Claims-making and prostitution: an analysis of Bill 206, the Traffic Safety (Seizure of Vehicles in Prostitution Related Offences) Amendment Act, 2003

• Author / Creator

  Ickert, Carla

• Over the last several decades, politicians, police and communities have increased their attention on the activities and behaviours of men who solicit prostitutes. This study critically examines one recent legal policy aimed at addressing the demand side of prostitution: Bill 206, the Traffic Safety (Seizure of Vehicles in Prostitution Related Offences) Amendment Act, 2003. This study explores what claims-making processes are used to justify this legislation, how johns and prostitutes are represented, and how this legislation (re)produces racialized and gendered subjects. It argues that several claims-making strategies are employed, including a “crisis” of child prostitution, individualization and responsibilization tactics, and stereotypes about johns and prostitutes, to justify and legitimate this legislation as an appropriate response to prostitution. As a result, the perspectives’ of prostitutes were absent from the debates, and there was a broad neglect of a socially and historically contextualized analysis of prostitution as a social problem.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Claims-making
  • Prostitution
  • Legislation

• Graduation date

  Fall 2010

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3S70D

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.