Prostitution in Nottingham and Attitude

Research question

What is the public attitude towards prostitution and sex work in Nottingham?

The rationale for selecting the research topic

According to research conducted by POW Nottingham, the number of sex workers in Nottingham has seen a “gigantic “surge recently (Sanders, O'Neill and Pitcher, 2017). The fact that prostitution has come to be openly accepted as "work" has not yet removed the stigmatisation and demean suffered by the sex workers. In the UK, even though prostitution is legal, there are laws against some activities that are related to prostitution such as pandering, pimping, and managing or owning a brothel (Della Giusta, 2016). The proposed research question will thus enable the researcher to investigate the public attitude towards sex work in Nottingham.

Relevant Literature

Howard, (2018) looks at health care discrimination for sex workers in society and therefore presents an essential part of the attitude towards prostitution and sex work. Balfour and Allen, (2014) investigate the social exclusion that is attached to sex work such as low income, poverty, unemployment, poor education, crime, lack of social support and elimination from enjoying human rights. Literature from this study will be essential in revealing the impact (social exclusion) of public attitude towards prostitution.

Research Design

Research Paradigm

The proposed research will employ an epistemology research approach. Epistemology constitutes of the possibilities of sources and limitations of knowledge in a study field. It is concerned about what constitutes or does not constitute of expertise. The epistemology paradigm assumes that both subjective meanings and observable research phenomenon have adequate knowledge depending on the research question (Creswell and Creswell, 2017). According to Plato's allegory of the cave, culture and social norms are a parameter that shapes what we think of as "knowledge". Also, "reality" which is knowledge becomes of use only if the parameters within which it was produced are understood (Duarte, 2012).

Research method

The suggested research will be mixed research and will employ a survey to gather quantitative and qualitative data. Mixed research approach refers to a research gathering and analysing both qualitative and quantitative data within one study (Brannen, 2017). Examining quantitative data will allow generalisation of the findings. Mixed research draws on the advantages of quantitative and qualitative methods, therefore, allowing a researcher to explore different perspectives of the research topic.

Research sample and Representativeness

A research sample refers to the participants involved in a study (Creswell and Creswell, 2017). The research sample for the study will comprise of people from different groups including sex workers, health care workers, legal advocates and members of the public. These four groups provide representativeness of all the parties that influence the attitude of society on prostitution and sex work.

Reliability and validity

Reliability is acquired by the determination of consistency of the measure. Reliability is attained if an attribute of research produces the same results when applied to an object of measure for many times (Creswell and Creswell, 2017). Validity is the measure of the extent to which the scores of a measure represents the variable intended. Internal consistency, measured using the Cronbach’s α, will be used to enhance reliability. Internal consistency is the consistency of the subjects’ responses across the research items; the subject’s scores on the research items are correlated with each other. Face validity will be used to enhance validity in the proposed study.

Research Ethics

Many challenges are expected related to the ethical design of this research project because of its involvement with sex workers. Membership in this marginalised population is stigmatised and therefore privacy and confidentiality during the study will be crucially required. Respondents involved in the surveys will be treated anonymously. Privacy and confidentiality will also be enhanced by ensuring that all respondents sign an informed consent to participate, withdraw at any point and to respond only to questions they are comfortable answering.

Quantitative Survey Dataset

In the suggested research, quantitative data will be extracted from Consumer trends time series dataset from the Office for National Statistics (Office for National Statistics). The dataset contains data showing the number of adults working as sex workers in England over a set period in years. By changing the years under consideration, the data will enable the researcher to identify changing trends in the number of sex workers.

Another dataset is useful for quantitative data for the proposed research World Bank Open Data. This database allows the researcher to search statistic on the number and percentage of sex workers in the UK by City and Year.

Age of data

The age of the statistical data from the databases mentioned above will be essential for the proposed study in that it will be possible to observe trends over several decades to present. Data presented in graphs and bar graphs allow the user to change the years to observe trends.

Data Frequency

The data is provided in different frequencies presented in periods of months, quarterly, semi-annually or annually. This element of the data set will be useful for the current study because it gives the researcher with an option to alter the frequency to settle for the suitable for the current study. The researcher may also consider a cross-comparative method of studying the data considering the database allows the user to use custom periods comparatively.

Research issues

The data representing various issues have been presented for comparable periods. This comparability provides the researcher with the capacity to observe a single element of data, say the number of adults in prostitution, for different years from different databases. In data analysis, the researcher will be allowed to consider separate issues of prostitution such as police cases for offences reported. It also provides the researcher with various elements of the study topic to consider therefore objectivity.

Objectivity and Replication

The availability of different issues will be useful in attaining objectivity in the study. Replication refers to the systematic reputation but in a different context while objectivity concerns the establishment of objective truth (Della Giusta, 2016). Replication will similarly be attained, and generalisation will be possible because the data acquired from the databases are gathered nationally from a huge population.

References

• Balfour, R., & Allen, J. (2014). A review of the literature on sex workers and social exclusion. London, United Kingdom: University College London (UCL), Institute of Health Equity.
• Brannen, J. (2017). Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research. Routledge.
• Cox, P., & Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach. Sage Publications.
• Della Giusta, M. (2016). Demanding sex: critical reflections on the regulation of prostitution. Routledge.
• Duarte, E. (2012). Plato's "Allegory of the Cave". In Being and Learning (pp. 69-106). Sense Publishers, Rotterdam.
• Howard, S. (2018). Better health for sex workers: which legal model causes the least harm? BMJ, 361, k2609.
• Sanders, T., O'Neill, M., & Pitcher, J. (2017). Prostitution: Sex work, policy & politics. Sage.
• Shore, H. (2017). Race, delinquency and difference in twentieth-century Britain. In Becoming Delinquent: British and European Youth, 1650–1950 (pp. 171-190). Office for National Statistics. Available at: Link