Desistence from Sex Work: Feminist Cultural Criminology and Intersectionality — the Complexities of Moving In and Out of Sex Work

This chapter questions the current focus on exiting sex work (Home Office, 2006) from a framework informed by intersectionality (Jackson, 2005), emphasising the importance of biographical and participatory action research (PAR) methodologies that foreground the voices and images of sex workers.¹ This framework involves a cultural-materialist analysis of the intersections and ambiguities between sex, work, complex identities and material processes — the conditions and contexts through which sexual services are bought and sold. We outline the need for a more complex trajectory of exit strategies for sex workers, informed by feminist work on intersectionality and the intertwining of social and cultural categories, ‘the interaction of multiple identities and experiences of exclusion and subordination’ (Knudsen 2006).