Pimps, procurers and parasites – merciless exploiters of hapless women; these are the sinister characters that permeate the popular imagination at the mention of the sex industry. The terms speak to deeply ingrained (and often racialized) stereotypes, which, reflected in social attitudes and legal strategies, have a profound impact on the people who work in the sex industry. Stereotypes based on stigmatic assumptions persist in part because, in spite of renewed academic interest in sex work and the personal and professional lives of sex workers, there is a dearth of evidence-based knowledge about third parties – those individuals involved in commercial sex transactions who are neither sex workers nor clients. In this report we draw on data collected as part of a three-year study entitled Rethinking Management in the Adult and Sex Industry Project (hereafter the Management Project) funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to map and unpack the roles and relationships of third parties in the incall (services are provided in an establishment) and outcall (services are provided in a location selected by the client) sectors. Not only are these the largest sectors of the sex industry, but they are also subject to an astounding array of legal prohibitions that effectively criminalize all third parties regardless of their roles or the nature of their relationship to sex workers.
Stella Montréal