TY - JOUR
T1 - Female sex work and international sport events - no major changes in demand or supply of paid sex during the 2010 Soccer World Cup
T2 - a cross-sectional study.
AU - Richter, Marlise
AU - Luchters, Stanley
AU - Ndlovu, Dudu
AU - Temmerman, Marleen
AU - Chersich, Matthew Francis
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding for this study was provided by UNFPA and Atlantic Philanthropies. We would like to thank the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and the Sisonke Sex Worker Movements for guidance and logistical support, and the research assistants for hard work during data collection for this project. The technical and logistical support of the African Centre for Migration & Society and the Centre for Health Policy, Wits University and their students was key in the conceptualisation and development of the project, as well as the assistance of the Sex Work Project, Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute within Hillbrow. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution to this work of the Victorian Operational Infrastructure Support Program. Special thanks for the input and support of Jo Vearey, Dianne Massawe, Carolin Kueppers, Tom Considine, Fiona Scorgie, Elsa Oliveira, Agnieszka Flak, Marc Lewis, Ingrid Palmary, Richard Steen, Gerrit Maritz, Francois Venter and the careful review of the manuscript by the PhD Group of the School of Public Health, Wits University. The suggestions and comments by the BMC Public Health reviewers of this article - Diane Cooper, Kathleen Deering and Helen Ward - were invaluable.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Important unanswered questions remain on the impact of international sporting events on the sex industry. Speculation about increased demand and supply of sex work often generates significant attention, but also additional funding for HIV programmes. This study assessed whether changes occurred in the demand and supply of paid sex during the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa. Trained sex worker interviewers conducted face-to-face semi-structured interviews among consenting female sex workers during May-September 2010. Using bivariate analyses we compared supply, demand, sexual risk-taking, and police and health services contact pre-World Cup, to levels during the World Cup and after the event. No increases were detected in indicators of sex work supply, including the proportion of sex workers newly arrived in the city (< 2.5% in each phase) or those recently entering the trade (≤ 1.5%). Similarly, demand for sex work, indicated by median number of clients (around 12 per week) and amount charged per transaction ($13) remained similar in the three study periods. Only a third of participants reported observing any change in the sex industry ascribed to the World Cup. Self-reported condom-use with clients remained high across all samples (> 92.4% in all phases). Health-care utilisation decreased non-significantly from the pre- to during World Cup period (62.4% to 57.0%; P = 0.075). Across all periods, about thirty percent of participants had interacted with police in the preceding month, two thirds of whom had negative interactions. Contrary to public opinion, no major increases were detected in the demand or supply of paid sex during the World Cup. Although the study design employed was unable to select population-based samples, these findings do not support the public concern and media speculation prior to the event, but rather signal a missed opportunity for public health action. Given the media attention on sex work, future sporting events offer strategic opportunities to implement services for sex workers and their clients, especially as health service utilisation might decrease in this period.
AB - Important unanswered questions remain on the impact of international sporting events on the sex industry. Speculation about increased demand and supply of sex work often generates significant attention, but also additional funding for HIV programmes. This study assessed whether changes occurred in the demand and supply of paid sex during the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa. Trained sex worker interviewers conducted face-to-face semi-structured interviews among consenting female sex workers during May-September 2010. Using bivariate analyses we compared supply, demand, sexual risk-taking, and police and health services contact pre-World Cup, to levels during the World Cup and after the event. No increases were detected in indicators of sex work supply, including the proportion of sex workers newly arrived in the city (< 2.5% in each phase) or those recently entering the trade (≤ 1.5%). Similarly, demand for sex work, indicated by median number of clients (around 12 per week) and amount charged per transaction ($13) remained similar in the three study periods. Only a third of participants reported observing any change in the sex industry ascribed to the World Cup. Self-reported condom-use with clients remained high across all samples (> 92.4% in all phases). Health-care utilisation decreased non-significantly from the pre- to during World Cup period (62.4% to 57.0%; P = 0.075). Across all periods, about thirty percent of participants had interacted with police in the preceding month, two thirds of whom had negative interactions. Contrary to public opinion, no major increases were detected in the demand or supply of paid sex during the World Cup. Although the study design employed was unable to select population-based samples, these findings do not support the public concern and media speculation prior to the event, but rather signal a missed opportunity for public health action. Given the media attention on sex work, future sporting events offer strategic opportunities to implement services for sex workers and their clients, especially as health service utilisation might decrease in this period.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84866000357&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/1471-2458-12-763
DO - 10.1186/1471-2458-12-763
M3 - Article
C2 - 22967260
AN - SCOPUS:84866000357
SN - 1472-698X
VL - 12
SP - 763
JO - BMC Public Health
JF - BMC Public Health
M1 - 763
ER -
