Justice at the Margins: Notions of Justice in the Punishment of Prostitution

Abstract

This chapter uses a close analysis of the legal treatment of the first-party prostitution transaction (sex workers and their clients) to tease out the official vision(s) of justice embedded in both text and practice. I have chosen to look at notions of justice as they apply to prostitution as this conduct is unlawful and is seen by the authorities as seriously harming social order and undermining socialist morality. And, since the test of a state’s commitment to legal justice is found in its treatment of the morally and socially marginalised, the chapter goes on to juxtapose the legalistic vision of justice with the periodic public humiliation of sex workers.