Exiting Prostitution ― A Study in Female Desistance

Exiting Prostitution provides a critical re-examination of the growing body of literature on exiting and desistance. Moving beyond accounts which are mainly centred on men desisting from crime, this book focuses on female desistance, particularly in relation to prostitution and the exiting process.

With interviews from over one hundred women involved in prostitution, the authors uniquely examine the exiting process considering not only the barriers and obstacles that women face when trying to leave prostitution, but also their individual strengths, capacities and aspirations. In this way, this book aims to present an approach that is more positive and progressive. It also provides a guide to best practice through an examination of the types of support that are currently available to those women involved in both on-street and off-street prostitution, and develops an outline model of support.

Written by a highly experienced team of experts in the field, this book provides useful guidelines for practitioners and policymakers on types of intervention and ways in which to further develop exiting programmes.

Roger Matthews is Professor of Criminology at the University of Kent, UK. He is author of Prostitution, Politics and Policy (2008) and acted as an advisor to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution (2014).

Helen Easton is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at London South Bank University, UK. Prior to this she worked as a Senior Research Fellow, guiding and advising the PEER Research Project and working on the evaluation of The Chrysalis Project, both about women exiting prostitution.

Lisa Reynolds is a Research and Development Officer at Eaves, UK and has worked on a number of projects focusing on prostitution.

Julie Bindel is an author, journalist, broadcaster and researcher. Her areas of expertise include feminism, prostitution and trafficking of women and children, and all other forms of gender-based violence.