Keywords

Sex work, sex workers, social stigma, legislation, deep south, United States

Abstract

In the United States, while prostitution or sex work is not explicitly illegal at a federal level, certain characteristics have been criminalized, mainly in indirect ways. This is significant when considering the different ways that sex work is regarded (both positively and negatively) at an institutional level. The current study examines the potential correlation between structural/institutional stigma regarding sex work/sex workers and legislation meant to directly or indirectly harm sex workers. The overall goal of this research was to answer the following question: How does structural/institutional stigma against sex workers present itself in legislation? To accomplish this, I conducted a qualitative content analysis of anti-prostitution statutes in the states that fall within the “Deep South” region of the United States. The “Deep South” constitutes roughly as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina” (Davis et al., 2009:3). A qualitative content analysis was used to reintroduce the information provided in of each states’ anti-prostitution statute(s) into numerical data that can be categorized regarding the language within the statutes themselves. This analysis centered primarily on the rate and frequency of certain keywords used in each statute by each state and their legislature. Three categories were specifically created due to a significant amount of the literature cited centering on these elements when discussing how anti-sex work legislation was designed and drafted: punitive, supportive and stigmatizing. This analysis yielded significant results when analyzing one of the three perspectives used to frame this analysis: Stigmatizing. There were very little results regarding supportive language used in the statutes from each state. Overall, this analysis found that the language used in each states’ statutes was more punitive and stigmatizing and less supportive.

Completion Date

2025

Semester

Summer

Committee Chair

Donley, Amy

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Applied Sociology

Format

PDF

Identifier

DP0029525

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

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