Description
Book SynopsisBased on extensive interviews with forty women working as prostitutes, Red Light, Blue Light examines a variety of personal developmental experiences and socio-situational factors that can combine to make prostitution neither an inevitable nor inescapable circumstance but a rational occupational choice. This book attempts to analyze why women enter the world of prostitution, how the skills and values of the business are transmitted and how the individuals themselves subjectively define, perceive and rationalise their activity. As opposed to the traditional stereotypical depiction of prostitutes as hopeless, downtrodden victims of male exploitation living lives of poverty, misery and wretchedness, the picture that emerges in this study is of an independent occupational group organizing and controlling the business in which they work. The book also presents a profile of clients of prostitutes and discusses the role of the police. Written in accessible style, the resulting monograph presents a fascinating, unique and comprehensive account of street prostitution in a northern city.
Trade Review’...interesting...many...could profit from examining Sharpe’s research design and her provocative conclusions.’ The Law and Politics Book Review
Table of ContentsContents: Introduction; The research methodology: theory, process and reality; The road to prostitution: developmental and motivating factors; The rules of the game: the business of the patch; Coping with the job; The criminality factor: drugs and crime; The punters; The police; The problem of prostitution; Summary and conclusions.
