Melissa Farley
Melissa Farley | |
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Born | 1942 (age 81–82) |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater |
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Known for | Research on the effects of Oakland, CA), 1993–2000 |
Thesis | Effect of consciousness-raising groups versus lectures about women on the personalities and career interests and homemaking interests of female students in nursing (1973) |
Melissa Farley (born 1942) is an American
Career
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Feminism |
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Farley, a clinical psychologist for over 45 years, has consulted with agencies, governments, medical centers, advocates for women in prostitution and trafficked women. These groups include the United Nations, the California Medical Examining Board, the US State Department, the Center for World Indigenous Studies, the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition, Refuge House, Breaking Free, Veronica's Voice and the Cambodian Women's Crisis Center. Farley has been a faculty member of the Center for World Indigenous Studies and has taught seminars on research for social change at the CWIS in Yelapa, Mexico.[1] Farley has 49 publications in the field of violence against women, most of which address prostitution, pornography and sex trafficking. Her research has been used by governments in South Africa, Canada, France, New Zealand, Ghana, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States to craft policy on prostitution and human trafficking. Farley's research on the trafficking and prostitution of Indian women[6] is the source of a character, Vera in the acclaimed historical novel The Night Watchman.[7]
Research
Women in prostitution
Since 1993, Farley has researched prostitution and trafficking in 14 countries. She has written many studies reporting high rates of violence and post-traumatic stress disorder among women employed in the sex trade.[3][8]
In a 2004 paper summarizing prostitution research in nine countries (Canada, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the US and Zambia), Farley and others interviewed 854 people (782 cisgender women and girls, 44 transgender people and 28 cisgender men
In a 1998 paper on San Francisco street sex workers (one of the populations included in the nine-country study), Farley and co-author Howard Barkan reported a notable history of violence in the lives of those surveyed. In childhood, 57% of respondents reported sexual abuse and 49% reported other physical abuse. While in prostitution, 68% reported being raped, 82% reported being physically assaulted and 83% reported being threatened with a weapon. The incidence and severity of PTSD correlated with the amount of violence experienced by an individual, and 84% of the respondents reported a history of homelessness.[14]
In September 2007, Farley published a book on prostitution and sex trafficking in Nevada. Farley wrote that although Nevada has legal brothels, 90% of the state's prostitution occurs in Las Vegas and Reno (in counties where prostitution is illegal) or outside legally designated brothels. She found Las Vegas in particular a major destination for sex traffickers. Although 81% of the 45 legal brothel workers Farley interviewed reported wanting to leave prostitution, many were physically unable to do so. According to Farley, she was threatened at gunpoint by a brothel owner during the interviews.[15][16]
Farley's prostitution studies have been criticized by
In 2018, Farley conducted interviews and published a paper on how the
Men who buy sex
Farley has co-authored a series of studies of men who buy sex. According to a 2015 study published in the
In response to the Scottish study, a paper authored by approximately 15 academics and sexual health experts was submitted to the Scottish Parliament rebuking the methods and conclusions of Farley's study. According to their rebuttal, "This research violates fundamental principles of human research ethics in that there is no evidence of any benefit to the population studied. Rather the purpose of the research appears to have been to vilify the population of men who were chosen to be interviewed". According to the paper, Farley's work was biased, ill-informed and unhelpful.[20]
Other research
Farley has written or co-written several studies sponsored by
Prostitution Research and Education
Farley is the founder and director of Prostitution Research and Education, a San Francisco-based
Activism
Farley favors the abolition of prostitution,
An anti-
Controversy
On June 11, 2003, Labour MP for Wairarapa Georgina Beyer read portions of a letter from Farley's research assistant Colleen Winn in New Zealand's House of Representatives. In the letter, Winn said that Farley had fabricated and misrepresented data in elements of reports which Farley had prepared on prostitution in New Zealand. Among Winn's accusations was that Farley's alleged statement that she had evidence that women were entering prostitution at age nine was untrue; the studies she performed did not collect any data indicating this. According to Winn, Farley was operating her research projects without oversight from an ethics committee in New Zealand: "I have read and am aware of the ethics of psychologists working in New Zealand. I know these were not adhered to".[49] Winn told Beyer orally that Farley had paid some of the interview subjects, saying that Farley had made false claims on New Zealand television about her findings. She wrote that Farley's study " ... was not ethical, and the impact has done harm to those women and men who took part in it. It is for that reason that I am writing to the psychologists [sic] board of registration in California to lay a formal complaint regarding Melissa. I also believe that Melissa has committed an act of intentional misrepresentation of fact".[49] The California board did not respond to Winn's complaint.[citation needed]
In 2008, Farley published a critique of the Report of New Zealand Prostitution Law Review Committee on her website, leading to Dr. Calum Bennachie, PhD, also filing a formal complaint with the American Psychological Association (APA) to remove her from its membership.[50] In the course of her critique, Farley had revealed information indicating that she may have breached ethical guidelines of both the APA as well as the New Zealand Psychological Society (NZPsS), and Dr. Bennachie also pointed out several examples of "errors of fact that appear to be deliberately designed to mislead people."[51]: 1 The APA did not respond to this complaint, nor was Farley ever notified about it by the association.[52]
In the trial of Bedford v. Canada at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in October 2009, Farley was called as an expert witness by the Attorney General of Canada. The case was brought by current and former sex workers, who argued that Canadian laws restricting prostitution were unconstitutional. Farley's evidence was criticized by presiding judge Susan Himel in her September 2010 conclusion:[53]
I find that some of the evidence tendered on this application did not meet the standards set by Canadian courts for the admission of expert evidence. The parties did not challenge the admissibility of evidence tendered but asked the court to afford little weight to the evidence of the other party.
