Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights

by Molly Smith

Many people are familiar with the terms legalisation and decriminalisation, yet without realising that these words refer to distinctly different things. Under legalisation, some sex work, in some contexts, is legal. This legal sex work is heavily regulated by the state – generally not in a way that prioritises the welfare of workers. This is, in part, because a mindset that advocates for legalising sex work tends to see prostitutes not as workers but as anxiety-inducing vectors of disease or symbols of disorder who must be controlled. Often, to legalise means to implement new laws related specifically to sex work, including new criminal penalties, rather than repealing the existing ones. By comparison, decriminalisation – which we’ll come to in more detail in the next chapter – describes a situation where sex work is legal as the default position. With legalistion, only some sex work, in only some contexts, is legal, whereas with decriminalisation, prostitution is, as a starting point, not a crime. The regulations that exist under decriminalisation tend to prioritise the welfare of people who sell sex – in part because a mindset that advocates for decriminalisation tends to see sex workers as workers, and from that flows a concern for workers’ rights.