were also found to be HCV-RNA positive ("window period"). Genotype 1 was most commonly detected (55.6%). The most prevalent subtypes were 1a (38.9%) and 3a (38.9%). Sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, marital status and level of education) were not associated with anti-HCV seropositivity. Among sexually transmitted disease markers, a higher seroprevalence of HCV infection was found in subjects with a history of HBV infection (10.5% vs. 3.8%, P,=,0.002) and gonorrhea (13.2% vs. 4.2%, P,=,0.011). No other factors reflecting risk sexual behavior such as sexual orientation, number of sexual partners and number of risk behaviors were associated with HCV seroprevalence. J. Med. Virol. 81:1348,1353, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Viral load and genomic integration of HPV 16 in cervical samples from HIV-1-infected and uninfected women in Burkina FasoJOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY, Issue 6 2007Marie-Noelle Didelot Rousseau Abstract The relationships between human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV 16) viral load, HPV 16 integration status, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) status, and cervical cytology were studied among women enrolled in a cohort of female sex workers in Burkina Faso. The study focused on 24 HPV 16-infected women. The HPV 16 viral load in cervical samples was determined by real-time PCR. Integration ratio was estimated as the ratio between E2 and E6 genes DNA copy numbers. Integrated HPV16 viral load was defined as the product of HPV 16 viral load by the integration ratio. High HPV 16 viral load and high integration ratio were more frequent among women with squamous intraepithelial lesions compared with women with normal cytology (33% vs. 11%, and 33% vs. 0%, respectively), and among women with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions compared with women without high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (50% vs. 17%, and 50% vs. 11%, respectively). High HPV 16 DNA load, but not high integration ratio, was also more frequent among HIV-1-positive women (39% vs. 9%; and 23% vs. 18%, respectively). The absence of statistical significance of these differences might be explained by the small study sample size. High-integrated HPV 16 DNA load was significantly associated with the presence of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (50% vs. 5%, P,=,0.03) in univariate and multivariate analysis (adjusted odds-ratio: 19.05; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.11,328.3, P,=,0.03), but not with HIV-1 or other high-risk HPV types (HR-HPV). Integrated HPV 16 DNA load may be considered as a useful marker of high-grade cervical lesions in HPV 16-infected women. J. Med. Virol. 79: 766,770, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Born unto Brothels,Toward a Legal Ethnography of Sex Work in an Indian Red-Light AreaLAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY, Issue 3 2008Prabha Kotiswaran The global sex panic around sex work and trafficking has fostered prostitution law reform worldwide. While the normative status of sex work remains deeply contested, abolitionists and sex work advocates alike display an unwavering faith in the power of criminal law; for abolitionists, strictly enforced criminal laws can eliminate sex markets, whereas for sex work advocates, decriminalization can empower sex workers. I problematize both narratives by delineating the political economy and legal ethnography of Sonagachi, one of India's largest red-light areas. I show how within Sonagachi there exist highly internally differentiated groups of stakeholders, including sex workers, who, variously endowed by a plural rule network,consisting of formal legal rules, informal social norms, and market structures,routinely enter into bargains in the shadow of the criminal law whose outcomes cannot be determined a priori. I highlight the complex relationship between criminal law and sex markets by analyzing the distributional effects of criminalizing customers on Sonagachi's sex industry. [source] Use of Commercial Sex Workers Among Hispanic Migrants In North Carolina: Implications for the Spread of HIVPERSPECTIVES ON SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, Issue 4 2004Emilio A. Parrado CONTEXT: Rates of HIV and AIDS have risen among U.S. Hispanics and in migrant-sending regions of Mexico and Central America, pointing to a link between migration and HIV. However, little is known about male migrants' sexual risk behaviors, such as the use of commercial sex workers. METHODS: The prevalence and frequency of commercial sex worker use was examined among 442 randomly selected Hispanic migrants in Durham, North Carolina. Logistic and Poisson regression techniques were used to model predictors of commercial sex worker use, and descriptive data on condom use with commercial sex workers were examined. RESULTS: Twenty-eight percent of respondents reported using the services of a commercial sex worker during the previous year; rates reached 46% among single men and 40% among married men living apart from their wives. Men with spouses in Durham were less likely than other men to use commercial sex workers (odds ratio, 0.1). Among men who used commercial sex workers, the frequency of visits declined with greater education (incidence rate ratio, 0.9) and increased with hourly wage (1.1). Frequency and use declined with years of residence, although the results were of borderline significance. Reported rates of condom use with commercial sex workers were high, but were likely to fall if familiarity with a commercial sex worker increased. CONCLUSIONS: Commercial sex workers represent an important potential source of HIV infection. Educational and behavioral interventions that take into account social context and target the most vulnerable migrants are needed to help migrants and their partners avoid HIV infection. [source] Implication of Ariaal sexual mixing on gonorrheaAMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 3 2005C. Connell McCluskey Recent research on sexual mixing