2024 Richard J. Childress Memorial Lecture: The Future of Constitutional Interpretation

(Book Chapter) From Fallen Women to the Tumblr Ban : Representing the Landscape of Sex Work from a Historical and Legal Perspective by Meg Panichelli, Moshoula Capous-Desyllas, Yvette Butler

ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a historical and legal description of the relationship between social workers and the sex trade in the United States through the lens of social work history, the law, historical and contemporary interventions in the helping professions, and social movements. Often referred to as prostitution, escorting, nude dancing, and pornography, sex work takes many forms. Individuals enter sex trade through choice, circumstance, or coercion, and remain in sex trades for one or more of those reasons. Social work as a profession, practice, academic discipline, and field of research, is called to engage with the complexities and nuances of people engaged in sex trade. As such, this chapter guides the reader toward an intersectional feminist approach to social work that is rooted in anti-criminalization, self-determination, sex positivity, and liberation-based perspectives. This chapter demonstrates the need for an anti-carceral feminist approach to the sex trade by examining how racism, classism, colonialism, militarism, and globalism shape our understanding of sex work. source Taylor & Francis Group website

(Book Chapter) Applying Critical Feminist Theories and Praxis to Contemporary Social Work Education, Practice, Policy, and Research with Individuals in Sex Trades by Meg Panichelli, Moshoula Capous-Desyllas, Yvette Butler

ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we focus on critical feminist theories and praxis to explore the social work profession’s engagement with sex trade in practice, policy, education, and research. We begin by defining anti-imperialist and anti-carceral feminisms and their significance to the field of social work. We discuss the need for social workers to grapple with the deep complexities of cultural imperialism, colonization, and global power relations that have shaped the understanding of sexual agency and the constrained choices of people participating in sex work. We center critical feminist theories, breaking down imperialist and carceral feminist views that infantilize and further marginalize Black and Brown women, especially those from the Global South. Additionally, anti-carceral feminism offers a lens to critique the criminalization of sex work and corresponding rescue and reform efforts. Both strands of feminism highlight the importance of social work interventions that value alternatives to the criminal legal system, such as community accountability, systemic change, harm reduction, and the self-identified needs of people in the sex trades. Furthermore, this chapter explores social work practice inclusive of survival-centered advocacy and centering strengths, while engaging in policy advocacy with sex workers at the macro level. Overall, approaches to social work education should emphasize the diversity of experiences in sex trades, while research can focus on participatory, community-based, and arts-based approaches to co-constructing knowledge. source Taylor & Francis Group website