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"The Church Ladies Are Here!": A Grounded Theory Analysis Exploring Christian Faith-Based Intervention to the Commercial Sex Industry From a Non-Abolitionist Lens /

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	"The Church Ladies Are Here!": A Grounded Theory Analysis Exploring Christian Faith-Based Intervention to the Commercial Sex Industry From a Non-Abolitionist Lens // Bonnie L McIntyre.
Author:	McIntyre, Bonnie L.,
Description:	1 electronic resource (424 pages)
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 86-07, Section: B.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International86-07B.
Subject:	Social work. -
Online resource:	https://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=31641451
ISBN:	9798302167392

"The Church Ladies Are Here!": A Grounded Theory Analysis Exploring Christian Faith-Based Intervention to the Commercial Sex Industry From a Non-Abolitionist Lens /
McIntyre, Bonnie L.,

"The Church Ladies Are Here!": A Grounded Theory Analysis Exploring Christian Faith-Based Intervention to the Commercial Sex Industry From a Non-Abolitionist Lens /Bonnie L McIntyre. - 1 electronic resource (424 pages)

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 86-07, Section: B.

Intervention within and activism towards the international commercial sex industry has dominated the agendas and resources of global governments, faith-based sectors, and human rights groups of the past two decades. While there are a variety of approaches from which to address the sex trade, the abolitionist paradigm, which seeks to eliminate the trade in its entirety, has been applied as the most predominant form of intervention strategy and activist framework. Evangelical Christian groups have led the most pervasive interventionist efforts towards the commercial sex industry, often implementing their work through an abolitionist lens. Evangelical abolitionism has shaped the commercial sex industry as a predominantly criminal justice issue and endorsed carceral focused, law-enforcement-led raid and rescue intervention techniques as primary tactics to address the trade. While an abolitionist approach has been successful in providing emancipation to individuals trapped in the sex industry, stark criticisms of the perspective exist. For example, sex workers' rights advocates have implored evangelical Christians, as the most substantive abolitionist activists, to consider the implications of their work on consenting sex workers and other marginalized populations engaged in the trade who do not identify with an anti-sex trafficking victimhood narrative. Therefore, the purpose of this study was guided by the following research question: What are the ways that evangelical Christian organizations are conceptualizing and intervening in the commercial sex industry other than the abolitionist paradigm? A qualitative research study using grounded theory methodology was conducted and data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 24 Christian organizations throughout the U.S. providing intervention to individuals engaged in the sex trade. Questions posed during the interviews were based on a guide developed by the researcher and grounded in a social constructivist inquiry paradigm. The data coding and analysis process yielded two essential themes. The first includes the participants' ideological conceptualizations towards the commercial sex industry in which a total of five major categories were developed: study participants' perceptions of why individuals participate in the sex industry, how an individual enters into and continues engagement within the industry, identities and needs of which women engaged in the industry perceive of themselves, and the impact of evangelical Christianity on the industry. The second essential theme details a comprehensive description of the organizations' step-by-step intervention process, comprised of six thematic stages including: purpose, objectives, and strategies for intervention, planning for and conducting intervention, as well as closing out the intervention. Rather than enacting an abolitionist approach to shut the industry down, intervention was conducted for the purposes of engaging in relationships. Relationships served as a vehicle to share with sex working individuals that they are loved, valued, and purposed according to faith-based Christian doctrine. Comprehensive strategies to form and maintain relationships are described to conceptualize a new version of evangelical Christian intervention within the commercial sex industry, beyond that of abolitionism. This study sought to fill the vacuum of knowledge with regard to the motives and strategies used by Christian sex industry interventionists, as presented by the voices of these faith-based organizations themselves, to explore additional methods of Christian sex industry intervention. The strengths and limitations of the study are reviewed, as well as the implications for social work practice, policy, and future research.

English

ISBN: 9798302167392Subjects--Topical Terms:

644197
Social work.
Subjects--Index Terms:

Abolition

"The Church Ladies Are Here!": A Grounded Theory Analysis Exploring Christian Faith-Based Intervention to the Commercial Sex Industry From a Non-Abolitionist Lens /
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520 $a Intervention within and activism towards the international commercial sex industry has dominated the agendas and resources of global governments, faith-based sectors, and human rights groups of the past two decades. While there are a variety of approaches from which to address the sex trade, the abolitionist paradigm, which seeks to eliminate the trade in its entirety, has been applied as the most predominant form of intervention strategy and activist framework. Evangelical Christian groups have led the most pervasive interventionist efforts towards the commercial sex industry, often implementing their work through an abolitionist lens. Evangelical abolitionism has shaped the commercial sex industry as a predominantly criminal justice issue and endorsed carceral focused, law-enforcement-led raid and rescue intervention techniques as primary tactics to address the trade. While an abolitionist approach has been successful in providing emancipation to individuals trapped in the sex industry, stark criticisms of the perspective exist. For example, sex workers' rights advocates have implored evangelical Christians, as the most substantive abolitionist activists, to consider the implications of their work on consenting sex workers and other marginalized populations engaged in the trade who do not identify with an anti-sex trafficking victimhood narrative. Therefore, the purpose of this study was guided by the following research question: What are the ways that evangelical Christian organizations are conceptualizing and intervening in the commercial sex industry other than the abolitionist paradigm? A qualitative research study using grounded theory methodology was conducted and data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 24 Christian organizations throughout the U.S. providing intervention to individuals engaged in the sex trade. Questions posed during the interviews were based on a guide developed by the researcher and grounded in a social constructivist inquiry paradigm. The data coding and analysis process yielded two essential themes. The first includes the participants' ideological conceptualizations towards the commercial sex industry in which a total of five major categories were developed: study participants' perceptions of why individuals participate in the sex industry, how an individual enters into and continues engagement within the industry, identities and needs of which women engaged in the industry perceive of themselves, and the impact of evangelical Christianity on the industry. The second essential theme details a comprehensive description of the organizations' step-by-step intervention process, comprised of six thematic stages including: purpose, objectives, and strategies for intervention, planning for and conducting intervention, as well as closing out the intervention. Rather than enacting an abolitionist approach to shut the industry down, intervention was conducted for the purposes of engaging in relationships. Relationships served as a vehicle to share with sex working individuals that they are loved, valued, and purposed according to faith-based Christian doctrine. Comprehensive strategies to form and maintain relationships are described to conceptualize a new version of evangelical Christian intervention within the commercial sex industry, beyond that of abolitionism. This study sought to fill the vacuum of knowledge with regard to the motives and strategies used by Christian sex industry interventionists, as presented by the voices of these faith-based organizations themselves, to explore additional methods of Christian sex industry intervention. The strengths and limitations of the study are reviewed, as well as the implications for social work practice, policy, and future research.
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