Melissa Farley | |
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Born | 1942 (age 81–82) |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | |
Known for | Research on the effects of prostitution, sexual abuse, and violence against women |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Psychology |
Institutions | Prostitution Research and Education 1996–present Kaiser Foundation Research Institute (Oakland, CA), 1993–2000 |
Thesis | Effect of consciousness-raising groups versus lectures about women on the personalities and career interests and homemaking interests of female students in nursing (1973) |
Melissa Farley (born 1942) is an American clinical psychologist, researcher [1] [2] [3] and radical feminist anti-pornography and anti-prostitution activist. [4] [5] Farley is best known for her studies of the effects of prostitution, trafficking and sexual violence. She is the founder and director of the San Francisco-based organization, Prostitution Research and Education.
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Farley, a clinical psychologist for over 45 years, has consulted with agencies, governments, medical centers, advocates for women in prostitution and trafficked women. These groups include the United Nations, the California Medical Examining Board, the US State Department, the Center for World Indigenous Studies, the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition, Refuge House, Breaking Free, Veronica's Voice and the Cambodian Women's Crisis Center. Farley has been a faculty member of the Center for World Indigenous Studies and has taught seminars on research for social change at the CWIS in Yelapa, Mexico. [1] Farley has 49 publications in the field of violence against women, most of which address prostitution, pornography and sex trafficking. Her research has been used by governments in South Africa, Canada, France, New Zealand, Ghana, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States to craft policy on prostitution and human trafficking. Farley's research on the trafficking and prostitution of Indian women [6] is the source of a character, Vera in the acclaimed historical novel The Night Watchman. [7]
Since 1993, Farley has researched prostitution and trafficking in 14 countries. She has written many studies reporting high rates of violence and post-traumatic stress disorder among women employed in the sex trade. [3] [8]
In a 2004 paper summarizing prostitution research in nine countries (Canada, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the US and Zambia), Farley and others interviewed 854 people (782 cisgender women and girls, 44 transgender people and 28 cisgender men [9] ) currently active in prostitution or having recently left. [10] The interviewees came from a variety of groups within the sex trade: street prostitutes, legal and illegal brothel workers and strip-club workers, with the prostitute populations interviewed varying by country. [11] Based on interviews and questionnaires, the paper's authors reported high rates of violence and post-traumatic stress: 71% of the respondents had been physically assaulted while in prostitution, [12] 63% had been raped, [12] and 68% met the criteria for PTSD. [12] Out of 785 respondents asked, 89% (699) stated they wanted to leave prostitution, but had no other means of making a living. [13] According to Farley and her co-authors, their findings contradict what they call "common myths about prostitution: the assumption that street prostitution is the worst type of prostitution, that prostitution of men and boys is different from prostitution of women and girls, that most of those in prostitution freely consent to it, that most people are in prostitution because of drug addiction, that prostitution is qualitatively different from trafficking, and that legalizing or decriminalizing prostitution would decrease its harm." [12]
In a 1998 paper on San Francisco street sex workers (one of the populations included in the nine-country study), Farley and co-author Howard Barkan reported a notable history of violence in the lives of those surveyed. In childhood, 57% of respondents reported sexual abuse and 49% reported other physical abuse. While in prostitution, 68% reported being raped, 82% reported being physically assaulted and 83% reported being threatened with a weapon. The incidence and severity of PTSD correlated with the amount of violence experienced by an individual, and 84% of the respondents reported a history of homelessness. [14]
In September 2007, Farley published a book on prostitution and sex trafficking in Nevada. Farley wrote that although Nevada has legal brothels, 90% of the state's prostitution occurs in Las Vegas and Reno (in counties where prostitution is illegal) or outside legally designated brothels. She found Las Vegas in particular a major destination for sex traffickers. Although 81% of the 45 legal brothel workers Farley interviewed reported wanting to leave prostitution, many were physically unable to do so. According to Farley, she was threatened at gunpoint by a brothel owner during the interviews. [15] [16]
Farley's prostitution studies have been criticized by sociologist Ronald Weitzer for reported issues with methodology. Weitzer was critical of what he saw as a lack of transparency in the interviews, how responses were translated into statistical data, sampling bias in favor of marginalized sex workers (such as street workers), and the general application of Farley's studies to oppose any kind of sex work. [17] Weitzer has also said that Farley's findings are heavily influenced by radical feminist ideology. [18] [19] [20] A 2002 study by Chudakov et al. [21] used Farley's PTSD tool to measure its rate in Israeli sex workers. Of the 55 women who agreed to be interviewed, 17% met the criteria for PTSD (compared to Farley's 68%). Additionally, the English Collective of Prostitutes, a campaigning group which supports the decriminalisation of prostitution, has described Farley's claims as "absurd and unsubstantiated". [22] Farley has also been criticized for accepting significant funding from anti-trafficking organizations, and has acknowledged that 30% of funding for a research project of prostitution was provided by the United States Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. In response, Farley stated that such funding has not swayed her research, specifically its methods or conclusions. [23]
