Survey: www.street-to-screen.ca

[escapefromstress]

If you are a female, male, or trans* person who has experience:

Providing sexual services for money in Canada

OR

Paying money for sexual services in Canada

We want to hear about how technology influences the way you communicate, share and gather information.

Participation is anonymous, confidential, and secure.

www.street-to-screen.ca to take survey



From Chris Atchison (permission obtained to post this for him):

Hey folks,

While many members of the merb 'community' have taken part in my past projects, I know that some have not had the chance. I would like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to visit our project web site to learn a bit more about my latest study. As is the case with all of the research that I have been involved in, the express purpose of this study is to hear from as broad a range of people who sell and purchase sexual services (i.e., sex workers and clients) as possible so that we are in the position to provide an evidence-base for the continued development of policy and practice.

As many of you are aware, Canada's previous conservative government and Justice Minister did not have much regard for evidence-based policy; instead, they preferred policy-based evidence when they were drafting the Protection of Community and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA). Fortunately, as part of PCEPA, the government had to include a mandatory 5-year review of the impact of the new laws. Many sex workers and people who provide outreach and support for sex workers maintain that the new laws are no different from the old ones (overturned in the Bedford case) in that they continue to make it impossible for sex workers to work without being placed at undue (read unconstitutional) risk to their safety. These same sex workers and outreach and support organizations are calling for the evaluation of the new laws to happen before the mandatory 5 year point. The street-to-screen study is, in part, a response to this request. We are also doing the study so that we are in the position to have solid empirical evidence to present when it comes time for the formal evaluation of the law to take place.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with me or the work that I have done, here is a bit more background:

As I said before, I've been researching the sex industry and working in a supportive capacity with sex work(er) researchers and outreach organizations in Canada since 1995. For those of you who are interested, here are some links to a few of the projects I have conducted: ORCHID project and the ‘Johns’ Voice’ study; SPACES; Understanding Sex Work and Sex, Safety & Security.

In addition to the numerous articles and technical reports I have published, I have also been involved extensively with committees and working groups formed to study and develop evidence-based social, health and legal policy and procedure to improve the health, safety and conditions of people involved in Canada's sex industry. The results of my research were presented in testimony by Dr. John Lowman in the Bedford case. Prior to the enactment of the Protection of Community and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) I was called to presented the results of my 20 years of research in testimony before the House of Commons, Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights and The Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs.

Finally, my projects have appeared pretty regularly in mainstream news media coverage over the years, a few of the features can be found at: Vue Weekly, CBC, Huffington Post, The Toronto Star, Times Colonist, CBC, National Post, Maclean’s, National Post, and Policy Options

For those of you who have any questions, comments of concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me directly ([email protected] or[email protected]).

 

[Julia Sky]

After going through 4 pages and it still says 0% completed I'm not sure I want to answer over 400 pages of questions... Is it a glitch or...?

 

[johnsvoice]

Hi Lexie_Diamond.

I'll take a look at the progress bar to make sure that it is registering properly but after the first few pages the adaptive questions kick in and pretty much everyone then gets jumped through the bulk of the remaining questions very quickly. Our advisory group of sex workers and clients who helped us develop the surveys told me that, while the survey was longer than most, they were able to get through it pretty quickly (especially after the adaptive questions kicked in). They also said that they appreciated that we were asking relevant, respectful and well thought out questions instead of surface-level questions that lacked any context.

The only other issue that has been brought up about the survey is that it can take longer when people are trying to complete it using a smart phone on a 3/4G network connection. Unfortunately, this isn't something we can do anything about except to advise people that it is better to use a faster network connection to avoid delays.

 

[Julia Sky]

Hey nevermind. Somehow the progress bar didn't appear at first, now it's fine. I'm almost done.

 

[johnsvoice]

Hey Lexie_Diamond. I went back and took a look at the progress bar and it found out that it wasn't displaying properly. So thank-you for letting me know. I have corrected the issue so for everyone else, it should work as intended.

 

[escapefromstress]

UBC researchers want to know how people who buy and sell sex communicate with each other

http://news.ubc.ca/2017/02/28/ubc-re...th-each-other/

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have launched a national study to find out how people buying and selling sexual services use technologies like smartphones and websites to communicate with one another, develop relationships and negotiate service conditions.

The Street-To-Screen project is the first of its kind in Canada and researchers hope it will help fill a vital gap in information about the sex industry, said Vicky Bungay, principal investigator and the Canada Research Chair in Gender, Equity and Community Engagement at UBC.

The survey also aims to explore the impacts of current Canadian laws which criminalize a wide range of activities associated with providing sexual services, including communication.

“We know that good communication is key to ensuring the health and safety of those involved in the sale and purchase of sex, but we don’t know how people are getting around the legal restrictions placed on that communication in Canada,” said Bungay.

People can take part in the project by completing a survey or participating in phone or in-person interviews.

“This is an opportunity for people to safely and confidentially participate in a project that has the potential to change current laws and attitudes around the sex industry,” said Chris Atchison, co-principal investigator and research associate at the Capacity Research Unit at UBC.

Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, was enacted in 2014 and criminalized activities such as the purchase or advertisement of sexual services and communicating with a sex worker about the services they are selling, among others.

“Selling sex is a legal form of income in Canada, but the set of restrictions built up around the practice make it impossible for those involved to do so safely,” said Atchison.

The restrictions can have serious impacts on both worker and client safety.

“If you can’t communicate, how do you establish consent? How do you establish what you will or won’t do?” said Bungay.

When the bill was signed into law, the review period was set at five years, despite calls from experts for a two-year review process.

“We have over thirty years of research that shows unequivocally that bad laws put people in harm’s way,” said Atchison. “We want to collect this data now so that we can provide empirical evidence about the impacts these new laws have on both sex workers and clients when it comes time to review the law.”

The Street-To-Screen Project is funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

BACKGROUND

Bill C-36, Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act

Bill C-36, otherwise known as the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act was introduced in response to a 2013 Supreme Court of Canada ruling known as the Bedford decision. It ruled that three Criminal Code offenses related to the provision of sexual services increased the risk of harm faced by sex workers and thereby violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

 

[johnsvoice]

Hi folks,

A quick update.

We have been invited to attend the round table session being held by the Department of Justice Canada to evaluate the impact of PCEPA. We will be providing a summary of the findings from the research that we conducted before, during and after the passing of Bill C36, including a breakdown of our findings to date for our current study of the ways sex workers and clients communicate - "Street-to-Screen". The information/evidence we will be presenting will be specific to how the laws have been interpreted/understood by people who pay for and provide sexual services in Canada, what impact the laws have had (before and after C36) on individual attitudes and behaviours and how the different socio-legal contexts across Canada have impacted the nature of health and safety relations between people who pay for and provide sexual services. We will also be providing a detailed analysis of how advertising of sexual services and communications between people who pay for and provide sexual services has changed since the implementation of the new laws with respect to advertisement and client-side communication. As always, the information we provide in these consultations will be IN NO WAY compromise the privacy, confidentiality and security of ANY person that has participated in any of the projects we have done over the past 15 years.