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Abstract
This article explores perceptions of 17 women currently or formerly engaged in prostitution regarding Baltimore City's Specialized Prostitution Diversion program. Findings indicate that most perceive the program positively because they are in desperate need of services and because they hope it augurs the readiness of the criminal justice system to understand what leads them to engage in prostitution. Their desire to be treated like “human beings” in need of assistance, which undergirds requests for concrete services, reveals gendered understandings of responsibility and dependence that are compatible with problem-solving models of justice. It is therefore likely to resonate with criminal justice stakeholders.
Acknowledgments
We wish to acknowledge You Are Never Alone (YANA) executive director Sid Ford and volunteers Vickie Fang, Anne Bendann, Robin, and Loretta. We thank YANA clients for sharing food, conversation, and fellowship and for helping us formulate our study and analysis. We are especially grateful to our respondents, who generously gave their time and their stories. Briana Walters conducted interviews, transcribed, and provided thoughtful input on our emerging analysis.
Notes
We use the term women engaged in prostitution rather than sex workers because of the legal connotations and because the women with whom we spoke did not identify as sex workers or with the discourse of sex work (Quan Citation2006). Although we recognize the empowerment sex work discourse and would not deny the possibility that women may engage in prostitution of their own volition and make use of their bodies as they see fit, the women in our sample did not embrace this model, nor were they living in the kind of idealized circumstances that make such a choice truly volitional (Almog Citation2010; Freeman Citation1989–1990).
This project was undertaken before Baltimore's Specialized Prostitution Diversion program was approved and running. Although our study participants therefore did not participate in the program, they were considered by many stakeholders to be similar to the target group. That is, they were extremely low-income women from low-income communities in Baltimore City, many of them with longstanding problems with drug addiction, mental health, and physical health. Many of them also had prior histories of involvement with the criminal justice system for prostitution and prostitution-related charges such as indecent exposure.
The SPD is open to people of all genders. Our study respondents were exclusively women, who are the only clientele served by YANA. It is likely that the men and transgender individuals who have also participated in the SPD might have a different perspective on court-based services. Another study that focuses on the experiences of current and former SPD participants is currently under way.