Slipping under the radar: uOttawa researchers study third parties in the sex industry

[Sweet Emily J 172062]

[B]Slipping under the radar: uOttawa researchers study third parties in the sex industry[/B]
[I]By Sabrina Abraham[/I]

[URL="http://www.gazette.uottawa.ca/en/2013/04/slipping-under-the-radar-uottawa-researchers-study-third-parties-in-the-sex-industry/"]http://www.gazette.uottawa.ca/en/2013/04/slipping-under-the-radar-uottawa-researchers-study-third-parties-in-the-sex-industry/[/URL]

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Weâ??ve all liked some managers and disliked others. In the latter case, we may have thought of going off and starting our own business. This can be great. To get your clients, you may need a website to attract them and a receptionist inviting them in. However, regardless of the service you offer, starting a business almost always means finding third parties to help manage, organize or provide a service of some kind. According to Chris Bruckert, professor in the Department of Criminology, and her doctoral student Tuulia Law, this applies anywhere in the market, including in one of the most clandestine of trades: the sex industry.

In their newly released report, Beyond Pimps, Procurers and Parasites: Third Parties in the Sex Industry, Bruckert and Law look at third parties in the incall and outcall sectors of the sex industry. The image that may come to mind at the mention of the term â??third partiesâ? in connection with the sex industry is that of a violent and abusive pimp. This media stereotype is one that Bruckert and Law challenge. A third party, defined in the report as â??someone else involved in the transaction that is neither the client nor the worker,â? may be a person anyone in mainstream business would call uponâ??a manager, contractor, mentor or colleague.

â??In the sex industry, all these people are criminalized,â? explains Bruckert. â??Basically, the law says that if you are providing services for someone to facilitate their business or if your service would not exist if it wasnâ??t for the prostitution, you are living on the avails. It is really straightforward, [and affects] all these people: drivers, photographers, security and contractors.â?

In 2009, Bruckert and Law received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to conduct their research. The report is based on interviews with 50 third parties and 27 sex workers in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes.

â??Most of the third parties we spoke to were actually women,â? says Law. â??And the majority of those womenâ??even some of the men we spoke toâ??were or had been sex workers.â? Law and Bruckert explain that contrary to common belief, sex workers often expressed positive feelings towards third parties.

â??One of the reasons why sex workers work with third parties is because it is safer. There is someone who knows where they are, has information about the client and has done screening,â? says Bruckert. She goes on to explain that â??the report doesnâ??t come out saying that third parties are all wonderful bosses or associates, but what it does say is that third parties are really important to sex workers. We have a situation in Canada where sex work itself is not against the law but everything around it is criminalized. This works to the detriment of sex workers.â?

To learn more about this research report, visit [URL="http://www.sciencessociales.uottawa.ca/gis-msi/"]www.sciencessociales.uottawa.ca/gis-msi/[/URL].
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