Sex Workers’ Professional Experiences in the Interplay of Structure and Agency in Croatia

Abstract

There are still relatively few studies on job satisfaction and the quality of work ‎among sex workers, partly due to the ideologies surrounding sex work. In this ‎paper we move away from dichotomous thinking and investigate the professional experiences of indoor independent sex workers in Croatia against the ‎background of criminalised context and gendered socio-economic realities. ‎We look into sex workers’ motivations, perceptions and experiences, their ‎control and safety strategies.‎ The study shows that despite many structural constraints on the sex workers’ agency, all participants exercise some degree of autonomy and control ‎over their working lives. The factors that seem to be the most relevant in terms ‎of their ability to set up their own conditions, which in turn influences their experiences, are their economic situation, motivation and self-perception. Negative experiences mostly stem from criminalisation and stigmatisation of sex ‎work, which affects women primarily, and creates more risks to their health ‎and safety. The results of the study call for integrative policy approaches, ‎which presuppose full decriminalisation of adult voluntary sex work.