ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a “state-of-the-field” introduction to sex industry research. Feminist theorists generally take positions on a continuum between radical and liberal approaches to their studies of the sex industry and the manifestations of the sex-gender system operative within it. Social psychological theories of the sex industry focus on how individuals’ conceptions of themselves and the world change in response to their treatment by other people. Scholars with this theoretical orientation tend to focus on reasons for entering or leaving prostitution and patterns of interpersonal interactions that shape the lives of people in the sex industry. Structured surveys can be useful in assessing public opinion about the sex industry, such as prevailing perceptions regarding whether a history of victimization informs general public assessments of sex workers’ culpability. Socio-political and institutional limitations on meaningful, long-term collaboration between sex workers, researchers, and other potential community partners can undermine or even sabotage the potential for empirical inquiry evidence-based law and policy.
