Sex Work and Paying for Time: Agency, vulnerability and the ethics of participant payment

This article explores the ethical and procedural challenges associated with the payment of sex workers who engage in research. Our reflections are built upon a study exploring peer-to-peer support services for sex workers and highlight common ethical, institutional and sector-wide policies associated with researching vulnerable and marginalised groups. Through our analysis, we argue that institutional ethics ‘at a distance’ - particularly those concerning payment methods and amounts to co-researchers and participants - inadvertently re-stigmatises, paternalises and exacerbates ethical and personal risks associated with participating in the research itself. This paper draws on the relationship between vulnerability, risk and stigma to understand the function and impact of the institutional ethical processes which are common across a range of disciplines, with a particular focus on psychology and the social sciences. By uncritically positioning sex workers within broader understandings of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘risky’ or ‘at risk’ groups, we argue that institutional processes of additional risk management inadvertently reproduce the marginalisation and personal risks they seek to avert. This leads us to question the relationship between institutional ‘ethical’ procedures across the university sector and the ethics of the personal outcomes they produce. We advocate for the adoption of responsive and co-produced ethical policies and guidance on payment methods and amounts. Such positioning should be reflective of those seen in medical research and premised on a feminist ethic of care, promoting a more liberalised, flexible and inclusive approach to participant payment.