Making Work, Making Trouble: Prostitution as a Social Problem

Susan Thomas is a middle-school guidance counselor, teacher, anad social
worker in Milton, Ontario.

The fact that this study of prostitution is based on the author’s
Ph.D. dissertation may account in part for its lack of accessibility.
Brock presents us with the stories of two streetwalkers, Liz and Donna,
but soon abandons these real-life stories in favor of academic
discussions of “moral panic,” court decisions, the Fraser Report,
policing strategies, the Badgley Report, and, finally, street kids. It
appears that she has tried to cover all agencies and social programs
without focusing in depth on any one initiative.

Chapter 6 reviews the Report of the Committee on Sexual Offences
Against Children and Youths (Badgley Report). This report created the
impetus for significant amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada. In
the late 1980s, these changes were welcomed by the hundreds of
professionals and volunteers who worked directly with victims of child
sexual abuse. But Brock concludes that the Badgley Report became part of
the problem rather than part of the solution. From an academic and
sociological point of view, her analysis may be sound and intellectually
stimulating, but its relevance to a 12-year-old prostitute working the
streets of Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg or Whitehorse is questionable.
Not recommended.