GSWS 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Labour Power, Downtown Eastside, Economic Inequality

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Gender Sexuality & Wom St
• Course: GSWS 101
• Professor: Lara Campbell

Document Summary

Sex work exists on a continuum: coercion on one end, choice on the other. Children forced into sex work vs. adults choosing: law and prostitution. Not illegal (para-legal status): some aspects are criminalized in canada, but the actual act of taking money for sex is not. The canadian state has always tried to legislate and regulate all the activities that surround sex work without actually making prostitution illegal. This para-legal status creates a lot of issues on what the state/police should do. The biggest change in the way canada dealt with prostitution. States it is a criminal offence to communicate or attempt to communicate with a person in a public space for the purposes for obtaining sexual services (in a car, on a street) Applies both to sex workers and clients; criminalizes both sides of the exchange. You have to be caught in the act of committing an offence by a police officer.