Kingston University and Aix Marseille University. For the purposes of this analysis interviews were conducted with 70 sex workers a further 38 sex workers were consulted via focus groups and workshops.
A further 24 interviews and focus groups were conducted with sex worker groups or other organisations working with sex workers across France. Two researchers in political science and sociology supervised the study and analysed the results in close collaboration with 11 outreach organisations. Alongside this qualitative study, a quantitative survey was also conducted between January and February involving sex workers the results of which were integrated into this report.
The legislation adopted in , inspired by the Swedish legal framework, sought to end prostitution via criminalising clients rather than sex workers. However, despite the stated aim of the law to protect sex workers, the majority of the sex workers we interviewed reveal that the criminalisation of clients has in practice been more detrimental to themselves than the previous laws against soliciting.
The vast majority of those interviewed reported that they have far less control over their working conditions as the number of clients has diminished since the new law came into effect. The impact was even felt before the application of the new law, due to the mediatisation of this issue during parliamentary debates. For these reasons, those interviewed were almost unanimously opposed to the criminalisation of clients.
This term refers to all people engaged in economic-sexual exchanges whether those economic. At a local level, with the aim of maintaining public order, municipal bylaws and regular identity checks aimed at sex workers mean that they are still more often criminalized than their clients.
