{"id":86527,"date":"2016-07-07T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=86527"},"modified":"2021-02-10T15:15:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T20:15:30","slug":"for-sex-workers-alumna-shows-decriminalization-improves-health","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2016\/for-sex-workers-alumna-shows-decriminalization-improves-health\/","title":{"rendered":"For Sex Workers, Alumna Shows Decriminalization Improves Health"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"banner-container banner-has-html\">\n<div class=\"videoWrapper\" style=\"position: relative;padding-bottom: 56.25%; \/* 16:9 *\/height: 0;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"855\" height=\"481\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/buniverse\/interface\/embed\/embed.html?v=jPRwb0\" style=\"position: absolute;top: 0;left: 0;width: 100%;height: 100%;frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen> <\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar sphnews-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">July 7, 2016<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tried to go into it with an open mind,\u201d says alumna Meghan Hynes (\u201914) of her study subject on which\u00a0everyone has\u00a0an opinion.<\/p>\n<p>Her\u00a0resulting paper, \u00a0\u201cSex Work and the Law in South Africa, Sweden and New Zealand: An Evidence-Based Argument for Decriminalization,\u201d was published in the fall issue of <em>Global Health Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In what began as her culminating experience at the School of Public Health, supervised by Assistant Professor of Global Health <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/profile\/jennifer-beard\/\">Jennifer Beard<\/a>, Hynes compared three countries across the spectrum of sex work policy.<\/p>\n<p>Both buying and selling sex are completely illegal in South Africa, while only buying sex is illegal in Sweden; in New Zealand, sex work is legal and regulated like any other trade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was no surprise\u201d that sex workers in New Zealand would have better living and working conditions and<span> appear to have<\/span> lower incidence<span>s<\/span> of violence<span>,<\/span> infection<span>, and <\/span><span>improved relations with<\/span><span> police<\/span><span>, <\/span>says Hynes, who came to SPH after two years<span> volunteering<\/span> at a Washington, DC-based sex worker harm reduction organization called <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hips.org\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HIPS<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn New Zealand you have occupational rights that you can reference\u2014you are able to sue just like in any other trade,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen sex work is decriminalized, when sex workers have legally recognized rights, when they feel protected by the law, when they&#8217;re not at odds with the police\u2014who a<span>re often<\/span> the direct perpetrators of violence toward sex workers in South Africa and sometimes in Sweden\u2014the health outcomes tend to be a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hynes says the global tide is turning when it comes to sex work decriminalization. Amnesty International took an <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/latest\/news\/2015\/08\/sex-workers-rights-are-human-rights\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">official stance in favor of decriminalization<\/a><span><\/span> when she was midway through writing the paper. \u201cThere are a lot of different multinational organizations and governments that are hopping onto that train,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a really exciting time to be having this conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, stigma makes policy change difficult. With much of the conversation focused on emotion and cultural norms, Hynes says an evidence base is vital: \u201cWe need to be writing policy around evidence and data.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sticking to data in the face of hotly contested issues is a skill she says she continues to use after SPH. Hynes now manages <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/aac.org\/programs-services\/needle-exchange\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AIDS Action Committee<span>\u2019s<\/span> <span>N<\/span>eedle <span>E<\/span>xchange and <span>O<\/span>verdose <span>P<\/span>revention <span>P<\/span>rogram<\/a>, a role that has recently included speaking before the Massachusetts legislature as an expert on the health consequences of the opioid epidemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m asked to come as a key witness or an expert as opposed to an advocate,\u201d Hynes says, adding that the experience of the sex work study\u00a0has helped her &#8220;channel whatever biases I have, and be able to stick to the hard data to help let my point make itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"mailto:msamu@bu.edu\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michelle Samuels<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alumna Meghan Hynes publishes study comparing sex work in South Africa, Sweden, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10989,"featured_media":86598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[1711,2127,1875],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3520,3532,3541],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[460],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/86527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10989"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86527"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/86527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191386,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/86527\/revisions\/191386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86527"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=86527"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=86527"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=86527"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=86527"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=86527"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=86527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}