Dr. Cecilia Benoit

Position

Scientist

Contact

See also: Cecilia's dedicated research site: understandingsexwork.ca

About Cecilia

Cecilia Benoit is a scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (formerly CARBC). Apart from research focused on the occupation of midwifery and the organization of maternity care in Canada and internationally, she is involved in a variety of projects that employ mixed methodologies to investigate the health of different vulnerable groups, including Aboriginal women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, young people confronting health stigmas linked to obesity and asthma, street-involved youth in transition to adulthood, workers in lower-prestige service occupations, adults in the sex industry, and pregnant and early parenting women dealing with addiction and other challenges.


In 2016, Cecilia was honoured with a Governor General's Award in Commenoration of the Persons Case for her “outstanding contribution to the goal of equality for women and girls in Canada.” (Photos: MCpl Vincent Carbonneau, Rideau Hall, and Status of Women Canada)

Cecilia has received numerous awards for her scholarship and community outreach activities. Most recently, she was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize (2022) received the Killam Prize in Social Sciences (2020), was named CIHR's senior researcher Trailblazer Award in Population and Public Health Research (2020), received a Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Fellowship (2018), was honoured with a UVic Provost's Engaged Scholar award (2017) and Governor General's Award in Commenoration of the Persons Case (2016). She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2013) and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2013). She is currently leading two CIHR-funded projects that adopt an intersectionality lens: “Team grant on contexts of vulnerabilities, resiliencies and care among people in the sex industry” and “Interventions to promote health and healthy equity for pregnant and early parenting women facing substance use and other challenges.”

Videos of Cecilia

Publications

Publications from the last five years. For a full list, see Cecilia's CV.

Books and Monographs

2023: Benoit, C. & Mellor, A. (Eds). Structural interventions to promote the health, safety & rights of sex workers: Decriminalization and beyond. Special issue of Social Sciences.
2022: Macionis, J.J., Jansson, S.M, Benoit, C.M. & Burkowicz, J. Society, the basics: Eighth Canadian edition. Scarborough, Ontario: Pearson Education Canada.
2021: Benoit, C. (Ed.). Understanding exploitation in consensual sex work to inform occupational health & safety regulation. Basel, Switzerland, MDPI.
2021: Magnuson, D., Jansson, M., & Benoit, C. The experience of emerging adulthood among street-involved youth. New York, USA: Oxford University Press.
2019: Macionis, J.J., Jansson, S.M, Benoit, C.M. & Burkowicz, J. Society, the basics: Seventh Canadian edition. Scarborough, Ontario: Pearson Education Canada.

Peer-Reviewed Chapters

2024: Benoit, C., Mellor, A., Vetrone, L., Premji, Z. Street-involved youth. Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology. Elsevier. ISBN 9780128093245,
2022: Benoit, C., Jansson, M. Phillips, R., Hallgrimsdottir, H. & Vallance, K. Social influences of injection drug use among a community sample of sex workers: Intersections of structure and agency across the life course. In C. Morrow, M., O. Hankivsky & Varcoe, C. (Eds.). Women’s Health in Canada: Challenges of Intersectionality (2^nd ed.). (pp. 273-288). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
2021: Smith, M. & Benoit, C. Chapter 5: How Social Inequities in Maternity Care Impact Marginalised Groups. The FIGO Continuous Textbook of Women’s Medicine. Volume 1: Pregnancy and Society. London, King’s College.
2019: Magnuson, D., Jansson, M., & Benoit, C. (2019). Foster care as a support system for early leavers. In Varda Mann-Feder, (ed.). Leaving Care and the Transition to Adulthood: International Contributions to Theory, Research, and Practice. Oxford University Press.
2018: Casey, L., McCarthy, B., Phillips, R., Benoit, C., Jansson, M., Magnus, S., Atchison, Reimer, B., Reist, D., & Shaver, F. Managing conflict: An examination of three-way alliances in Canadian escort and massage businesses. In Horning, A. Marcus, A. (Eds). (pp. 131-149). Third Party Sex Work and "Pimps" in the Age of Anti-Trafficking. Switzerland: Springer.

