Full Criminalization: How Laws Shape Sex, Power, and Survival

When we talk about full criminalization, the legal approach that treats all aspects of sex work, from selling to buying to organizing, as crimes. Also known as prohibitionist policy, it doesn’t just target sex workers—it traps clients, landlords, drivers, and even friends who offer support. This isn’t just about morality. It’s about control. History shows that when governments make sex work illegal, they don’t stop it—they push it underground, make it more dangerous, and give police more power to harass the people they claim to protect.

Look at the prostitution history, the centuries-long pattern of regulating, punishing, and ignoring commercial sex. Also known as sex trade regulation, it’s never been about safety—it’s been about who gets to define what’s decent. From Victorian-era crackdowns on women’s bodies to modern raids on LGBTQ+ bars, criminalization has always been a tool to police gender, race, and class. The LGBTQ+ rights, the fight for legal recognition and protection from discrimination. Also known as sexual minority rights, it’s deeply tied to this history. When gay bars were raided in the 1950s and 60s, police didn’t just arrest people for dancing together—they used laws against public indecency to justify violence. Same thing today: when sex workers are arrested for solicitation, they’re often charged with crimes they didn’t commit, just because they exist in public space.

And consent? It’s not a legal checkbox when you’re criminalized. The consent, the clear, ongoing, voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity. Also known as affirmative consent, it’s meaningless if your body is treated as evidence in a crime. A woman who says yes to a client isn’t protected by law—she’s at risk of arrest. A trans woman who exchanges sex for shelter? She’s labeled a criminal, not a survivor. Full criminalization doesn’t reduce harm—it multiplies it. It silences voices, destroys communities, and makes it impossible to report violence without fear of jail.

What you’ll find below isn’t just history. It’s proof. From Victorian doctors calling masturbation a disease, to Etruscan tombs celebrating sex as sacred, to modern fights over housing rights for LGBTQ+ people—this collection shows how laws follow power, not truth. These stories aren’t about shock value. They’re about survival. And they’re the reason why full criminalization keeps failing—because people don’t stop having sex, they just stop being safe.