Sex work and the impact of sex work laws

Dr Lynzi Armstrong is currently involved in two international comparative research projects focused on the experiences of sex workers and the impacts of sex work laws. Lynzi is leading a project on stigma, discrimination and sex work laws in New Zealand, Scotland and Ireland, funded by a Marsden Fast Start Grant ($300,000, 2019-2023). A total of 80 in-depth interviews have been undertaken with sex workers and activists in these three countries by Lynzi and a team of research assistants that she is working collaboratively alongside. In September 2022 Lynzi held a symposium titled ‘Stigma, Sex Work and the Law: From Research to Action’ at the University of Northumbria Law School, which brought together the research team with other academics and activists working in related areas, to discuss the project and more broadly how to translate social research into action.

On the second project, she is a collaborator alongside colleagues in Canada and the US, on the Law and Sex Work Project, with a focus on examining how sex work laws are experienced in New Zealand, Canada and Nevada.

In recently years Lynzi’s work in this area has attracted considerable interest internationally, with a book she co-edited ‘Sex Work and the New Zealand Model: Decriminalisation and Social Change’ briefly featuring in an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The same book has since been translated into Spanish by Virus Editorial. In September 2022, Lynzi was invited to give a public talk in Seville on the Spanish version of the book, and was also interviewed for a media article on the impacts of decriminalising sex work.