Journal Articles

2024: Benoit, C., Koenig, B., Mellor, A., Jansson, M., Magnuson, D. & Vetrone, L. (2024). Navigating stigma in romantic relationships where one or both partners sell sexual services. The Journal of Sex Research
2024: Benoit, C., Mellor, A. & Premji, Z. Structural interventions to reduce harms & promote the capabilities of girls experiencing multiple complexities: A scoping review. Children and Youth Services Review. 157, 107436.
2023: Benoit, C., Mellor, A. & Premji, Z. (2023). Perspectives on sexual citizenship for people living with disabilities: A response to commentaries. Archives of Sexual Behavior 52, 3285–3290.
2023: Benoit, C. & Mellor, A. Editorial: Structural interventions to promote the health, safety & rights of sex workers: Decriminalization and beyond. Social Sciences. 12: 202.
2023: Mellor, A. & Benoit, C. Understanding the diversity of people in sex work: Views from leaders in sex worker organizations. Social Sciences 12: 191. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12030191
2023: Moebes, Z., Card, K. Koenig, B., & Benoit, C. Lower-risk substance use guidelines accessible by youth. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, 18, 10.
2022: Jansson, M., Smith, M., Benoit, C., & Magnuson, D. Challenges and benefits of disclosure of sex work to intimate partners. The Journal of Sex Research. 25; 1-13.
2022: Benoit, C., Bourgeault, I., & Mykhalovskiy, E. Editorial: How equitable has the COVID-19 response been in Canada? Canadian Journal of Public Health. Special Section on Equity and the COVID-19 Response in Canada. 113, 791–794.
2022: Divine, A., Blanchard, C., Benoit, C., Symons Downs, D., &Rhodes, R. The influence of sleep and movement factors on mental health and life satisfaction during the transition to parenthood. Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep Foundation.
2022: Benoit, C., Mellor, A., & Premji, Z. Access to sexual rights for people living with disabilities: Assumptions, evidence and policy outcomes. Archives of Sexual Behavior.
2022: Vetrone, L., Benoit, C., Magnuson, D., Jansson, M., Headley P. & Smith, M. Education Aspirations and Barriers to Achievement for Street-involved Youth in Victoria, Canada. Social Inclusion. 10 (4).
2022: Benoit, C.& Unsworth, R. COVID-19, Stigma and the Ongoing Marginalization of Sex workers and their support organizations. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 51, 331–342.
2021: Atanackovic, J., Freeman, A., Demers, C., Neiterman, E., Benoit, C., Tiessen, K., & Bourgeault. I. Leaves of absence and return to work among Canadian midwives who experience mental health issues: Pilot study findings. Canadian Journal of Midwifery Research and Practice. 20 (2): 23-33.
2021: Armstrong, H. Sang, J., Skala, A., Wang, L., Zhu, J., Lachowsky, N., Card, K., Olarewaju, G., Benoit, C., Hogg, R., Moore, D., & Roth, E. Factors Associated with transactional sex among a cohort of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in Vancouver, Canada. Sexual Health. 18(6): 487-497.
2021: Leslie, K., Benoit, C., Freeman, A., & Bourgeault, I. The regulatory amalgamation for nursing and midwifery in British Columbia. Health Reform Observer – Observatoire des Réformes de Santé, 9(1).
2021: Benoit, C. Editorial: Understanding exploitation in consensual sex work to inform occupational health & safety regulation: Current issues and policy implications. Social Sciences 10, 238.
2021: Benoit, C., Unsworth, R., Headley, P., Smith, & M., Jansson, M. Centering sex workers’ voices in law and social policy. Sexuality Research and Social Policy.
2021: McCarthy, B., Benoit, C. & Jansson, M. Job attributes and mental health: A comparative study of sex work and hairstyling. Social Sciences. 10(2):35.
2021: Greer, A., Sorge, J., Selfridge, M., Benoit, C., Jansson, M., & MacDonald, S. Factors contributing to frequent police contact among young people: a multivariate analysis including homelessness, community visibility, and drug use in British Columbia, Canada. Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy.
2021: Orchard, T., Salter, K., Bunch, M., & Benoit, C. Money, agency, and self-care among cisgender and trans people in sex work. Social Sciences.
