LASH (Law and Sex Worker Health) Project

LASH (Law and Sex Worker Health) Project

LASH was a continuation of sex worker research conducted by Professor Donovan and Dr. Christine Harcourt out of the Sydney Sexual Health Centre over the past two decades or more. It was time to see how the varying legislative responses around the country impact on the health and welfare of sex workers.  This earlier research had suggested that decriminalisation may offer the best outcomes but there was need to conduct broader population-based research to properly assess the health and welfare impacts of differing legal approaches to sex work. Their conclusions which lead to the LASH study note

“on initial impression decriminalisation appears to avoid many of the pitfalls of the other legal approaches and to have enabled the maintenance and further improvement of good health outcomes within the sex industry in NSW and the ACT. Where there are already effective laws protecting minors and adults from sexual abuse, coercion, exploitation and related harms, decriminalisation may offer the greatest benefit to sex workers and the broader community. However more rigorous population-based research is needed to properly assess the health and welfare impacts of the various legal approaches to the control of prostitution”. 

(Harcourt C et al: Sex Work and the Law; Sexual Health Review 2005, 2, 121-128)

So the LASH study was born, commencing in 2006 under the supervision of the lead researchers Professional Basil Donovan and Dr. Christine Harcourt. It is important to note that sex workers were also involved in all aspects of this study, not just as study participants (a member of NAUWU was a participant). The Project is a joint initiative of the University of NSW and University of Melbourne funded by the National Health and Medical Research Centre (NHMRC) and funded initially by the NHMRC. The aim of the project being to compare health and welfare outcomes for sex workers in the capital cities of three Australian States with different legislative approaches in responding to the sex industry namely:

• Sydney, New South Wales (NSW) – largely decriminalised
• Melbourne, Victoria (VIC) – licensing
• Perth, Western Australia (WA) – prohibition

The study examined whether restrictive prostitution laws and policing practices adversely affect the health and welfare of sex workers within these three differing legislative frameworks.  In  order to assess the health status of sex workers, three representative samples of 200 female, urban, brothel-based sex workers were selected from each of the States of NSW, VIC and WA. Female sex workers who had worked in the sex industry for less than five years in total from each of the cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth were invited to participate anonymously in the study by completing a self-administered questionnaire and providing a specimen for sexual health testing. The questionnaire asked questions about work experience and conditions, sexual health, contact with health services and outreach and contacts with police. It also included a brief standard assessment of the individual’s personal well-being.

The Western Australian Government had been reviewing its legislative response and policing practices at the same time that LASH was being conducted and the Health Department of the Western Australian Government quite sensibly contracted the LASH team to compile a report to better inform the debate.  An equivalent Report for the NSW government is due out in the next couple of months. Watch this space. A couple of the early findings however indicate that licensing and police controlled activities (Victoria and WA respectively) can result in limited access opportunities for health promotion programs and peer based outreach services. That is sex workers who work in the unlicensed sector and/or under prohibition (with police control) as in WA, have limited or no access to peer education and supports. Of note, the brothels that the LASH team were unable to gain access to were in Melbourne.  The authors note that this is ‘an unfortunate consequence of the licensing system in that state’.

The Sex Industry in Western Australia: A Report to the Western Australian Government

…….. watch this space for NSW’s Report and other references and outcomes from the LASH Project!

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