in populations of sub-Saharan Africa raises the question as to whether STDs can persist in these populations without the presence of a core group. A mathematical model is constructed for the spread of gonorrhea among the Ariaal population of Northern Kenya. A formula for the basic reproduction number R0 (the expected number of secondary infections caused by a single new infective introduced into a susceptible population) is determined for this population in the absence of a core group. Survey data taken in 2003 on sexual behavior from the Ariaal population are used in the model which is formulated for their age-set system including four subpopulations: single and married, female and male. Parameters derived from the data, and other information from sub-Saharan Africa are used to estimate R0. Results indicate that, even with the elevating effect of the age-set system, the disease should die out since R0 < 1. Thus, the persistence of gonorrhea in the population must be due to factors not included in the model, for example, a core group of commercial sex workers or concurrent partnerships. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 17:293,301, 2005. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Information behavior in everyday life: Research on street-level sex workers, new immigrants, and hair stylists.PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2003Sponsored by SIG USE Little research has focused on the information behavior of the general public (Julien & Duggan, 2000). In this session we report findings on how information is sought and used as part of everyday life by three distinct groups: (1) street-level sex workers, (2) new immigrants, and (3) hairdressers. [source] Designing out vulnerability, building in respect: violence, safety and sex work policyTHE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2007Teela Sanders Abstract One recent finding about the prostitution market is the differences in the extent and nature of violence experienced between women who work on the street and those who work from indoor sex work venues. This paper brings together extensive qualitative fieldwork from two cities in the UK to unpack the intricacies in relation to violence and safety for indoor workers. Firstly, we document the types of violence women experience in indoor venues noting how the vulnerabilities surrounding work-based hazards are dependent on the environment in which sex is sold. Secondly, we highlight the protection strategies that indoor workers and management develop to maintain safety and order in the establishment. Thirdly, we use these empirical findings to suggest that violence should be a high priority on the policy agenda. Here we contend that the organizational and cultural conditions that seem to offer some protection from violence in indoor settings could be useful for informing the management of street sex work. Finally, drawing on the crime prevention literature, we argue that it is possible to go a considerable way to designing out vulnerability in sex work, but not only through physical and organizational change but building in respect for sex workers rights by developing policies that promote the employment/human rights and citizenship for sex workers. This argument is made in light of the Coordinated Prostitution Strategy. [source] Renewing the War on prostitution: The spectres of ,trafficking' and ,slavery'ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 3 2009Sophie Day The 1990s saw government initiatives restricting immigration in many countries, and a good deal of popular unease. Associated policies have targeted sex workers, as with the Policing and Crime Bill that is currently in its Third Reading in the House of Commons (UK). In the name of ,victims' of a trade organised by ,evil' traffickers, this Bill seeks further sanctions against all of those involved. This editorial asks whether initiatives during the current recession might not seem to succeed but for the wrong reasons. Immigrants are already leaving the UK in search of a living while local workers, who were promised safer working conditions in the wake of the murder of five women in Ipswich (2006), will be punished more and more. With its apparently humanitarian efforts to ,stop the traffic', the UK government will turn out to have replaced our ,slaves' from abroad with home-grown substitutes, and effectively solidified and further excluded an underclass. This situation suggests striking parallels with the panic over white slavery during the last comparable period of globalisation culminating in the First World War. [source] Abandoned Women and Spaces of the ExceptionANTIPODE, Issue 5 2005Geraldine Pratt I consider two cases of legal abandonment in Vancouver,of murdered sex workers and live-in caregivers on temporary work visas,in light of Agamben's claim that the generalized suspension of the law has become a dominant paradigm of government. I bring to Agamben's theory a concern to specify both the gendering and racialisation of these processes, and the many geographies that are integral to legal abandonment and the reduction of categories of people to ,bare life'. The case studies also allow me to explore two limit-concepts that Agamben offers as a means to re-envision political community: the refugee who refuses assimilation in the nation-state, and the human so degraded as to exist beyond conventional humanist ethics of respect, dignity and responsibility. [source] Commercial sex workers: Victims, vectors or fighters of the HIV epidemic in Cambodia?ASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 1 2005Lisa Marten Abstract:,This paper looks at the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of commercial sex workers (CSWs) in Cambodia regarding HIV/AIDS and condom use. The findings are based on semistructured interviews and focus groups with brothel-based and self-employed CSWs, and interviews with people who work with them. The respondents live in two towns near the Thai border served by Medecins Sans Frontiers sexually transmitted disease clinics set up to reduce the transmission