Understanding Sex Work

( understanding ) sex work: a health research & community partnership

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Research in Action

Collaborative research projects in Canada examining sex work and prostitution law.

Overview
Project and Team
Sex work in Canada
Moving forward

Learning more about people and their experiences in the Canadian sex industry is the goal of this research project funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

We have conducted further research on the impact of the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (Bill C-36) on the health and safety of sex workers.

 The sex industry, like other industries, is often more significant, complex and misunderstood than people realize. It involves a range of services and different types of relationships between people from various ethnic, economic and educational backgrounds. Yet unlike most other types of work, sex work carries the enormous burden of social stigma, safety concerns and legal issues, making the health and well-being of workers—and their families, managers and clients—difficult to achieve and maintain.
 
The project involves a variety of Canadian community organizations and an international team of researchers headed by Cecilia Benoit, a sociologist located at the University of Victoria. The team aims to understand better what our society can do to help improve the environments and lives of people associated with Canada’s sex industry.

Peer-Reviewed Articles, Reports and Webinars

Benoit, C., Mellor, A., Koenig, B., Jansson, M., Magnuson, D. Sex workers’ confidence in the police in one Canadian city under the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act. Polic. Soc. 1–16 (2024).
Mellor, A., Benoit, C., Koenig, B.: Ecological Contexts of Resilience in Sex Work: Managing a Precarious, Stigmatised, and Criminalised Occupation in One Canadian City. Sexes. 6, 1–22 (2025).
Benoit, C., Koenig, B., Mellor, A., Jansson, M., Magnuson, D., Vetrone, L., Benoit, C., Koenig, B., Mellor, A., Jansson, M. Navigating Stigma in Romantic Relationships Where One or Both Partners Sell Sexual Services Navigating Stigma in Romantic Relationships Where One or Both Partners Sell Sexual Services. J. Sex Res. 00, 1–13 (2024).
Benoit, C. and Mellor, A. (2023). Editorial: Decriminalization and What Else? Alternative Structural Interventions to Promote the Health, Safety, and Rights of Sex Workers. Social Sciences, 12(3), 202.
Mellor, A. and Benoit, C. (2023). Understanding the Diversity of People in Sex Work: Views from Leaders in Sex Worker Organizations. Social Sciences, 12(3), 191.
Benoit, C., Mellor, A., & Premji, Z. (2022). Access to sexual rights for people living with disabilities: Assumptions, evidence and policy outcomes. Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Jansson, M., Smith, M., Benoit, C., & Magnuson, D. (2022). Challenges and benefits of disclosure of sex work to intimate partners. The Journal of Sex Research.
Benoit, C., Unsworth, R. (2022). COVID-19, Stigma and the Ongoing Marginalization of Sex workers and their support organizations. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 51, 331–342.
Benoit, C., Jansson, M. Phillips, R., Hallgrimsdottir, H. & Vallance, K. (2022). Social influences of injection drug use among a community sample of sex workers: Intersections of structure and agency across the life course. In C. Varcoe, O. Hankivsky & M. Morrow (Eds.). Women's health in Canada: Critical theory, policy and practice (2^nd ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Benoit, C., Atchison, C., Casey, L., Jansson, M., McCarthy, B., Phillips, R., Reimer, B., R., Reist, D., Shaver, F. (2022, updated). Working paper for building on the evidence: An International symposium on the sex industry in Canada. (working paper).
Benoit, C. (Ed.). (2021). Understanding Exploitation in Consensual Sex Work to Inform Occupational Health & Safety Regulation. Basel, Switzerland, MDPI.
Benoit, C. (2021). Editorial: Understanding Exploitation in Consensual Sex Work to Inform Occupational Health & Safety Regulation: Current Issues and Policy Implications. Social Sciences 10, 238.
Benoit, C., Unsworth, R., Headley, P., Smith, M., Jansson, M. (2021). Centering Sex Workers’ Voices in Law and Social Policy. Sexuality Research and Social Policy.
Smith, M., Benoit, C. (2021). 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.
McCarthy, B., Benoit, C. & Jansson, M. (2021). Job attributes and mental health: A comparative study of sex work and hairstyling. Social Sciences. 10(2):35.
Orchard, T., Salter, K., Bunch, M., Benoit, C. (2020). Money, agency, and self-care among cisgender and trans people in sex work. Social Sciences. Special Issue "Understanding Exploitation in Consensual Sex Work to Inform Occupational Health & Safety Regulation".
