Sex Workers and the Best Interests of their Children: Issues Faced by Sex Workers Involved in Custody and Access Legal Proceedings

Sex worker parents often lose custody of their children. The purpose of this research was to study theimpact of a parent’s status as a past or present sex worker on judicial decision-making in custody and access disputes. Through doctrinal legal research, I explored judicial treatment of sex workers involved in custody and access disputes in Child Protection and Family Law case law from Ontario. I reviewed every reference to parental involvement in sex work from Child Protection and Family Law decisions from January 2010-March 2020. Parental involvement in sex work was often presented as an unfavourable aspect of the parent, or otherwise had a negative influence on their claim. Sex work was treated as a negative quality in a parent rather than an aspect of their life warranting further factual exploration. I argue that stigma against sex workers appears to carry more weight in custody and access disputes than evidence concerning the impact that a parent’s sex work has on a child.