I found the evidence of Dr. Melissa Farley to be problematic. Although Dr. Farley has conducted a great deal of research on prostitution, her advocacy appears to have permeated her opinions. For example, Dr. Farley's unqualified assertion in her affidavit that prostitution is inherently violent appears to contradict her own findings that prostitutes who work from indoor locations generally experience less violence. Furthermore, in her affidavit, she failed to qualify her opinion regarding the causal relationship between post- traumatic stress disorder and prostitution, namely, that it could be caused by events unrelated to prostitution.
Dr. Farley's choice of language is at times inflammatory and detracts from her conclusions. For example, comments such as "prostitution is to the community what incest is to the family" and "just as pedophiles justify sexual assault of children . . . . men who use prostitutes develop elaborate cognitive schemes to justify purchase and use of women" make her opinions less persuasive.
Dr. Farley stated during cross-examination that some of her opinions on prostitution were formed prior to her research, including "that prostitution is a terrible harm to women, that prostitution is abusive in its very nature, and that prostitution amounts to men paying a woman for the right to rape her".
Accordingly, for these reasons, I assign less weight to Dr. Farley's evidence.
Since that case in 2011, Farley, with co-authors from the William Mitchell College of Law, reported on the project of Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition and Prostitution Research and Education, Garden of Truth: the Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota.[citation needed]
Works
- Farley, Melissa, ed. (1999). Women in prostitution: support for survivors - training for sexual assault counselors. Oakland, California: California Coalition Against Sexual Assault(CALCASA).
- Farley, Melissa; Cotton, A; Lynne, J; Zumbeck, S; Spiwak, F; Reyes, ME; Alvarez, D; Sezgin, U (January 2004). "Prostitution and trafficking in nine countries: Update on violence and posttraumatic stress disorder". )
- Farley, Melissa, ed. (2004). Prostitution, trafficking and traumatic stress. Binghamton, New York: Haworth Maltreatment & Trauma Press. ISBN 9781136764905. Pdf.
- Farley, Melissa, ed. (2007). Prostitution and trafficking in Nevada: making the connections. San Francisco: Prostitution Research and Education. ISBN 9780615162058.
- Farley, Melissa; Macleod, Jan; Anderson, Lynn; Golding, Jacqueline (2008). Challenging men's demand for prostitution in Scotland: a research report based on interviews with 110 men who bought women in prostitution (PDF). Glasgow, Scotland: Women's Support Project. ISBN 9780955897603.
- Farley, Melissa; Golding, Jacqueline M.; OCLC 602963873.
- Farley, Melissa; Matthews, Nicole; Deer, Sarah; Lopez, Guadalupe; Stark, Christine; Hudon, Eileen (2011) Garden of Truth: the Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota. A project of Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition and Prostitution Research and Education, William Mitchell College of Law, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 27 October 2011.
References
- ^ a b c Farley, Melissa. CV 2016 (PDF).
- The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco Media Company.: "Melissa Farley, a San Francisco clinical and research psychologist who helped to interview 130 local prostitutes for a survey,...
- ^ New York Times.: "Dr. Melissa Farley, a psychologist and researcher at the Kaiser-Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco who directed the study with colleagues from Turkey and Africa."
- ^ JSTOR 20834769.
- Hearst Corporation.
- "Melissa Farley, a San Francisco psychologist and anti-prostitution activist."
- ^ Farley, Melissa; Matthews, Nicole; Deer, Sarah; Lopez, Guadalupe; Stark, Christine; Hudon, Eileen (2011). Garden of Truth: The Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota.
- ISBN 9781472155351.
- ^
- ^ Farley et al. 2004, p. 39.
- ^ Farley et al. 2004, p. 33.
- ^ Farley et al. 2004, p. 37–41.