In 2018, Farley conducted interviews and published a paper on how the #MeToo movement needs to include women in prostitution. [24] [25]
Farley has co-authored a series of studies of men who buy sex. According to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence , sex buyers share many similarities with sexually coercive men. [8] [26] The first of these studies, based on interviews with sex buyers ("johns") in Edinburgh and Chicago, was published in April and May 2008. The reports, based on structured interviews with over 100 self-selecting men in each city who responded to newspaper ads placed by the researchers, report a high rate of abusive, predatory and dehumanizing attitudes towards prostitutes (and women in general) on the part of buyers. According to the studies, many of the men described their behavior as addiction; a large percentage said that the possibility of public exposure or being listed on a sex offender registry would deter them from buying sex from prostitutes. [27] [28] [29] A 2012 study of sex buyers in Cambodia by Farley and associates reported similar findings. [30]
In response to the Scottish study, a paper authored by approximately 15 academics and sexual health experts was submitted to the Scottish Parliament rebuking the methods and conclusions of Farley's study. According to their rebuttal, "This research violates fundamental principles of human research ethics in that there is no evidence of any benefit to the population studied. Rather the purpose of the research appears to have been to vilify the population of men who were chosen to be interviewed". According to the paper, Farley's work was biased, ill-informed and unhelpful. [20]
Farley has written or co-written several studies sponsored by Kaiser Foundation Research Institute on the long-term health effects of sexual abuse and trauma. Several report higher rates of dissociation and somatization in patients with a history of childhood sexual abuse than those without such a history, [31] [32] [33] with symptom frequency reportedly greater in those with a higher number of perpetrators in their sexual-abuse history. [32] One study reported higher rates of PTSD, emergency-room and medical visits, and prescriptions in patients with a history of sexual abuse than those without, and relatively high rates in people with unclear memories of abuse. [33]
Farley is the founder and director of Prostitution Research and Education, a San Francisco-based 501(c)(3) organization. [34] [35] The organization, sponsored by the San Francisco Women's Centers, [1] conducts research on prostitution, pornography and trafficking and offers education and consultation to other researchers, survivors, the public and policymakers. Its goal is "to abolish the institution of prostitution while at the same time advocating for alternatives to trafficking and prostitution – including emotional and physical healthcare for women in prostitution." [36]
Farley favors the abolition of prostitution, [37] believing that a prostitute is the weaker partner in a transaction (making prostitution inherently exploitative and traumatizing). [38] [ page needed ] She advocates the Swedish model,[ citation needed ] in which paying for sex, pimping and human trafficking are illegal and the sale of sex is decriminalized; social services should be funded to aid prostitutes in leaving their way of life.[ citation needed ] Farley opposes an across-the-board decriminalization of prostitution and sex workers' rights activists and groups (such as COYOTE) which advocate legalizing or decriminalizing prostitution and the purchase of sexual services. [39] [40] According to these activists, her research discredits and misrepresents women working in the sex industry. [40] [41]
An anti-pornography activist, [4] in 1985 Farley led a National Rampage Against Penthouse with Nikki Craft. The Rampage was a campaign involving the public destruction of bookstore-owned copies of Penthouse and Hustler which were denounced as violent pornography. Farley was arrested 13 times in nine states for her actions. [42] [43] [44] She also participated in a 1984 protest in Iowa as part of the group Women Rising in Resistance. [45] In March 2007 she testified in hearings on Kink.com's purchase of the San Francisco Armory, comparing the company's images to those of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. [46] [47] Farley is opposed to sadomasochism in general. Her essay, "Ten Lies about Sadomasochism", outlines her opposition to BDSM practices; in her opinion, such practices are abusive, harmful and anti-feminist. [48] On April 29, 2009 Farley argued on the radio program Intelligence Squared U.S. in favor of the proposition, "It is wrong to pay for sex". [49]
