The study of sex trafficking, prostitution, sex work, and sexual exploitation is associated with many methodological issues and challenges. Community advisory boards and key stakeholder involvement are essential to study design to increase safety of participants, usefulness of study aims, and meaningfulness of conclusions. Nonrandomized sampling strategies are most often utilized when studying exploited women and girls, which have the capacity to provide rich data and require complex sampling and recruitment methods.
This article reviews the current methodological issues when studying this marginalized population as well as strategies to address challenges while working with the community in order to bring about social change. The authors also discuss their own experiences in collaborating with community organizations to conduct research in this field.
There are numerous methodological issues to consider when studying individuals who trade or sell sex, some of whom may be described or self-identify as victims, prostitutes, or sex workers and traders.
The complexity of definitions related to individuals who trade or sell sex in some capacity is described elsewhere in great detail Gerassi, The ways in which we describe individuals who trade or sell sex i. Ranging degrees of force and coercion involved in sexual exploitation as well as differences in terminology require clear inclusion criteria that will further advance the field of study in this area.
Consequently, the discussion here will draw primarily from existing literature to explore best practices when designing studies that focus broadly on the study of individuals who are exploited in some way into trading or selling sex. Designing studies in collaboration with community partners and other experts from the field is an important step to ensure the safety of participants in addition to high levels of participant recruitment and overall success of the project.