Benoit, C. (2020). COVID-19 benefits exclude sex workers in Canada. Options Politiques/Policy Options.
Benoit, C., Unsworth, R. (2020). Early assessment of integrated knowledge translation efforts to mobilize sex workers in their communities. Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Card, K., Selfridge, M., Greer, A., Hepburn, K., Fournier, A., Sorge, J., Urbanoski, K., Pauly, B., Benoit, C., Lachowsky, N., Macdonald, S. (2020). 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.
Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Healey, P., Magnuson, D. (2020). The relative quality of sex work. Work, Employment & Society.
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.
Greer, A., Sorge, J., Selfridge, M., Benoit, C., Jansson, M., Macdonald, S. (2020). 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.
Benoit, C., Maurice, R., Able, G., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Healey, P., Magnuson, D. (2019). “I dodged the stigma bullet”: Canadian sex workers’ situated responses to occupational stigma. Culture, Health & Sexuality. 22 (1), 81-95.
Orchard, T., Bunch, M., Katherine Salter Benoit, C. (2020). 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. (article)
Ivsins, A., Benoit, C., Kobayashi, K., Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, Boyd, S. (2019). From risky places to safe spaces: Re-assembling spaces/places. Health and Place. 59, 102164.
Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Healey, P., Magnuson, D. (2019). Effectiveness of anecdotes and logically false arguments to refute analysis based on systematically collected data. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 48:1903–1904.
Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Healey, P., Magnuson, D. (2019). Unlinking prostitution and sex trafficking: Response to commentaries. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 48 (7), 1973–1980.
Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Magnus, S, Maurice, R., Flagg, J., Reist, D. (2018). 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.
Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M. et al. (2019). “The Prostitution Problem”: Claims, Evidence, and Policy Outcomes. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 48 (7), 1905–1923.
McCarthy, B., Carter, A., Jansson, M., Benoit, Finnigan, R. (2018). Poverty, material hardship, and mental health among workers in three frontline service occupations. Journal of Poverty.
Orchard, T., Murie, A., Elash, H., Bunch, M., Middleton, C., Sadakhom, D., Oiamo, T., Benoit, C. (2019). “People like us”: Spatialized notions of health, stigma, power, and subjectivity among women in street sex work. Culture, Health & Sexuality. 21(4), 478-494.
Benoit, C., Belle-Isle, L., Smith, M., Phillips, R., Shumka, L., Atchison, C., Jansson, M., & Loppie, C. (2017). Community Empowerment and Transformative Learning among Sex Workers: From health educators to health advocates. CISUR Bulletin #17, Victoria, BC: University of Victoria.
Benoit, C., Jansson, M., Smith, M., Flagg, J. (2018). 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.
Benoit, C., Belle-Isle, L., Smith, M., Phillips, R., Shumka, S., Atchison, C., Jansson, M., Loppie, C., Flagg. J. (2017). Community Empowerment and Transformative Learning among Sex Workers: From Health Educators to Health Advocates. International Journal for Equity in Health. 16:160.
Evans, E., McCarthy, B., Benoit, C., Jansson, M. (2017). Early trauma, long-term consequences: Does family instability keep people from doctors? Social Science Quarterly. 99, 599-615.
Benoit, C., Jansson, M., Smith, M., Flagg, J, (2017). ‘Well, it should be changed for one, because it’s our bodies: Workers’ views on Canada’s punitive approach towards sex work. Social Sciences. Special Issue "Sex Workers’ Rights: Looking toward the Future".
Benoit, C., Reist, D. (2017). “I’m a prostitute, so, can you check me?” Exploring sex work stigma in health care. Webinar. Canadian Public Health Association (slides) (recording)
Benoit, C., Ouellet, N., Jansson, M., Magnus, S., Smith, M.. (2017). Would you think about doing sex for money? Structure and agency in deciding to sell sex in Canada. Work, Employment & Society
Roth, E. Benoit, C., Hallgrimsdottir, H., Jansson, M. (2017). Public drinking venues as risk environments: Commercial sex, alcohol and violence in Nairobi, Kenya. Human Ecology. An Interdisciplinary Journal. 45: 277-283.
Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Magnus, S., Ouellet, N., Atchison, C., Casey, L., Phillips, R., Reimer, B., Reist, D., Shaver, F. (2016). Lack of confidence in police creates a ‘blue’ ceiling for sex workers’ safety. Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de politiques.
