The findings from a five-year study on Canada’s sex industry were released amidst the deliberation of a new, controversial bill that seeks to eradicate prostitution in Canada, according to Maclean’s.
Sex workers have been protesting Bill C-36 which, if passed, would criminalize the purchase of sexual services in the government’s attempt to “protect the most vulnerable in the sex industry,” as reported by Maclean’s. The new study released shows that a majority of sex workers aren’t victims, but rather are “average Canadians” who “don’t feel exploited and don’t see buyers as oppressors,” said Cecilia Benoit, the study’s lead author.
The study, which began in 2011 and was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, includes data compiled from interviews of 218 sex workers, 1,252 clients and 30 spouses or partners.
Some of the study’s findings, according to Maclean’s and the National Post, are: the average age of a sex worker was 24 years old, 70 percent began work in the sex industry after turning 19 years old, 81 percent said they (the service provider) set the terms of the transaction, and 43 percent reported job satisfaction.
Conversely, the study also revealed high levels of drug and alcohol use in addition to high incidents of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and childhood trauma in the sex workers, according to National Post.
The study is unlikely to affect legislation, though, and Maclean’s reports that with the government’s December deadline approaching Bill C-36 is projected to be passed into law without any changes.
The family attorneys at Thai law firm Chaninat and Leeds have successfully assisted local and international clients file a Thailand prenuptial agreement.
In a similar instance, the BBC reports that former U.S. president Jimmy Carter wrote to the Irish Parliament in early September 2014, concerning new prostitution laws that were recommended and unanimously supported nearly 12 months ago but have yet to be implemented.
Echoing both Bill C-36 and its conservative supporters in Canada, Carter urged lawmakers “to help those trapped in the sex trade” and to pass the legislation, which would criminalize “pimps and buyers of sex for prostitution instead of the prostitutes.”
Keep reading for the full story:
Maclean’s – First national study sheds new light on sex work in Canada
Jimmy Carter calls for change to Irish prostitution laws
Read the latest legal developments in Canada’s sex industry:
Dominatrix Kicked Out of Canadian Senate Hearings
Canadian Sex Workers Protest against Legalization of Prostitution
Read more news on international sex industries:
Hawaii Law Allowing Police to Have Sex with Prostitutes Stirs Outrage
Nordic Prostitution Law May Endanger Sex Workers
Yearning to be Free: US Immigration and Thai Sex Workers
Sex Laws in Thailand: Laws Regulating Commercial Sex and Entertainment Places
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