Melissa Farley

Melissa Farley
Born	1942
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Iowa (Ph.D., Counseling Psychology, 1973) San Francisco State University (MS, Clinical Psychology, 1966) Mills College (BA, Psychology, 1964)
Known for	Research on the effects of prostitution, sexual abuse, and violence against women
Scientific career
Fields	Psychology
Institutions	Prostitution Research and Education 1996– Kaiser Foundation Research Institute (Oakland, CA), 1993–2000

Melissa Farley (born 1942) is a feminist research and clinical psychologist and an activist in movements opposing pornography and prostitution. Farley is best known for her studies of the effects of prostitution and trafficking on those engaged in those industries.

Since 1993, Farley has researched prostitution and trafficking in 10 countries. She is the author of several studies of street prostitutes in diverse areas of the world, which claim high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder among the women studied. Farley has also published several papers on the long-term effects of sexual abuse.

As of 2007, Farley is director of Prostitution Research and Education, a San Francisco nonprofit organization. In March 2007, she testified in hearings about Kink.com's purchase of the San Francisco Armory, comparing the images produced by Kink.com to images of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. In September 2007, Farley published a report on prostitution and sex trafficking in the state of Nevada. In the report, Farley states that, though Nevada has legal brothels, 90% of prostitution taking place in the state is illegal and that Las Vegas is a major destination for sex traffickers. She also reports that 81% of the 45 legal brothel workers she interviewed would like to leave prostitution, but in many cases are physically prevented from doing so. Farley describes being threatened at gunpoint by one of the brothel owners during the course of the interviews.

Farley is a proponent of the abolitionist view of prostitution ) holding that all prostitution is inherently exploitive and traumatizing, and should therefore be abolished. She opposes decriminalization of prostitution, instead advocating the "Swedish model" now legal in Sweden in which penalties for purchasing sex are increased and decriminalization applies only to those used in prostitution and is accompanied by comprehensive rehabilitative services. She opposes legalization of prostitution, maintaining that the harm inherent in prostitution is not vitiated by requiring the state to assume the traditional role of pimp.

Major works

• Farley M. (2007). Prostitution and trafficking in Nevada: making the connections. San Francisco: Prostitution Research and Education. (information)
• Farley M (ed). (2004). Prostitution, trafficking and traumatic stress. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Maltreatment & Trauma Press. ISBN 0789023784 (hardcover) ISBN 0789023792 (paperback)
• Farley M. (2004). "Bad for the body, bad for the heart": Prostitution harms women even if legalized or decriminalized. Violence Against Women 10(10): 1087–1125. doi:10.1177/1077801204268607
• Farley M, Cotton A, Lynne J, Zumbeck S, Spiwak F, Reyes ME, Alvarez D, Sezgin U. (2003). Prostitution and trafficking in nine countries: Update on violence and posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Trauma Practice 2(3/4):33–74. doi:10.1300/J189v02n03_03
• Farley M, Patsalides BM. (2001). Physical symptoms, posttraumatic stress disorder, and healthcare utilization of women with and without childhood physical and sexual abuse. Psychological Reports 89(3):595–606. doi:10.2466/PR0.89.7.595-606
• Farley M, Barkan H. (1998). Prostitution, violence, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Women & Health 27(3):37–49. doi:10.1300/J013v27n03_03
• Farley M, Baral I, Kiremire M, Sezgin U. (1998). Prostitution in five countries: Violence and posttraumatic stress disorder. Feminism & Psychology 8(4):405–426. doi:10.1300/J013v27n03_03
• Farley M, Keaney JC. (1997). Physical symptoms, somatization, and dissociation in women survivors of childhood sexual assault. Women & Health 25(3):33–45. doi:10.1300/J013v25n03_03

External links

By Melissa Farley

• Prostitution Research and Education
  • Prostitution Research – select publications.
  • Traffick Jamming – Melissa Farley's blog.
• Melissa Farley CV, 2004. – Includes list of publications as of 2004.
• "Fighting Femicide in the United States: The Rampage Against Penthouse" by Melissa Farley, in Jill Radford and Diana E. H. Russell (eds.), Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing, New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.
• "Letter to the Editor" by Melissa Farley , Changing Men, September 29 and November 6, 1992.
• "Ten Lies About Sadomasochism" by Melissa Farley, Sinister Wisdom #50, Summer/Fall 1993, p. 29-37. (Archived at MediaWatch.com.)
• "Prostitution: The oldest use and abuse of women" by Melissa Farley, off our backs, May 1994. (Archived at FindArticles.com.)
• “Prostitution of Indigenous Women: Sex Inequality and the Colonization of Canada’s First Nations Women” by Melissa Farley and Jacqueline Lynne Fourth World Journal 6(1):1–29, 2005.
• "Prostitution and sex trafficking as severe forms of violence against women" by Melissa Farely, Sisyphe (website), September 9, 2005. (archived at Wayback Machine)
• "The Demand for Prostitution" by Melissa Farley, Captive Daughters (website).

Criticism of Melissa Farley

• "A Feminist View That All Sexworkers are Abused and Sick", Sexwork.org, 2002.
• "The pimps are coming!: Opponents of Berkeley's prostitution measure use alarmist rhetoric" by Ann Harrison, San Francisco Bay Guardian, October 27, 2004.
• "Nevada Views: Vegas and the sex industry" by Kate Hausbeck, Barbara Brents, and Crystal Jackson, Las Vegas Review-Journal, September 16, 2007.

Debates between Melissa Farley and others

• "'Bad for the Body, Bad for the Heart': Prostitution Harms Women Even If Legalized or Decriminalized" by Melissa Farley, Violence Against Women 10(10): 1087-1125, October 2004.
  • “Flawed Theory and Method in Studies of Prostitution” by Ronald Weitzer, Violence Against Women 11(7): 934–949, July 2005.
  • "Prostitution Harms Women Even if Indoors: Reply to Weitzer" by Melissa Farley, Violence Against Women 11(7): 950–964, July 2005.
  • "Rehashing Tired Claims About Prostitution: A Response to Farley and Raphael and Shapiro" by Ronald Weitzer, Violence Against Women 11(7): 971–977, July 2005.
• "Oversexed" by Debbie Nathan, The Nation, August 11, 2005.
  • "Unequal" by Melissa Farley, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (website), August 30, 2005.

Panel and symposium discussions

• "Sex For Sale Symposium: Panel on Prostitution", Yale Law School, February 4, 2006. (Quicktime MOV video. Archived at Yale Journal of Law and Feminism website.)

News articles, reports, and editorials

• "Many Prostitutes Suffer Combat Disorder, Study Finds" by Abigail Zuger, New York Times, August 18, 1998.
• "Former Prostitutes Wage War Against Prostitution" by Edward Lawrence, KLAS-TV Eyewitness News, September 5, 2007.
• "City as Predator" by Bob Herbert, New York Times, September 4, 2007.
• "Escape From Las Vegas" by Bob Herbert, New York Times, September 8, 2007.
• "Fantasies, Well-Meant" by Bob Herbert, New York Times, September 11, 2007.
• "'It's like you sign a contract to be raped'" by Julie Bindel, The Guardian, September 7, 2007.