In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

207 13 Latinas, Sex Work, and Trafficking in the United States AMALIA L. CABEZAS W ITH DOLOR ES ORTIZ AND SONIA VALENCIA Even though the popular media in the United States often depict Latinas as sex workers, there is little research on the experiences of Latinas working in the sex trade. Only a few small-scale studies examine Latinas engaged in “street” prostitution . National, regional, or local studies that specifically investigate the lives and working conditions of Latinas in the sex industries are nearly nonexistent. In this essay we offer a brief overview of the research available on Latinas whose work is providing commercial sexual services in the United States. We also examine recent U.S. policies pertaining to the traffic in women for forced prostitution. We have divided the chapter into two parts because trafficking into forced prostitution and sex work may have little in common. While there may be varying degrees of abuse and exploitation in commercial sex, it is important to distinguish between diverse working conditions of the sex industries and the slavery-like practices that are characteristic of trafficking and involuntary servitude. Both trafficking in women and sex work involve a wide range of multifaceted policy and legal issues. There is a spectrum of practices that exist between trafficking and sex work, with girls forced into involuntary sexual servitude at one end, and women exercising some degree of agency at the other end.1 We wish to emphasize that trafficking encompasses different and specific elements and has other characteristics that are not necessarily present in commercial sex work. The conflation of these two often leads to confusion and ultimately to harmful policies that violate the rights of people who work in the sex industries. We analyze working conditions by focusing on the immigrant’s documentation status as a factor determinative of the level of vulnerability that she may experience in selling sexual services. Latinas and Sex Work The sex industries incorporate many types of businesses, some of which operate legally, others illegally, and still others in gray areas of the law. Some new 208 AMALIA L. CABEZAS forms of commodified sexuality, such as telephone sex and cybersex, are legal and highly lucrative. These exist alongside older forms of commercialized sex, such as brothels and street prostitution, that continue to be subject to criminal prosecution.2 The diversity of types of activities, working conditions, health and safety issues, occupational practices, and levels of legality vary according to the sector of the sex trade and local laws. For example, indoor forms of prostitution, such as massage parlors, offer workers more protection from arrest and sexual violence as well as working conditions more conducive to the practice of safer sex. Nevertheless, whether in legal businesses or in the underground economy, sex workers constitute a stigmatized and often an invisible workforce. There are many different venues for commercial sex, and Latinas can be found working in such diverse settings as massage parlors, escort services, telephone sex lines, exotic dancing, cybersex, and other forms of sexualized entertainment, where they experience inconsistent working conditions and differing levels of legality. Segmentation is one of the characteristics of the sex industries, with specialized niches catering to particular sexual tastes and population demographics. Certain sectors of the sex trade provide only fantasies or role-playing, with no physical sexual intimacy. For instance, telephone sex work and stripping offer indoor working conditions without the exchange of bodily fluids.3 Both cybersex and telephone sex also offer a degree of anonymity and relatively flexible working schedules. Practices and conditions vary widely in the sex industries, and a woman’s cultural capital plays an important role in determining her work options. As in other labor markets that are segmented by English-language skills, citizenship status, age, nationality, and race or skin color, the participation of Latinas in the sex trade is configured by these dynamics as well. From the general research on the sex trade, we conclude that racial/ethnic stratification figures prominently in the occupational status of the worker, as do English-language-skills and immigration status. Latinas with citizenship or documented status, higher socioeconomic levels, and more cultural capital have greater income potential in the better-paid and less dangerous forms of sex work in the United States than do recent immigrants, particularly those who are undocumented. For women without proper immigration authorization, the illegality of...

Share