On June 11, 2003, Labour MP for Wairarapa Georgina Beyer read portions of a letter from Farley's research assistant Colleen Winn in New Zealand's House of Representatives. In the letter, Winn said that Farley had fabricated and misrepresented data in elements of reports which Farley had prepared on prostitution in New Zealand. Among Winn's accusations was that Farley's alleged statement that she had evidence that women were entering prostitution at age nine was untrue; the studies she performed did not collect any data indicating this. According to Winn, Farley was operating her research projects without oversight from an ethics committee in New Zealand: "I have read and am aware of the ethics of psychologists working in New Zealand. I know these were not adhered to". [50] Winn told Beyer orally that Farley had paid some of the interview subjects, saying that Farley had made false claims on New Zealand television about her findings. She wrote that Farley's study " ... was not ethical, and the impact has done harm to those women and men who took part in it. It is for that reason that I am writing to the psychologists [sic] board of registration in California to lay a formal complaint regarding Melissa. I also believe that Melissa has committed an act of intentional misrepresentation of fact". [50] The California board did not respond to Winn's complaint.[ citation needed ]
In 2008, Farley published a critique of the Report of New Zealand Prostitution Law Review Committee on her website, leading to Dr. Calum Bennachie, PhD, also filing a formal complaint with the American Psychological Association (APA) to remove her from its membership. [51] In the course of her critique, Farley had revealed information indicating that she may have breached ethical guidelines of both the APA as well as the New Zealand Psychological Society (NZPsS), and Dr. Bennachie also pointed out several examples of "errors of fact that appear to be deliberately designed to mislead people." [52] : 1 The APA did not respond to this complaint, nor was Farley ever notified about it by the association. [53]
In the trial of Bedford v. Canada at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in October 2009, Farley was called as an expert witness by the Attorney General of Canada. The case was brought by current and former sex workers, who argued that Canadian laws restricting prostitution were unconstitutional. Farley's evidence was criticized by presiding judge Susan Himel in her September 2010 conclusion: [54]
I find that some of the evidence tendered on this application did not meet the standards set by Canadian courts for the admission of expert evidence. The parties did not challenge the admissibility of evidence tendered but asked the court to afford little weight to the evidence of the other party.
I found the evidence of Dr. Melissa Farley to be problematic. Although Dr. Farley has conducted a great deal of research on prostitution, her advocacy appears to have permeated her opinions. For example, Dr. Farley's unqualified assertion in her affidavit that prostitution is inherently violent appears to contradict her own findings that prostitutes who work from indoor locations generally experience less violence. Furthermore, in her affidavit, she failed to qualify her opinion regarding the causal relationship between post- traumatic stress disorder and prostitution, namely, that it could be caused by events unrelated to prostitution.
Dr. Farley's choice of language is at times inflammatory and detracts from her conclusions. For example, comments such as "prostitution is to the community what incest is to the family" and "just as pedophiles justify sexual assault of children . . . . men who use prostitutes develop elaborate cognitive schemes to justify purchase and use of women" make her opinions less persuasive.
Dr. Farley stated during cross-examination that some of her opinions on prostitution were formed prior to her research, including "that prostitution is a terrible harm to women, that prostitution is abusive in its very nature, and that prostitution amounts to men paying a woman for the right to rape her".
Accordingly, for these reasons, I assign less weight to Dr. Farley's evidence.
Since that case in 2011, Farley, with co-authors from the William Mitchell College of Law, reported on the project of Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition and Prostitution Research and Education, Garden of Truth: the Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota.[ citation needed ]
A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.
Nevada is the only U.S. state where prostitution is legally permitted in some form. Prostitution is legal in 10 of Nevada's 17 counties, although only six allow it in every municipality. Six counties have at least one active brothel, which mainly operate in isolated, rural areas. The state's most populated counties, Clark and Washoe, are among those that do not permit prostitution. It is also illegal in Nevada's capital, Carson City, an independent city.
Sexual slavery and sexual exploitation is an attachment of any ownership right over one or more people with the intent of coercing or otherwise forcing them to engage in sexual activities. This includes forced labor that results in sexual activity, forced marriage and sex trafficking, such as the sexual trafficking of children.
Street prostitution is a form of prostitution in which a prostitute solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, benches, etc. The street prostitute is often dressed in a provocative manner. The sex act may be performed in the customer's car, in a nearby secluded street location, or at the prostitute's residence or in a rented motel room.
Child prostitution is prostitution involving a child, and it is a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The term normally refers to prostitution of a minor, or person under the legal age of consent. In most jurisdictions, child prostitution is illegal as part of general prohibition on prostitution.
Prostitution is illegal in the vast majority of the United States as a result of state laws rather than federal laws. It is, however, legal in some rural counties within the state of Nevada. Additionally, it is decriminalized to sell sex in the state of Maine, but illegal to buy sex. Prostitution nevertheless occurs elsewhere in the country.