- ^ a b c d Farley et al. 2004, p. 34.
- ^ Farley et al. 2004, p. 34, 51, 56.
- ^ Curtis, Lynnette (September 6, 2007). "Outlaw industry, ex-prostitutes say". Las Vegas Review-Journal.
- ^ Waite, Mark (September 7, 2007). "Panel: brothels aid sex trafficking". Pahrump Valley Times. Archived from the original on December 17, 2007.
- ^ Weitzer, R. "Flawed theory and method in studies of prostitution" (above-cited);
- "The articles in question are by Jody Raphael and Deborah Shapiro (2004), Melissa Farley (2004), and Janice Raymond (2004). At least two of the authors (Farley and Raymond) are activists involved in the anti-prostitution campaign. [...] The three articles are only the most recent examples in a long line of writings on the sex industry by authors who adopt an extreme version of radical feminist theory—extreme in the sense that it is absolutist, doctrinaire, and unscientific."
- ^ Jordan, Ann; et al. (April 21, 2005). "Letter to Ambassador John Miller" (PDF). Center for Health and Gender Equity. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 17, 2009.
- ^ a b Sanders, Teela; Scoular, Jane; Goodyear, Michael; et al. (April 29, 2008). A commentary on "Challenging Men's Demand for Prostitution in Scotland": a research report based on interviews with 110 men who bought women in prostitution, (Jan Macleod, Melissa Farley, Lynn Anderson, Jacqueline Golding, 2008) (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 26, 2020.
- The researchers were defined as people wanting to end violence against women - but presumably this may introduce bias into how the research was run. If you are asking someone to disclose buying sex but you openly disagree with this how can you hear what they say?
- ^ "Fact and Fiction: Debunking Common Myths on Prostitution". English Collective of Prostitutes. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
- ^ Brenneman, Jill (September 18, 2007). "Response to Melissa Farley". swopeast.blogspot.com. SWOP East. Archived from the original on October 3, 2007.
- ^ "Prostitutie lijkt op het klimaatprobleem. De cijfers zijn er, waarom ontkennen we ze dan?". Trouw (in Dutch). November 7, 2017. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- ISSN 2472-4181.
- ^ Wolpert, Stuart. "Men who buy sex have much in common with sexually coercive men". UCLA Newsroom. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
- ^ Brown, Annie (April 28, 2008). "Sex industry in Scotland: inside the deluded minds of the punters". Daily Record. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
- ISBN 9780955897603.
- ^ Heinzmann, David (May 5, 2008). "Some men say using prostitutes is an addiction". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
- ^ "A Thorn in the Heart: Cambodian Men Who Buy Sex - Prostitution Research & Education". prostitutionresearch.com. July 17, 2012. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
- S2CID 23290483.
- ^ PMID 9273982.
- ^ S2CID 42219260.
- ^ Staff. "Legal Prostitution Home Page > Source Biographies > Melissa Farley, PhD". prostitution.procon.org. ProCon.org. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
- Prostitution Research and Education. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
- Prostitution Research and Education. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
- ]
- ^ * Farley, Melissa (Spring 2006). "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 (1): 101–136. Pdf.[dead link]
- New Media Investment Group. p. 14.
- ^ The Portland Mercury. Index Publishing.
- UNLV. Original copy.
- ISBN 9780805790283. Pdf.
- ^ Hyland, Terry (February 25, 1985). "2 groups on 'Midwestern Rampage' 'Violent Pornography' protested". Omaha World-Herald. Berkshire Hathaway.
- ^ Staff writer (March 10, 1985). "Protesters of porn guilty of destruction". Omaha World-Herald. Berkshire Hathaway.
- ^ "San Francisco Planning Commission - Special Public Hearing", SFGTV, March 8, 2007. (link to streaming Windows Media Video and downloadable MP3 audio)
- Prostitution Research and Education.
- ^ Farley, Melissa (Summer–Fall 1993). "Ten Lies About Sadomasochism". Sinister Wisdom. 50: 29–37. Archived from the original on February 7, 2009. Retrieved February 28, 2007.
- ^ Farley, Melissa (April 29, 2009). "Is it wrong to pay for sex?". Intelligence Squared U.S. (radio show). Intelligence Squared.
- ^ a b Speeches (June 11, 2003). "Beyer, Georgina: Prostitution Reform Bill — In Committee". Hansard (Debates). 609: 6159.
- ISBN 9781317433569.
- ^ Calum Bennachie (2010). "Complaint to APA re: Melissa Farley" (PDF). maggiemcneill.com. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
- ISBN 9781349959471.
- ^ Superior Court of Justice (September 28, 2010). "Bedford v. Canada (Attorney General), 2010 ONSC 4264". CanLII. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
External links
- Quotations related to Melissa Farley at Wikiquote