{"title":"Troubling Decriminalization","authors":"John Scott, Jane Scoular","doi":"10.1215/01636545-11027561","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n In the context of a fiercely polarized battle on the correct legal response to prostitution, sex workers and their advocates often advance decriminalization as a policy that can protect rights and provide improved health and safety for those involved in the sex industry. And yet this policy, after an initial implementation in New South Wales in 1995, has failed to gain much legislative support in jurisdictions outside Australia and New Zealand. This article moves beyond normative arguments regarding the benefits and limits of decriminalization. Drawing on governmentality approaches, it asks: What discursive conditions made decriminalization possible? In doing so it examines the construction of sex work as a health problem and the normalization of “sex work,” arguing that both can be grounded in a neoliberal problematic of governance.","PeriodicalId":51725,"journal":{"name":"RADICAL HISTORY REVIEW","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"RADICAL HISTORY REVIEW","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1215/01636545-11027561","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In the context of a fiercely polarized battle on the correct legal response to prostitution, sex workers and their advocates often advance decriminalization as a policy that can protect rights and provide improved health and safety for those involved in the sex industry. And yet this policy, after an initial implementation in New South Wales in 1995, has failed to gain much legislative support in jurisdictions outside Australia and New Zealand. This article moves beyond normative arguments regarding the benefits and limits of decriminalization. Drawing on governmentality approaches, it asks: What discursive conditions made decriminalization possible? In doing so it examines the construction of sex work as a health problem and the normalization of “sex work,” arguing that both can be grounded in a neoliberal problematic of governance.
期刊介绍:
Individual subscribers and institutions with electronic access can view issues of Radical History Review online. If you have not signed up, review the first-time access instructions. For more than a quarter of a century, Radical History Review has stood at the point where rigorous historical scholarship and active political engagement converge. The journal is edited by a collective of historians—men and women with diverse backgrounds, research interests, and professional perspectives. Articles in RHR address issues of gender, race, sexuality, imperialism, and class, stretching the boundaries of historical analysis to explore Western and non-Western histories.