Forced prostitution, also known as involuntary prostitution or compulsory prostitution, is prostitution or sexual slavery that takes place as a result of coercion by a third party. The terms "forced prostitution" or "enforced prostitution" appear in international and humanitarian conventions, such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but have been inconsistently applied. "Forced prostitution" refers to conditions of control over a person who is coerced by another to engage in sexual activity.
Ronald Weitzer is an American sociologist specializing in criminology and a professor at George Washington University, known for his publications on police-minority relations and on the sex industry.
Prostitution in Mexico is legal under Federal Law. Each of the 31 states enacts its own prostitution laws and policies. Thirteen of the states of Mexico allow and regulate prostitution. Prostitution involving minors under 18 is illegal. Some Mexican cities have enacted "tolerance zones" which allow regulated prostitution and function as red-light districts. In Tuxtla Gutiérrez, capital of the state of Chiapas, there is a state-run brothel at the Zona Galáctica(Galactic Zone). In most parts of the country, pimping is illegal, although pimp-worker relationships still occur, sometimes under female pimps called "madrotas"("Big Mothers"). The government provides shelter for former prostitutes.
Prostitution in South Africa is illegal for both buying and selling sex, as well as related activities such as brothel keeping and pimping. However, it remains widespread. Law enforcement is poor.
Sex workers' rights encompass a variety of aims being pursued globally by individuals and organizations that specifically involve the human, health, and labor rights of sex workers and their clients. The goals of these movements are diverse, but generally aim to legalize or decriminalize sex work, as well as to destigmatize it, regulate it and ensure fair treatment before legal and cultural forces on a local and international level for all persons in the sex industry.
Prostitution in El Salvador is not prohibited by national law, but may be prohibited by local municipal ordinances. Municipal ordinances may also prohibit the purchase of sexual services. Related activities such as facilitating, promoting or giving incentives to a person to work as a prostitute (pimping) are illegal. The prostitution of children is also illegal. Brothel ownership, however, is legal. There are no specific laws against human trafficking, but any criminal offence that includes ‘commerce in women or children’ requires sentencing to be increased by 30%.
Violence against prostitutes include violent and harmful acts, both physical or psychological, against individuals engaging in prostitution. It occurs worldwide, with the victims of such acts of violence being predominantly women. In extreme cases, violent acts have led to their murder while in their workplace.
Prostitution laws varies widely from country to country, and between jurisdictions within a country. At one extreme, prostitution or sex work is legal in some places and regarded as a profession, while at the other extreme, it is considered a severe crime punishable by death in some other places. A variety of different legal models exist around the world, including total bans, bans that only target the customer, and laws permitting prostitution but prohibiting organized groups, an example being brothels.
Prostitution in Cambodia is illegal, but prevalent. A 2008 Cambodian Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation has proven controversial, with international concerns regarding human rights abuses resulting from it, such as outlined in the 2010 Human Rights Watch report.
The decriminalization of sex work is the removal of criminal penalties for sex work. Sex work, the consensual provision of sexual services for money or goods, is criminalized in most countries. Decriminalization is distinct from legalization.
Legality of prostitution in the Americas varies by country. Most countries only legalized prostitution, with the act of exchanging money for sexual services legal. The level of enforcement varies by country. One country, the United States, is unique as legality of prostitution is not the responsibility of the federal government, but rather state, territorial, and federal district's responsibility.
Human trafficking in Nevada is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor as it occurs in the state of Nevada, and it is widely recognized as a modern-day form of slavery. It includes "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."
Sex trafficking in the United States is a form of human trafficking which involves reproductive slavery or commercial sexual exploitation as it occurs in the United States. Sex trafficking includes the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or force into exploitative and slavery-like conditions. It is commonly associated with organized crime.
Feminist perspectives on sex markets vary widely, depending on the type of feminism being applied. The sex market is defined as the system of supply and demand which is generated by the existence of sex work as a commodity. The sex market can further be segregated into the direct sex market, which mainly applies to prostitution, and the indirect sex market, which applies to sexual businesses which provide services such as lap dancing. The final component of the sex market lies in the production and selling of pornography. With the distinctions between feminist perspectives, there are many documented instances from feminist authors of both explicit and implied feminist standpoints that provide coverage on the sex market in regards to both "autonomous" and "non-autonomous" sex trades. The quotations are added since some feminist ideologies believe the commodification of women's bodies is never autonomous and therefore subversive or misleading by terminology.