of HIV. Most CSWs had attended the clinics. Knowledge of HIV and the ability of condoms to prevent infection was universal. The desire to use condoms with clients was also universal. Most CSWs were active and skilful in negotiating condom use with clients. However, many CSWs who wanted to use condoms failed to do so on occasion due to disparate power relationship with brothel owners and clients, and economic desperation. In addition, some exempted regular or special clients from condom use due to emotional isolation and misconceptions over susceptibility to HIV. The current 100% Condom Use Policy in place in Cambodia is not compatible with voluntary programmes such as the successful Medecins Sans Frontiers clinics. The government policy also fails to address the broader social and economic factors that make CSWs unable to enforce condom use when a client does not desire to do so. [source] Cross-border ,Traffic': Stories of dangerous victims, pure whores and HIV/AIDS in the experiences of mainland female sex workers in Hong KongASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 1 2005Kevin D. Ming Abstract:,In recent years, dramatically increasing numbers of mainland Chinese women have entered Hong Kong to engage in sexual labour. Public discourses on the threat of HIV/AIDS increasingly locate these women's bodies as sites of danger, colluding with pre-existing imaginations of mainland rural women as ignorant, desperate and deceptive in representing these women's penetration of Hong Kong's border as a primary means of infection of the Hong Kong body. Drawing on state, media and popular representations, and the narratives of female sex workers themselves, this paper examines the interwoven bio-medical, gendered, sexual and cross-border relationships that intersect in the experiences of mainland Chinese sex workers in Hong Kong. I argue that while images of disease and danger have been used to regulate these women's bodies, mainland female sex workers challenge these images by drawing on other popular stereotypes of mainland women as pure, feminine and traditional. Although images of the related but still ,other' figure of the mainland Chinese woman are powerful mechanisms for the regulation of these women's bodies, mainland female sex workers skilfully use inherent tensions in those images in resisting that control and in struggling to achieve their own personal and economic goals. [source] Estimating the number of unlicensed brothels operating in MelbourneAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 1 2010Marcus Y. Chen Abstract Objective: To estimate the number of unlicensed brothels operating in Melbourne, Australia, and the sexual health of the women working in them. Methods: Advertisements from Melbourne newspapers published in July 2006 were systematically analysed based on the language used to identify premises likely to be unlicensed brothels. A visit was made to each of the businesses where an address was available. Participating sex workers were tested for Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Mycoplasma genitalium and Trichomonas vaginalis using self-collected tampons and polymerase chain reaction. Results: There were 438 advertisements collated, representing 174 separate establishments. Of these, 78 were not considered likely to be brothels. Of the remaining 96, addresses were available for 42 and all of these premises were visited. Thirteen were confirmed as unlicensed brothels. We estimate there were between 13 and 70 unlicensed brothels in Melbourne. Twenty-three women were recruited from four brothels. Only 56% (95% confidence interval (CI) 35-77%) reported having regular sexual health checks and only 13% (95%CI 3-36%) reported prior testing for HIV. Among the 22 women tested, one had chlamydia while another had gonorrhoea, a prevalence of 4.5% (95%CI: 2.3-20.4%) for each infection. Conclusions: The number of unlicensed brothels in Melbourne is much smaller than is generally believed. Women in the sector are infrequently tested for STIs. Implications: As long as a licensing system persists, promotion of sexual health among women in this sector is likely to face hurdles. Further research is needed into the best model for regulating or not regulating sex industries. [source] Demographic, migration status, and work-related changes in Asian female sex workers surveyed in Sydney, 1993 and 2003AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 2 2006C. Pell Objective: To compare demography, sexual health awareness, migration and workplace conditions of Asian female sex workers in Sydney in 1993 and 2003. Method: A Chinese interpreter and a Thaispeaking health education officer (HEO) were used to administer a questionnaire survey to Thai- and Chinese-speaking sex workers attending sexual health clinics in 1993. A follow-up survey, which included some women contacted at work as well as clinic attenders, was administered by Thai-and Chinese-speaking HEOs in 2003. Results: Ninety-one female sex workers were surveyed in 1993 and 165 in 2003. Median age increased (26 years vs. 33 years, p=0.000), as did numbers of Chinese- versus Thai-speakers (1993, 25.3% Chinese vs. 2003, 58.2% Chinese, p=0.000). In 2003, the women reported more years of schooling and better English skills. Fewer reported previous sex work (48.4% vs. 17.6%, p=0.000). Numbers currently or ever on a contract decreased sharply (27.5% vs. 9.1%, p=0.000) and the majority were apparently working legally. Condom use at work for vaginal (51.6% vs. 84.8%) and oral sex (39.6% vs. 66.1%) increased significantly (p=0.001). Chinese-speaking sex workers were less informed about HIV transmission and safer sex practices than were Thai sex workers. Drug and alcohol use was low. Conclusions and Implications: Positive changes have occurred in the conditions of Asian female sex workers surveyed over 10 years in Sydney. Maintaining current levels of health service delivery will ensure continued improvements in health and workplace conditions and address inequalities between language groups. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||