“It Is Easier If You Believe.” The Model of Assistance for Women Giving Up Selling Sexual Services on the Example of the Catholic Center for Girls and Women at Risk of Prostitution and Wanting to Abandon It Cover Image

„Jak ktoś uwierzy, to wtedy jest jemu łatwiej”. Koncepcja pomocy dla kobiet rezygnujących ze sprzedaży usług seksualnych na przykładzie katolickiego Ośrodka dla dziewcząt i kobiet zagrożonych prostytucją i chcących porzucić jej uprawianie
“It Is Easier If You Believe.” The Model of Assistance for Women Giving Up Selling Sexual Services on the Example of the Catholic Center for Girls and Women at Risk of Prostitution and Wanting to Abandon It

Author(s): Adrianna Surmiak
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Gender Studies, Labor relations, Welfare services, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today)
Published by: Uniwersytet Łódzki - Wydział Ekonomiczno-Socjologiczny
Keywords: female prostitution; institutional assistance; commercial sex; ethnographic research;

Summary/Abstract: There is little discussion of institutional assistance for women abandoning prostitution in the academic literature. There is especially lack of analyzing the catholic perspective which sometimes is, as in case of Sharon Oselin and Ronald Weitzer, linked with radical feminism. In the article, I reconstruct the model of assistance for former female sex workers using the example of the Catholic Center for girls and women at risk of prostitution and wanting to abandon it. I also analyze the views of the Center’s staff regarding prostitution, prostitutes, and how they should function after giving up selling sexual services. I draw on my ethnographic research which I conducted (intermittently) in 2005-2016.

  • Issue Year: XIV/2018
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 74-96
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Polish