2021: Divine, A., Blanchard, C., Naylor, P., Benoit, C., Symons Downs, D., & Rhodes, R. (2020). Effect of housework on physical activity during transitions to parenthood. Women & Health.
2021: Benoit, C. & Unsworth, R. Early assessment of integrated knowledge translation efforts to mobilize sex workers in their communities. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 50 (1), 129–140.
2020: Benoit, C. COVID-19 benefits exclude sex workers in Canada. Options Politiques/Policy Options.
2020: Card, K., Selfridge, M., Greer, A., Hepburn, K., Fournier, A., Sorge, J., Urbanoski, K., Pauly, B., Benoit, C., Lachowsky, N., & Macdonald, S. Encounter-level outcomes of police interactions with young people who use drugs in three non-metropolitan cities across British Columbia, Canada. International Journal of Drug Policy.
2020: Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Healey, P., & Magnuson, D. The relative quality of sex work. Work, Employment & Society. 35(2), 239–255.
2020: Stockwell, T., Benoit, C., Card, K., & Sherk, A. Problematic substance use or problematic substance use policies? Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada: Research, Policy and Practice.
2020: Greer, A., Sorge, J., Selfridge, M., Benoit, C., Jansson, M., & Macdonald, S. Police discretion to charge young people who use drugs prior to cannabis legalization in British Columbia, Canada: A brief report of quantitative findings. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy. 27:6, 488-493.
2020: Benoit, C., Maurice, R., Abel, G., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Healey, P., & Magnuson, D. “I dodged the stigma bullet”: Canadian sex workers’ situated responses to occupational stigma. Culture, Health & Sexuality 22 (1), 81-95.
2020:Orchard, T., Bunch, M., Salter, K., & Benoit, C. Balance, capacity and the contingencies of everyday life: Narrative etiologies of health among women in street-based sex work. Qualitative Health Research. 30 (4), 518-529.
2019: Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Healey, P., & Magnuson, D. Effectiveness of anecdotes and logically false arguments to refute analysis based on systematically collected data. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 48 (7), 1903-1904.
2019: Ivsins, A., Benoit, C., Kobayashi, K. Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, & Boyd, S. From risky places to safe spaces: Re-assembling spaces/places. Health and Place. 59, 102164.
2019: Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Healey, P., & Magnuson, D. Unlinking prostitution and sex trafficking: Response to commentaries. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 48 (7), 1973–1980.
2019: Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Magnus, S, Maurice, R., Flagg, J., & Reist, D. Canadian sex workers weigh the costs and benefits of disclosing their occupational status to health providers. Sexuality Research and Social Policy. 16 (3), 329–341.
2019: Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Healey, P., & Magnuson, D. ‘The prostitution problem’: Claims, evidence, and policy outcomes. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 48 (7), 1905–1923. 10.1007/s10508-018-1276-6
2019: Orchard, T., Murie, A., Elash, H., Bunch, M., Middleton, C., Sadakhom, D., Oiamo, T., & Benoit, C. “People like us”: Spatialized notions of health, stigma, power, and subjectivity among women in street sex work. Culture, Health & Sexuality. 21(4), 478-494.
2018: Benoit, C., Jansson, M., Smith, M., & Flagg, J. Prostitution stigma and its effect on the working conditions, personal lives and health of sex workers. Special issue: Annual Review of Sex Research. Journal of Sex Research. 55(4-5), 457-471.
2018: Evans, E., McCarthy, B., Benoit, C., & Jansson, M. Early trauma, long-term consequences: Does family instability keep people from doctors? Social Science Quarterly. 99, 599-615. doi:10.1111/ssqu.12448
2018: McCarthy, B., Carter, A., Jansson, M., Benoit, & Finnigan, R. Poverty, material hardship, and mental health among workers in three frontline service occupations. Journal of Poverty. 22 (4), 334-354.
2018: Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Magnus, S., Flagg, J., & Maurice, R. Sex work and three dimensions of self-esteem: Self-worth, authenticity, and self-efficacy. Culture, Health & Sexuality. 20 (1), 69-83. 10.1080/13691058.2017.1328075