Abstract
Sex work is conceptualised in a multiplicity of nuanced ways in the academic literature, including (among others) as a bounded, yet ‘authentic’ intimate practice, as labour, as an economic survival strategy and as a type of therapy (see inter alia Bernstein 2007; Sanders 2005; Ditmore et al. 2010; Smith 2013). In addition, victimisation, criminali-s at ion, as well as conceptual and material understandings of violence are key themes. There has been little exploration specifically, however, of sex work as an ‘invisible crime’1 yet there is potential for the crimi-nalisation and victimisation of sex workers (and many would argue the two are inextricably linked) to be explored through the invisible crime typology of the body. Within this analysis, I am not seeking to position sex workers as criminals, but instead will draw on parts of the legal system in England and Wales that criminalise aspects of the commercial sexual exchange. It is indisputable that sex work discourse is as much underpinned by criminological and legalistic frameworks as it is infused with moralistic, ideological and ethical debates.
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Laing, M. (2014). Selling Sex Invisibly: Solicitation as an Invisible Crime. In: Davies, P., Francis, P., Wyatt, T. (eds) Invisible Crimes and Social Harms. Critical Criminological Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137347824_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137347824_7
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