ABSTRACT
As ‘archetypal sluts,’ how the law treats sex workers has broad implications for survivors of sexual violence. Yet there remain systemic barriers to prosecuting sexual assault due to legal and cultural narratives that sex workers are either in a perpetual state of consent or victims without agency. This chapter explores how the law conceptualises sex, money and consent through an analysis of case law and law reform in Australia. We analyse cases involving fraudulent non-payment of sex workers and subsequent debates about whether they ought to constitute theft or sexual assault. We further explore arguments that consent should be vitiated where police and council investigators misrepresent themselves by posing as clients. These conversations draw attention to the dual status of sex workers as survivors of both sexual and state violence. While criminal law is beginning to recognise sex worker agency for the purpose of prosecution and incarceration, the project of decriminalising sex work (one that will reduce state violence and improve capacity to negotiate consent) receives less investment. We argue that a long-term transformative justice approach to end sexual violence and build consent culture relies on both decriminalisation and non-carceral solutions.
