Perceptions of Sex Trafficking Legislation By Sex Workers

In April of 2018, President Donald Trump signed into law the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act/Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA/FOSTA) package. This set of bipartisan legislation was billed as a way of combatting sex trafficking by holding websites responsible for any sex work advertisements on their platform. This research examines the effects of SESTA/FOSTA on sex workers through a content analysis of social media posts. Data consist of 476 tweets collected from self-identified sex workers on the social media platform Twitter about the SESTA/FOSTA legislation. These tweets expressed the lived realities, perceptions, and emotions endured by sex workers in the wake of SESTA/FOSTA to better understand the impact of this legislation on the lives of sex workers. Taken together, the data provide insight into the ramifications of anti-sex trafficking legislation in a country with heavy sex work criminalization.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S. (Master of Science)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Criminal Justice and Criminology (UMKC)

Grantor

University of Missouri--Kansas City

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• McMahan, Victoria

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Sexton, Lori

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10355/75792

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/75792