Out of sight, out of mind? Prostitution policy and the health, well-being and safety of home-based sex workers

Policy discussions relating to the selling of sex have tended to fixate on two spaces of sex work: the street and the brothel. Such preoccupation has arguably eclipsed discussion of the working environment where most sex is sold, namely the private home. Redressing this omission, this paper discusses the public health and safety implications of policies that fail to regulate or assist the ‘hidden population’ of sex workers, focusing on the experiences of home-based workers in Sydney, NSW. Considering the inconsistent way that Home Occupation Sex Services Premises (HOSSPs) are regulated in this city, this paper discusses the implications of selling sex beyond the gaze of the state and law. It is concluded that working from home can allow sex workers to exercise considerable autonomy over their working practices, but that the safety and legality of such premises must be considered in the development of (non-punitive) prostitution policy

Policing, planning and sex: Governing bodies, spatially

Literatures on the regulation of conduct have tended to focus on the role of policing and theenforcement of criminal law. This paper instead emphasizes the importance of planning inshaping conduct, using the example of how planning shapes sexual conduct to demonstratethat planning can, in different times and places, exercise police-type powers. We illustrate thisby analysing the regulation of brothels in Sydney and Parramatta, NSW, Australia, providing acase study of spaces of sexuality that historically were constructed and regulated as criminal,but have since become lawful. This paper examines the ways in which these transitions in lawhave been differently expressed and accomplished through local planning enforcement. Inmaking such arguments, the paper emphasizes not only the potential for planners to act likepolice, but also the capacity of planning to supplant policing as a key technique of governmentality