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2. Beyond Prescientific Reasoning: The Sex Worker Environmental Assessment Team Study
- University of Minnesota Press
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· 31 ·· CHAPTER 2 · Beyond Prescientific Reasoning The Sex Worker Environmental Assessment Team Study Alexandra Lutnick Sex work, the exchange of sexual services for some type of payment, is primarily a criminal offense in the United States. Moralistic interpretations of sex work, coupled with its illegal status, result in the “whore stigma” being projected onto sex workers (Benoit et al. 2005) by researchers, academics , policymakers, law enforcement officials, and the general public. It is this legal and social labeling that results in sex workers being categorized as a hidden population in research studies. Hidden populations are best categorized by three characteristics. First, the size of group membership is unknown, making it particularly difficult to obtain a random sample. Second ,toacknowledgemembershipinthegroupmayresultinbeingthetarget of societal scorn or hate, as well as legal prosecution. Because of the stigma and illegal nature of their behaviors, members of hidden populations are often distrustful of nonmembers (Benoit et al. 2005; Heckathorn 1997). Finally,themorethreateningorsensitivethetopic,thegreaterthelikelihood is that members will hide their involvement (Lee and Renzetti 1990). Conducting research with hidden populations such as sex workers poses unique methodological challenges. Probability-based sampling frames are not feasible because a full listing of all adults engaged in sex work does not exist. Consequently, much of the research conducted with hidden populations relies on convenience samples that are better suited for research that is still in the exploratory stage (Sudman and Kalton 1986; Sudman, Sirken, and Cowan 1988). Likewise, convenience samples of institutional and clinical populations, such as prisoners or individuals in drug treatment programs, offer limited generalizability (Watters and Biernacki 1989) since their characteristics may differ from their counterparts 32 ALEXANDRA LUTNICK outside of those settings. Therefore, working with hidden populations requires careful consideration in determining the strongest methodology that best fits the study question. The methodologically troubling nature of some sex work research has been well documented (Shaver 2005; Wahab and Sloan 2004; Weitzer 2010). For example, targeted sampling often results in those workers who are the most visible (i.e., street-based workers) being oversampled (Shaver 2005). Some studies will sample only one group of sex workers , or rely on small convenience samples, yet present their findings as if they represent the diversity of people trading sex (Wahab and Sloan 2004; Weitzer 2010). Furthermore, as the criterion for scientific knowledge is falsifiability (Phillips 2000), findings that include the exact wording of questions asked allow other researchers to replicate the study and determine whether the findings are replicable. In sex work literature, though, it is rare for authors to share the exact wording of the questions used (Weitzer 2010). Relying on research that is not transparent about its methodological choices and its limitations inhibits accurate theorizing and misguides service providers and policymakers about the needs of this population. To facilitate a more nuanced understanding of sex work and sex workers, research that reflects the heterogeneity of sex workers is needed (Benoit and Shaver 2006). To illustrate the ways that methodologically rigorous, transparent, and participatory research with female sex workers can be conducted, this chapter will explore the methods of a study conducted by the University of California–San Francisco (UCSF), and the St. James Infirmary (SJI), a peer-run occupational health and safety clinic for sex workers (Lutnick 2006). Because the results of this study have been published elsewhere (Lutnick and Cohan 2009), the intent of this chapter is to show how researchers can rethink how they work with hidden populations— particularly sex workers—by describing the ways this study challenged the hierarchical approach to research that is common in much of the work involving hidden populations. Instead of relying on a hierarchical approach, where outside researchers enter a community to gather data and do not integrate community members into the research process, we employed a participatory approach that integrated sex workers throughout the entire research process, respected sex workers’ positionality, and provided opportunities for skill development and community empowerment . This study can serve as a model for those who want to conduct [3.88.60.5] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 11:55 GMT) BEYOND PRESCIENTIFIC REASONING 33 research with hidden populations and not perpetuate the exclusionary impact of nonparticipatory approaches. Participatory Research as a Challenge to Exclusionary Approaches Research that forges community and academic partnerships is well suited for research with hidden populations, such as sex workers, who have historically been excluded from decision-making positions within research and who may be distrustful of outsiders (Clements-Nolle and Bachrach 2003; Israel et al. 1998). Unlike research that...