Article
College Student Sex Work: A Qualitative Content Analysis of U.S. Higher Education Sex Work PoliciesNo Title
The Journal of Higher Education
(2024)
Abstract
Using content analysis methodology, we explore sex work policies at 255 U.S. colleges and universities as articulated in codes of student conduct to understand the potential impact of those policies on college student sex workers. The findings indicate U.S. colleges and universities largely do not articulate clear policies for students involved in sex work. However, many policies include language and framing that potentially governs some sex work. These articulations often rely on flattening differences in sex work, trafficking, and carceral logics, which result in misalignment between research, rhetoric, and policy at some institutions. Such ambiguities in institutional policy may result from the conflation of sex work with sex trafficking at the federal or state policy level. In addition to the marginalization imparted to student sex workers, unjustified exposure to stigma and shame on their respective college campuses negatively impacts students’ well-being. We recommend the current laissez-faire approach by institutional policymakers be replaced with a more intentional approach whereby the well-being of all students is maintained at its core and unclear policy language clarified.
Keywords
- sex work,
- higher education policy,
- college student sex work,
- student affairs
Disciplines
Publication Date
2024
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2024.2345575
Citation Information
TJ Stewart and Daniel J Scanlon. "College Student Sex Work: A Qualitative Content Analysis of U.S. Higher Education Sex Work PoliciesNo Title" The Journal of Higher Education (2024) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/terahjay/39/
Creative Commons license
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY International License.