Reducing demand, controlling supply: evaluating new street-level prostitution policy interventions and paradigms in Nottingham

This thesis describes and explains the impact of a number of policy initiatives intended to tackle the demand for, and supply of, street-level markets operating in Nottingham. The research triangulated survey data undertaken with 104 men attending a Nottingham-based ‘Kerb-Crawler Rehabilitation Programme’ (the ‘Change’ Programme) and interview data with twenty-two ‘working girls’, ten ‘punters’ and ten agency/Criminal Justice professionals. Current sociological and criminological writings on prostitution suggest that recent policy interventions are broadly representative of a ‘paradigm shift’ away from punitive-only initiatives aimed at working girls, towards the criminalisation of men that pay for (street-level) sex. Whilst these policy interventions are bedevilled by contradictions and inconsistencies, there is an inherent assumption that demand reductions can, and will, lead to a corresponding contraction in supply. In light of this, the thrust of the analysis in this thesis focused on several key questions: do policy interventions – particularly those concerned with ‘re-educating’ punters - reduce the recidivism rates amongst identified street-level punters? Do ‘new’ policy initiatives deter ‘new’ punters into Nottingham’s street-level sex markets? Do they facilitate ‘exiting’ for street-level working girls? And overarching all of this: can we rely upon simplistic economic assumptions about the relationship between supply and demand to street-level markets?

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Nottingham Trent University

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Hamilton, P

Language dc:language

en