Street-based sex workers as agents in the policy-making process: An exploration of participatory regulation in sex industry policy in the Midlands, UK

Inspired by policy-making practices in Victoria, Australia where sex work was decriminalised, this project will develop new practice and regulation around street-based sex work placing sex worker voices and expertise at the centre (Aroney & Crofts, 2019). It sets out to explore if collaborative governance can offer a future in sex work policymaking to achieve acceptable working conditions, rights and protect vulnerable groups, while recognising sex workers' ability to lead structural reform (Wagenaar, 2017).

By centring street-based sex workers voices and experiences in policy development, this project produces the first co-designed model for regulating sex work in England and Wales.

The project will employ anarchist criminology and anti-carceral feminism to develop a critical framework for assessing law and policy that will also humanise and empower street-based sex workers (Brockbank & Greene, 2022; Nocella et al., 2018). Criminalisation increases violence, stigma, and exploitation for sex workers and has resulted in regulatory frameworks based on protectionism (Sanders and Campbell, 2007).

Policy reform is needed to address the risk of harm, however, current policymaking processes give sex workers little agency or decision-making input (Cairney, 2020). In seeking to influence policy-making, this project utilises citizen participatory approaches to empower street-based sex workers and give voice to this marginalised group in policy deliberation (Michels & De Graaf, 2010).

The aims of this research are to create a co-designed regulatory framework for street-based sex work, empower street-based sex workers in the midlands to have a voice in the policy-making process, to create an environment of knowledge exchange with street-based sex workers, and to demonstrate the value of participatory regulation.

Sex work research tends to focus on violence and exploitation, with arguments framed around this as choice or a form of violence against women, and the majority of research is carried out on and not with sex workers, thereby giving workers little voice and agency (Connelly & Sanders, 2020; McGarry & Fitzgerald, 2018). In the field of policy studies, it is rare for studies to focus on sex work policy, and the small number that do tend to focus on implementation, chiefly criminalisation and health outcomes (Johnson, 2015; Karlsson, 2022).

This project aims to address these gaps by directly exploring sex industry policymaking processes and ways to involve sex workers in its governance.

The project will employ participatory research methods (PR) in four Midlands cities: Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and Birmingham. These locations have been selected due to their high levels of poverty, that may suggest higher number of street-based sex workers (ONS, 2021). In addition, I have worked at a Nottingham based sex worker organisation (POW Nottingham) for four years, and can draw on the networks and professional relationships I have made to carry out the research.

The research will consist of two cycles, the first involving 12 focus groups which will focus on current regulatory frameworks and worker's experiences of policy and policy-making, the second consisting of 40 in-depth interviews with street-based sex workers to reflect on the learning and themes from the first cycle, using this to gain further in-depth insight on street-based sex workers wants from policy, ultimately resulting in the formulation of a co-designed regulatory framework.