Commercial sex in the UK and Republic of Ireland: Current knowledge and future challenges

ROI和英国对商业性交易的比较研究不仅对评估性交易的性质产生了影响，而且对如何监管它也产生了巨大的影响，这些问题围绕着性健康、暴力和虐待；法律和更广泛的行业监管。该项目将是第一个将英国和ROI的学者、性工作者、非政府组织、性健康专业人员、警察、政府和行业代表以一种真正合作的方式聚集在一起的此类项目，并且没有给予任何特定声音特权。在某些方面，该网络将建立在英国利益攸关方团体和学术研究人员之间已经建立的联系基础上，并通过英国SWRH和ISWRN建立ROI。但拟议网络的主旨是超越这一点，在南北(NI和ROI)和东西(爱尔兰和英国)轴心上建立合作关系。该网络将从事学术研究，重点放在强调社会正义的政策议程上，并将性工作者作为关键利益相关者(McGarry&Fitzgerald，2018)。该网络探索了英国各地区商业性行为的无数领域，并调查了投资回报率的情况，该地区最近效仿北欧地区出台了性购买禁令。目前，在英国，北爱尔兰是唯一颁布了类似禁令的地区。在英国和ROI，尽管在后一种情况下可以说更多，但一个关键问题是研究证据被选择性地挑选出来以适应特定的议程(Ellison等人，2019年)。目前，在爱尔兰，关于性交易的知识主要来源于废奴主义团体的活动，这些团体拥有充足的资源和资金，并以特定方式指导了辩论的参数(例如，ROI的红灯转向，非常有影响力)。当然，这些群体中的一些人可能很好地提出了有效的观点(例如，围绕毒瘾问题)，但这些观点需要得到证据，并建立在研究文献的基础上，这一点目前可以说是不存在的。事实上，在这些辩论中，关键的利益相关者群体之一--性工作者本身--通常被“谈论”而不是“去”，并且一直被边缘化，处于事态发展的边缘(O‘Neill和Laing，2018)。因此，通过建立这个网络，性工作者将能够与其他关键利益相关者群体平等接触，成为影响他们生活的政策的一股力量。利益攸关方群体可以从这一伙伴关系中受益的方式有很多，例如，考虑到警察和涉及性服务行业的人(例如互联网公司)可以如何更密切地合作，以查明哪些人未成年或可能被贩卖进行性剥削。同样，我们从与NI卫生部的讨论中了解到，虽然他们将性工作者认为性健康筛查和建议的关键目标群体，但他们目前对如何联系相对隐蔽的在线陪护人员以及哪些健康专业人员历来难以接触到他们感到困惑。鉴于全球新冠肺炎大流行提出了对性工作者获得医疗服务的重要问题以及关于感染潜在传播的流行病学问题，目前对商业性行为的研究也特别相关。鉴于欧盟(ROI)和英国(NI)之间可能存在漏洞百出的陆地边界，这可能会导致围绕犯罪和贩运的问题。这些问题需要政策制定者立即予以关注，并将作为一条“金线”贯穿该网络提议的专题会议和讲习班。

The comparative study of commercial sex in the ROI and UK has implications for assessments of the nature of sexual commerce but also huge implications for how it is policed, issues arising around sexual health, violence and abuse; law and the regulation of the industry more generally. This project will be the first of its kind to bring together UK and ROI academics, sex workers, NGOs, sexual health professionals, the police, government and industry representatives in a way that is genuinely collaborative, and which does not privilege any one particular voice. In some ways the network will build on links already established between stakeholder groups and academic researchers in the UK and ROI through the UK SWRH and the ISWRN. But the main thrust of the proposed network is to move beyond this and establish collaborative relationships on a North-South (NI and ROI) and an East-West (Ireland and Britain) axis. The network will engage in academic research with a strong focus on a policy agenda that emphasises social justice and will include sex workers as key stakeholders (McGarry & FitzGerald, 2018). The network explores the myriad terrain of commercial sex across the regions of the UK and also examines the situation in the ROI that has recently introduced a sex purchase ban following the example of the Nordic regions. Currently, in the UK, Northern Ireland is the only region to have enacted a similar ban. In both the UK and ROI, though arguably more so in the latter case, a key problem has been the ways that research evidence has been selectively cherry-picked to fit with a particular agenda (Ellison et al, 2019). Currently in Ireland knowledge around sexual commerce stems mainly from the activities of mainly abolitionist groups that are well resourced and funded and who have steered the parameters of the debate in particular ways (e.g. Turn of the Red Light in the ROI which has been very influential). Of course, some of these groups may well make valid points (around drug addiction issues, for example) but these points need to be evidenced and based in the research literature which is arguably not happening at the moment. In fact, one of the key stakeholder groups - sex workers themselves - are generally talked "about" rather than "to" in these debates and have remained marginalised and on the periphery of developments (O'Neill and Laing, 2018). So, it will be through the establishment of the network that sex workers will be in a position to engage on an equal footing with other key stakeholder groups as a force to influence policies that affect their lives. There are many ways in which stakeholder groups can benefit from this partnership, with for example a consideration of the ways that the police and those involved in the sexual services industry (Internet companies for example) can work more closely to identify those who are underage or who may have been trafficked for sexual exploitation. Likewise, we are aware from our discussions with the Department of Health in NI that while they identify sex workers as a key target group for sexual health screening and advice, they are currently at a loss as to how to contact online escorts who are relatively hidden and which health professionals have historically had difficulties accessing.The study of commercial sex is also particularly germane at the moment given the global Covid-19 pandemic which raises important questions about sex worker access to health services and also epidemiological questions around the potential spread of infection, but also Brexit which may fundamentally restructure the nature of the sex industry in the UK, and potentially lead to issues around criminality and trafficking given the likely existence of a porous land border between the EU (ROI) and the UK (NI). These are issues that warrant immediate attention from policy makers and will run as a "golden thread" throughout the thematic sessions and workshops proposed in the network.