Beyond stereotypes: Examining the social backgrounds and life trajectories of women in sex work

The question of who engages in sex work continues to attract attention. While recent research emphasises the heterogeneity of people who sell sex, little is known about how sex workers’ social backgrounds and life trajectories compare with those of their non-sex-worker peers. Applying a life-course perspective, we combine police records and social service registers with administrative data from Statistics Denmark to analyse the social backgrounds and life trajectories of 2478 female sex workers. Using latent class models, we assess social problems across childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Results reveal substantial heterogeneity, with most sex workers experiencing few problems while a small subgroup face elevated risks of mental health issues, crime, victimisation, substance misuse and homelessness. Analyses show that those with the most complex problems often come from disadvantaged families. Comparisons with two control groups highlight both similarities in and differences between the life trajectories of sex workers and other women.