Myths About Sex Work – What Does Research Actually Say?

The public debate about sex work is loud, moralistic, and filled with claims that are repeated so often they are treated as facts. But what happens when we actually look at research instead of ideology?

One researcher who has done exactly that is Professor Graham Scambler of University College London. For decades, he has studied sex work from sociological and public-health perspectives. In his lecture “Sex Work Today: Myths, Morals and Health,” he challenges many of the dominant narratives about why people — women, men, and non-binary people — choose to sell sex.

One of his key findings is that trafficking is far less prevalent than political rhetoric suggests. Based on both his own work and a wide body of international research, Scambler shows that trafficking is often used as a catch-all justification for restrictive policies, despite representing only a small fraction of sex work. Most people sell sex for many other reasons — and those reasons are diverse.

When Policy Ignores Evidence

Scambler is especially critical of how sex work is treated in policymaking. He sums up the problem with a sharp observation:

“Evidence-based policy is replaced by policy-based evidence.”

In other words, instead of letting research guide policy, decision-makers often start with a moral or ideological position and then selectively search for evidence to support it. Trafficking is a clear example where political narratives frequently do not match reality.

Sex Workers Are Not One Homogeneous Group

To illustrate how simplistic and misleading common portrayals of sex work are, Scambler outlines a typology of sex workers based on their reasons for selling sex:

1. Coerced – People who are forced into selling sex through violence, threats, or coercion.
2. Destined – People who grow up in environments where sex work is already present, much like being born into a family business or farming community.
3. Survivors – People who sell sex to survive economically, for example to pay off debt or fund an addiction.
4. Workers – People who see selling sex as work.
5. Opportunists – People who sell sex for a limited time to build capital, such as funding education, travel, or starting a business.
6. Bohemians – People who do not sell sex out of financial necessity but because they want to — sometimes because they enjoy it or find it sexually empowering. Scambler notes that this group includes professionals such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, and even academics.

Myths Are Built on Exceptions, Not Reality

Only categories 1 (Coerced) and, to some extent, 3 (Survivors) resemble the dominant “victim narrative” promoted by many anti-sex-work advocates. Yet research consistently shows that people who are truly coerced make up a very small minority of those who sell sex.

Even for those in the “survivor” category, interviews and studies demonstrate that sex work is often not a last resort, but rather the best available option among limited choices.

This leads to one of Scambler’s most important points:
sex workers have agency.

People make conscious, reasoned decisions based on their circumstances. For some, selling sex is a strategic, pragmatic, or even preferred choice. Denying this agency is not protection — it is erasure.

Listening to Sex Workers Should Be the Starting Point

If policy were truly concerned with our safety, health, and wellbeing, it would begin by listening to sex workers and engaging honestly with research. Until then, we will continue to say it clearly: we are not myths, symbols, or automatic victims. We are people with different lives, different motivations, and the right to self-determination.