Casey, L., McCarthy, B., Phillips, R., Benoit, C., Jansson, M., Magnus, S., Atchison, Reimer, B., Reist, D., Shaver, F. (2017). Managing conflict: An examination of three-way alliances in Canadian escort and massage businesses. In Third Party Sex Work and "Pimps" in the Age of Anti-Trafficking.
Benoit, C., Ouellet, N, & Jansson, M. (2016). Unmet health care needs among sex workers in five census metropolitan areas of Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 107 (3), e266–e271.
Rudrum, S., Oliffe, J., Benoit, C. (2016). Discourses of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality in Uganda’s Stand Proud, Get Circumcised campaign. Culture, Health & Sexuality. 8(10): 1-15.
Atchison, C., & P. Burnett, P. (2016). The Social Dynamics of Safe Sex Practices among Canadian Sex Industry Clients. Sociology of Health and Illness. 38(6):1–18.
Atchison, C., Benoit, C., Burnett, P., Jansson, M., Kennedy, M., Ouellet, N., & Vukmirovich, D. (2015). The Influence of Time to Negotiate on Control in Sex Worker-Client Interactions. Research for Sex Work. Vol. 14.
Benoit, C., McCarthy, B., & Jansson, M. (2016). Occupational Stigma and Mental Health: Discrimination and Depression among Front-Line Service Workers. Canadian Public Policy, 41(Supplement 2), S61-S69.
Benoit, C., McCarthy, B. & Jansson, M. (2015). Stigma, sex work, and substance use: A comparative analysis. Sociology of Health & Illness 37 (3): 437-51.
Benoit, C. (2015). Modern maternity care in Canada. Transition. 45 (4), 3-6.
McCarthy, B., Benoit, C. & Jansson, M. (2014), Sex work: A comparative study. Archives of Sexual Behavior 43: 1379-90.
Phillips, R. & Benoit, C. (2013). Exploring courtesy stigma among frontline care providers serving sex workers. Sociology Insights on Inequities in Health and Health Care. Special issue of Healthcare Policy 9, 139-151.
Roth, E., Ngugli, E., Benoit, C., Hallgrimsdottir, H., & Jansson, M. (2014). A reasoned action model of male client involvement in commercial sex work in Kibera, a large informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. Human Organization.73, 174-182.
Benoit, C., Ngugi, E., Roth, E., Jansson, M., Hallgrimsdottir, Sharpe, K. (2014). Benefits and constraints of intimate partnerships for HIV positive sex workers in Kibera, Kenya. International Journal for Equity in Health. 12:76 doi:10.1186/1475-9276-12-76.
McCarthy, B., Benoit, C., & Jansson, M. (2012). Regulating sex work: Heterogeneity in legal strategies for controlling prostitution. Annual Review of Law and Social Science 8, 255–71.
Ngugi, E., Benoit, C., Hallgrimsdottir, H., Jansson, M., & Roth, E. (2012). Family kinship patterns and sex work involvement among women from the informal urban settlement of Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya. Human Ecology. 40, 397–403.
Ngugi, E., Benoit, C., Hallgrimsdottir, H., Jansson, M. & Roth, E. (2012). Partners and clients of female sex workers in an informal urban settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. Culture, Health & Sexuality 14, 17-30.
Phillips, R., Benoit, C., Vallance, K., & Hallgrimsdottir, H. (2012). Courtesy stigma: A hidden health concern among frontline service providers to sex workers. Sociology of Health & Illness. 34, 681–696.
Jansson, M., Benoit, C., Casey, L., Phillips, R. & Burns, D. (2010). In for the long haul: Knowledge translation between academic and non-profit organizations. Qualitative Health Research,20, 131–143. (article)
Hallgrimsdottir, H., Phillips, R., Benoit, C., & Walby, K. (2008). Sporting girls, streetwalkers, and inmates of houses of ill-repute: Media narratives and the historical mutability of prostitution stigmas. Sociological Perspectives, 51(1), 119-138.
Shumka, L. & Benoit, C. (2007). Social suffering and gaps in alternative health care for vulnerable women workers. Sociology of Health Care, 25, 255-278.
Hallgrimsdottir, H., Phillips, R. & Benoit, C. (2006). Fallen women and rescued girls: Social stigma and media narratives of the sex industry in Victoria, BC, from 1980 to 2005. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, Special Issue, 43(3), 265-280.
Benoit, C, Jansson, M., Millar, A. & and Phillips, R. (2005). Community-academic research on hard-to-reach populations: Benefits and challenges. Qualitative Health Research, 15(2), 263-282.
Phillips, R. & Benoit, C. (2005). Social determinants of health care access among sex industry workers in Canada. Sociology of Health Care, 23, 79-104.
Benoit, C. & Millar, A. (2001). Dispelling myths and understanding realities: Working conditions, health status, and exiting experiences of sex workers. Sponsored by PEERS. Funded by BC Health Research Foundation, Capital Health District, and BC Centre of Excellence on Women's Health.

