Understanding Sex Work and Its Links with HIV

Understanding Sex Work and Its Links with HIV
Sex workers include “female, male and transgender adults and young people7 who receive
money or goods in exchange for sexual services, either regularly or occasionally…”8. Sex
work varies between and within countries and communities. Sex work may vary in the
degree to which it is more or less “formal” or organized, and in the degree to which it is
distinct from other social and sexual relationships and types of sexual-economic exchange9.
Where sex work is organized, controllers10 and managers generally act as clearly-defined,
power-holding intermediaries between the sex worker and client, and often between both
and local authorities. Self-employed sex workers usually find their clients through independent
means, increasingly through mobile telephones and the internet11, and may be
recruited or excluded from settings where an organized system is in place. Individuals may