The exponential growth of sexual commerce, migration and movement of people into the sex industry, as well as localised concerns about transactional sex, are key areas of interest across the urban west. Given the complex regulatory frameworks under-which the sex industry manifests, the role of the police is significant.

Policing the Sex Industry draws on the research and expertise of academics and practitioners, presenting advanced scholarship across a range of countries and spaces. Unpicking the relationship between police practice and commercial sex whilst speaking to the current policy agendas, Policing the Sex Industry explores key issues including: trafficking, decriminalisation, localised impacts of punitive policing approaches, uneven policing approaches, hate-crime approaches and the impact of policing on trans sex workers.

A dynamic and incisive contribution to existing research, Policing the Sex Industry will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as researchers at all levels, interested in fields including Criminology, Sociology, Gender Politics and Women's Studies.

List of contributors

Acknowledgements

Introduction: policing the sex industry: tackling exploitation, facilitating safety? Teela Sanders and Mary Laing

Part 1: Protection through policing: plurality and pragmatism

Chapter 1: Policing sex work in the UK: a patchwork approach. Alex Feis-Bryce

Chapter 2: Trans sex workers in the UK: security, services and safety Mary Laing, Del Campbell, Matthew Jones and Angelika Strohmayer

Chapter 3: Beyond hate: policing sex work, protection and hate crime Rosie Campbell

Chapter 4: Decriminalisation, policing and sex work in New Zealand Lynzi Armstrong

Chapter 5: 'Not in our name': findings from Wales supporting the decriminalisation of sex work Tracey Sagar and Debbie Jones

Part 2 Policing Operations, enforcement and austerity

Chapter 6: Policing the absence of the victim: an ethnography of raids in sex trafficking operations Julia Leser

Chapter 7: Trafficking, pimping, sex work and the police: stree prostitutes' perceptions in Las Vegas Andrew L. Spivak

Chapter 8: The condom as evidence and the condom as a crowbar Synnøve Jahnsen

Chapter 9: Gentrification and the criminalization of sex work: exploring the sanitization of sex work in Kings Cross with the use of ASBOs and CBOs Lucy Neville and Erin Sanders-McDonagh

Teela Sanders is Professor of Criminology at the University of Leicester, UK.

Mary Laing is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Northumbria University, UK.