Recent team grant releases

Team Grant Working Paper Summary Report

Benoit, C., Atchison, C., Casey, L., Jansson, M., McCarthy, B., Phillips, R., Reimer, B., Reist, D., Shaver, F.M. 2022. Building on the Evidence - An International Symposium on the Sex Industry in Canada (Update Report)

Review of the Protection of Communities and Exploited Person’s Act

In 2022, University of Victoria researchers submitted a Policy Brief to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, for consideration in their examination of Bill C-36, the legislation governing the sex industry in Canada. The Policy Brief was based on the empirical evidence gathered as part of the Understanding Sex Work study.

Feedback

Please forward your questions and feedback on the Team Grant working paper to the Understanding Sex Work research team.

This CIHR-funded research program focuses on reasons for variability in health and safety among one group of Canadians, sex workers, many of whom face elevated risks of violence and premature death.

Our team is made up of community partners, people who have had experience working in the sex industry, and academics and students from across Canada. Many of these people have worked for over two decades to raise public awareness about these issues. The purpose of a collaboration of this kind is to ensure our study reflects the experiences, and speaks to the interests of, as wide an audience as possible. This is to ensure the knowledge we produce is directly applicable to the people we are working with, and easily translated into practical change at different policy levels.

Projects

The research program consists of seven inter-connected research projects exploring different aspects of sex work in Canada. Each project will collect data from the same locations across the country.

Project 1: Knowledge Exchange about Violence and Resiliency in the Sex Industry

Project leaders: Dan Reist and Cecilia Benoit, University of Victoria

An important aspect of our national study is to create knowledge that can be shared. As such, the primary task of Project 1 is to synthesize our information and share it with the people who need it most.

For example, we can provide community organizations with the research findings helpful for them to secure funding to run their programs. Or, we can provide targeted information to policy makers to ensure the rules and regulations they create better serve sex workers. And, we can report on our findings in the popular media to help dispel myths held about sex workers by the broader Canadian public.

This process is collaborative, involving the critical feedback of our entire team: research participants, community partners, governmental organizations, students and researchers.

Project 2: National Survey of People Working in the Canadian Sex Industry

Project leader: Cecilia Benoit, University of Victoria

Project 2 involves conducting face-to-face and online interviews with sex workers across Canada. The purpose is to determine the amount of violence sex workers experience in the context of their everyday lives, and the levels of resiliency they are able to establish in the face of adversity. Factors we will be looking at are:

How do municipal and provincial policies concerning sex work (for example, bawdy house and solicitation laws) and their enforcement (by police and the courts) shape the lives of sex workers?
How do sex workers' relationships with their clients, employers and/or romantic partners protect and/or harm sex workers?
What are the individual characteristics that leave some sex workers particularly vulnerable to violence and poorer overall health and well-being?

Project 3: Survey of People Working in the Canadian Sex Industry and Their Romantic/Intimate Partners

Project leader: Mikael Jansson, University of Victoria

This project explores key issues related to sex workers’ romantic partnerships. Our main goal is to better understand the nature of the intimate relationship and the challenges partners face in supporting sex workers to keep safe and healthy.

Our research team is hoping to discover how:

sex workers and their partners work together to achieve a strong and fulfilling romantic relationship
the actions of partners promote sex workers’ workplace safety and health
partner characteristics (for example, employment status and income) impact sex workers’ risk behaviours
laws, regulations, policies and services impact on the health and safety of sex workers, their partners, and their families

Project 4: Positioning Sex Buyers in the Nexus of Violence, Gender and Health

Project leader: Chris Atchison, Simon Fraser University

Looking at the issue of sex worker health and safety from a slightly different perspective, Project 4 focuses on the relationship between paying clients and sex workers. Important to this project are:

the reasons why sex buyers purchase sex
the decisions sex buyers make in regard to health and safety (their own and that of sex workers)
the personal, situational and structural factors that shape the interaction between sex worker and client

This project is comprised of an online survey followed by qualitative face-to-face interviews with a small group of respondents.

