The Gaze of the Gatekeeper: Frontline Social Workers’ Perceptions of Sex Workers When Making Recommendations About Treatment

Healthcare settings are often one of the primary touch points for sex workers connecting with social services. This places social workers in hospital settings in an important role, using their clinical and social work training and education to make case recommendations based on the immediate needs of sex workers in their care. This qualitative study uses interviews to examine the decision-making processes of social workers in a hospital setting when making case recommendations for sex workers, as well as their attitudes towards sex work as a profession. Findings reveal how social workers, through their navigation of complex institutional networks, often employ decision-making tactics that reflect carceral social work logics and gatekeeping. We also find how other important factors, such as a social workers own professional experience, play an important role in these decision-making processes. We conclude by discussing how social work practitioners can critically interrogate their role within oppressive and carceral state structures to promote an anticarceral social work field that reflects the needs of sex workers in their care.