Reframing the Interpretation of Sex Worker Health: A Behavioral-Structural Approach

Expanding sexually transmitted infection (STI) epidemics in many parts of Asia increase the importance of effective human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/STI prevention programs for female sex workers. Designing sex worker health research and programs demands a well-stated conceptual approach, especially when one is interpreting the relationship between local policy environments and sex worker health. However, the core principles of the 2 most common conceptual approaches used in sex worker health programs--abolitionism and empowerment--have frequently divergent assumptions and implications. The abolitionist approach sees major aspects of the sex industry as fundamentally coercive and exploitative of women and supports dismantling all or parts of the sex sector. The empowerment approach strengthens sex workers' agency and rights in order to build collective self-efficacy and have women invested in implementing their own HIV/STI prevention programs. This review compares these approaches using implication analysis and empirical cases from Asia. The misperception of an unresolvable gap between the 2 approaches ignores common ground that forms the basis of a new behavioral-structural conceptual framework. Explicitly accounting for the interaction between female sex worker behaviors and larger structures and policies, a behavioral-structural approach may provide a solid foundation for sex work research and programs.