Project 5: Supervising Sex Work: Challenges to Workplace Safety and Health

Project leaders: Rachel Phillips, University of Victoria, Bill McCarthy, University of California at Davis, and Lauren Casey, University of Victoria

The goal of Project 5 is to better understand managers' experiences in the sex industry and to learn about their perspectives on health, safety and well-being in their workplaces. Managers play an important role in setting and maintaining workplace practices in some sex work businesses and they are often a key point of contact for law enforcement, clients and workers. It is therefore essential to include their often overlooked perspective on health and safety and to address misinformation and stereotypes about management. Interviews will be conducted with managers working in a variety of sex work businesses in the six research sites.

Project 6: The Effects of Prostitution Law on Vulnerabilities, Resiliencies and Health

Project leader: Frances Shaver, Concordia University

Project 6 examines how Canadian laws are implemented in the six cities chosen as research sites. It looks at how municipal police enact sections of the Criminal Code of Canada; how inspectors, city officials, and licensing boards attempt to regulate sex work; and the effect that can have on sex workers’ health, security and resiliency. It investigates the role of outreach and service providers who often act as a liaison between regulatory agencies and sex workers.

Researchers

Led by a sociologist at the University of Victoria, the research program involves researchers from five universities in Canada and one in the United States of America.

Cecilia M. Benoit (Principal Investigator)

PhD (Toronto, 1989)
Professor Emertia, Department of Sociology, University of Victoria
Scientist, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research

Cecilia Benoit was born and raised in Newfoundland, with Mi’kmaw and French ancestry. The recipient of the Killam Prize, Molson Prize and Governor General’s Award in Recognition of the Persons Case, Cecilia is a nationally and internationally known sociologist and health social scientist. Her contributions to women’s health, equity and maternity care have advanced health practices for women and girls, especially those who face barriers to social inclusion. She has also made important contributions to Canadian society related to the health, safety, and dignity of street-involved youth, sex workers and people who use drugs. She had demonstrated the important role the discipline of Sociology can make in shedding light and offering solutions on real-world social problems that often seem overwhelming.

Mikael Jansson

PhD (Western Ontario)
Scientist, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research

Mikael studied sociology at the University of Alberta and demography at the University of Western Ontario. His current research uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand marginalized populations and low-prestige occupations. His current research focus is on intimate partnerships. He has completed a longitudinal study of street-involved youth to see how their lives, and in particular their health status, change as a result of their street involvement. Mikael is also a co-investigator on three other research projects that follow people over time. One is a panel study of a random sample of young people in Victoria. The other two studies are of three personal service worker occupations (food and beverage servers, hair stylists and sex workers) – one study in Victoria and the other in California. A recent focus of his studies is familial support and he has applied this to an understanding of the transition from youth to adulthood and the support for couples.

Andrea Mellor

PhD (Victoria, 2021)
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research

Andrea Mellor is a cisgender woman of Chinese and British ancestry, born and raised a Treaty 7 person in Southern Alberta. She is a Banting Fellow and the 2021 recipient of UVic’s Governor General’s Gold Medal for outstanding dissertation. The goal of her research is to increase access to health and social services for marginalized populations, including services that enrich social belonging and cultural continuity. These include Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth who may be experiencing multiple complexities in their lives including poverty, substance use, and mental illness; youth living in foster care; people living with disabilities; and people who sell sexual service. Her research practice involves using community-based and participatory research methodologies, critical knowledge mobilization, and knowledge syntheses to develop evidence-based strategies that support promising practices and healthy public policy.

Community partners

A wide range of community partners actively participate in the program to help define the research questions and interpret the findings.

BC Society of Transition Houses

The BC Society of Transition Houses is a member-based, provincial umbrella organization that, through leadership, support and collaboration, enhances the continuum of services and strategies to respond to, prevent and end violence against women, children and youth.

#325 – 119 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1S5

Tel: 604-669-6943
Toll-Free: 1-800-661-1040
Email: info@bcsth.ca
http://www.bcsth.ca/

HIM- Health Initiative for Men

HIM is a nonprofit society that aims to strengthen the health and well-being in communities of self-identified GBQ men and gender diverse people in BC. We offer a full spectrum of health-based programming and services to meet the sexual, mental, physical and social health needs of communities of self-identified GBQ men and gender diverse people in BC.

#310 - 1033 Davie Street
Vancouver, BC V6E 1M7

Tel: 604-488-1001
Email: office@checkhimout.ca
https://checkhimout.ca/

Carrier Sekani Family Services

With the guidance of their Elders, Carrier Sekani Family Services is committed to the well-being and empowerment of Carrier and Sekani Families by asserting authority over health, social, and legal services.

