Melissa Farley

Melissa Farley (born 1942) is a feminist research psychologist who studies the effects of prostitution, pornography, and trafficking on those in prostitution. She is director of Prostitution Research and Education, a San Francisco nonprofit organization.

Since 1993, Melissa Farley has researched prostitution and trafficking in 10 countries. She has studied the multitraumatic nature of prostitution across cultures, classes, and ethnic/racial groups, carefully documenting extremely high rates of physical assault, rape, homelessness and emotional distress among people in prostitution. She is considered an expert on prostitution and trafficking. Farley's research contradicts commonly-held myths about prostitution: for example, the myth that street prostitution is the "worst type" of prostitution, the myth that most of those in prostitution "freely consent" to it, the myth that prostitution of men and boys is different from prostitution of women and girls, and the myth that legalizing or decriminalizing prostitution would decrease its harms.

Dr. Farley has practiced as a psychologist for 40 years. She brings that experience to her consultations with agencies, governments, and advocates for prostituted and trafficked women. She has been categorized as a forensic expert on the effects of sexual violence against women and children, posttraumatic stress disorder, dissociation, and prostitution. In her work, she has consistently addressed the connections between prostitution, racism, poverty and both domestic and international trafficking.

Selected Bibliography

Book

Prostitution, Trafficking, and Traumatic Stress (2004). Melissa Farley, editor. Binghamton: Haworth Press. ISBN 0789023792

Articles about Prostitution, Pornography & Sex Trafficking

Unequal by Melissa Farley 2005.
"Prostitution is Sexual Violence" by Melissa Farley 2004 'Psychiatric Times' October 2004 Special Edition. p 7-10.
“Prostitution, Trafficking, and Cultural Amnesia: What We Must Not Know in Order To Keep the Business of Sexual Exploitation Running Smoothly” by Melissa Farley 2006 Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 18:109-144.
“Prostitution and Trafficking in 9 Countries: Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” by Melissa Farley, Ann Cotton., Jacqueline Lynne, Sybile Zumbeck, Frida Spiwak, Maria E. Reyes, Dinorah Alvarez, Ufuk Sezgin 2003 Journal of Trauma Practice 2 (3/4): 33-74.
“Prostitution and Trafficking in Asia” by Melissa Farley and Sungjean Seo 2006 Harvard Asia Pacific Review Volume 8 Number 2 pages 9-12.
“Prostitution in Vancouver: Violence and the Colonization of First Nations Women” by Melissa Farley, Jacqueline Lynne, and Ann Cotton. 2005 Transcultural Psychiatry 42: 242-271.
“‘Bad for the Body, Bad for the Heart:’ Prostitution Harms Women Even If Legalized or Decriminalized” by Melissa Farley 2004 Violence Against Women 10: 1087-1125.
"Prostitution Harms Women Even if Indoors: Reply to Weitzer" by Melissa Farley, Violence Against Women 1(7): 971–977, July 2005.
“Prostitution of Indigenous Women: Sex Inequality and the Colonization of Canada’s First Nations Women” by Melissa Farley and Jacqueline Lynne 2005 Fourth World Journal Vol. 6 No. 1, pp 1-29.
“Who are Johns?” by Melissa Farley 2004 Conference Report: Demand Dynamics, the Forces of Demand in Global Sex Trafficking. October 18, 2003. Captive Daughters and International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University College of Law.
“Prostitution and Trafficking are Migrant Health Concerns” by Melissa Farley and Marisa B. Ugarte 2003 Streamline: Migrant Clinicians’ Network 1-3. PO Box 164285 Austin, TX 78716.
“Prostitution and the Invisibility of Harm” by Melissa Farley 2003 Women & Therapy 26(3/4): 247-280.
“Prostitution: The Business of Sexual Exploitation” by Melissa Farley 2001 Chapter in Encyclopedia of Women & Gender, Vol II: 879-891. Judith Worell (ed.) New York: Academic Press.
“Prostitution: a critical review of the medical and social sciences literature” by Melissa Farley and Vanessa Kelly 2000 Women & Criminal Justice, 11 (4): 29-64.
“Women in Prostitution” by Melissa Farley 1999 In Support for Survivors: Training for Sexual Assault Counselors, California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Oakland, California.
“Prostitution in Five Countries: Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” by Melissa Farley; Isin Baral; Merab Kiremire; and Ufuk Sezgin 1998 Feminism & Psychology, 8 (4): 405-426.
"Prostitution, violence against women, and posttraumatic stress disorder" by Melissa Farley and Howard Barkan 1998 Women & Health, Vol. 27, (3): 37-49.

Articles about Adverse Health Effects of Violence Against Women

“Trauma History and Relapse Probability among Patients Seeking Substance Abuse Treatment “ by Melissa Farley, Jacqueline M. Golding, George Young, Marie Mulligan, and Jerome R. Minkoff (2004) Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 27:161-167.
“Is a History of Trauma Associated with a Reduced Likelihood of Cervical Cancer Screening?” by Melissa Farley, Jerome R. Minkoff, and Jacqueline M. Golding 2002 Journal of Family Practice 51 (10):827-831.
“Physical symptoms, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Healthcare Utilization of Women with and without Childhood Physical and Sexual Abuse” by Melissa Farley and Beatrice Patsalides 2001 Psychological Reports 89:595-606.
“Breast Cancer Screening and Trauma History“ by Melissa Farley, Jerome R. Minkoff, and Howard Barkan 2001 Women & Health 34 (2): 15-27.
“Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Dissociation, and Pathological Tension-Reducing Behaviors” by Melissa Farley and Howard Barkan 1997 Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Vol. 66:133-140.
“Physical Symptoms, Somatization, and Dissociation in Adult Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Assault” by Melissa Farley and Joanne Keaney 1997 Women and Health, Vol. 25 (3): 33-45.
“Development of a scale to measure physical symptoms in adults who report childhood trauma: a pilot study” by Melissa Farley and Joanne Keaney 1994 Family Violence and Sexual Assault Bulletin, 10 (1-2): 23-27.

Selected Quotes

There is a growing literature which documents the human rights abuses intrinsic to prostitution, including sexual harassment, economic servitude, educational deprivation, job discrimination, domestic violence, racism, classism, vulnerability to frequent physical and sexual assault, and being subjected to body invasions that are equivalent to torture. --Prostitution, Trafficking, and Cultural Amnesia: What We Must Not Know in Order To Keep the Business of Sexual Exploitation Running Smoothly. Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 18:109-144. (2006)

Prostitution has been redefined by the Left as sex work. In that one word – work – the sexism and the physical and psychological violence of prostitution are made invisible. A battle is being waged by those who promote prostitution as a good-enough job for poor women against those of us who consider prostitution an institution that is so intrinsically unjust, discriminatory, and abusive that it can’t be fixed, only abolished. -Melissa Farley, (2005) Unequal

External links

Criticism

“Flawed Theory and Method in Studies of Prostitution” by Ronald Weitzer, Violence Against Women 1(7): 934–949, July 2005.