987 - 4th Avenue
Prince George, BC V2L 3H7

Tel: 250-562-3591
Toll Free: 1-800-889-6855
https://www.csfs.org

Men’s Therapy Centre

Our mission statement is to provide psychological and practical support to facilitate healing for men, sixteen years and older who experience the effects of trauma.

3491 Saanich Road, Suite 301
Victoria, BC V8W 1R9

Tel: 250-381-MENS (6367)
Toll-Free: 1-866-793-6367
Fax: 250-381-3679
Email: info@menstherapycentre.ca
https://menstherapycentre.ca/MTC/

Peers Victoria

Peers Victoria is a multi-service grassroots agency that was established by, with, and for sex workers in 1995. Through direct service delivery and community partnerships, Peers provides an array of outreach and drop-in harm reduction and support services alongside education and employment training for current and former sex workers.

#1 - 744 Fairview Road
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9

Tel: 250-388-5325
Email: admin@peers.bc.ca
https://www.safersexwork.ca/

Pivot

Pivot works in partnership with communities affected by poverty and social exclusion to identify priorities and develop solutions to complex human rights issues. Our work is focused in four policy areas: police accountability, drug policy, homelessness, and sex workers’ rights.

121 Heatley Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6A 3E9

Tel: 604-255-9700
Email: taz@pivotlegal.org
https://www.pivotlegal.org/

Positive Living North

Positive Living North is an Aboriginal AIDS Service Organization (ASO) that has a proven record of innovation, responsiveness, and commitment to all Northern residents. In response to the scope of the HIV epidemic in our community, we continue to provide support to people living with HIV/AIDS/HCV (PHAs), and address the greater need for prevention and education services.

#1 - 1563 - 2nd Avenue
Prince George, BC V2L 3B8

Tel: 250-562-1172
Toll-Free in BC: 1-888-438-2437
Email: info@positivelivingnorth.org
https://www.positivelivingnorth.org

Stepping Stone

Stepping Stone is the only non-profit organization in the Maritimes that supports women, men, and transgender persons currently and formerly involved in the sex trade by contributing to their health, safety and well-being. We work from a harm reduction policy and support individuals from all ethnic backgrounds and socio-economic status.

9 Ferguson Road
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B3A 4J8

Tel: 902-420-0103
Email: info@steppingstonens.ca
https://www.steppingstonens.ca/

Victoria Sexual Assault Centre

The Victoria Sexual Assault Centre supports, empowers and advocates for women who are survivors of sexualized violence and childhood sexual abuse and works to end this violence.

#201-3060 Cedar Hill Rd.
Victoria, BC V8T 3J5

Tel: 250-383-5545
Email: info@vsac.ca
https://www.vsac.ca/

Sex Work in Canada

Sex Work in Canada (full document) Reference: Benoit, C., Shumka, L. (2021; updated). Sex Work in Canada. Available at: http://www.understandingsexwork.ca

The research project seeks to advance our understanding of sex work and the matrix of factors that influence the health of sex workers in Canada.

Purpose

Gain a comprehensive understanding of the factors shaping the health and safety of people working in the Canadian sex industry. By “people working in the sex industry” we refer to persons who are 19 years or older who receive money for sex or explicitly sexual services.
Share what we learn about sex workers with a broader Canadian public in order to dispel myths that marginalize sex workers.
Change public policies that inadvertently place sex workers in a position of vulnerability to violence, stigma, and poorer physical and mental health.

Project design

What makes our study unique is that it considers the multiple factors that might impact the health and well-being of sex workers. Therefore:

Our study is national in scope. We are conducting research in six cities located in five provinces. Doing this allows us to determine how the urban context and the policies implemented at municipal and provincial levels impact sex workers.
While sex workers are the focus of our study, we are also interested in how the people closest to them may serve to protect or, in some cases, place them in a position of greater vulnerability. Therefore, our study consists of seven different sub-projects, each of which considers the issue of sex worker health and safety from a different perspective. Please explore the links in our diagram to look at how the relationships sex workers have with police and regulatory agencies, managers, clients, and their intimate partners, are of vital concern.
While there are many assumptions made about who sex workers are and what they "look" like, the goal of our study is to be representative. We are seeking the participation of sex workers from different backgrounds.

The basic questions we are asking

Why are some people working in the sex industry especially vulnerable to violence and poor health?
Why do other sex workers enjoy relatively positive health and well-being?
What are the factors that engender resiliency or an ability to persevere in the face of adversity among certain segments of the sex worker population?
How can we better address the health disparities between sex workers and create safe and secure working environments?