COYOTE Academic Research & Policy Work

Decarceral alliances in the fight to decriminalize sex work by Bella Robinson and Catherine Chin (Ending mass incarceration and ending violence against sex workers are the same project. We asked sex worker rights groups and allies around the world to discuss what works and doesn’t work when arguing for the decriminalization of sex work. This series reports what they said.)

The History of Sex Work Law in Rhode Island by Bella Robinson and Elena Shih ( In the United States, sex work was not explicitly outlawed in many areas for the first few centuries of its existence. Most states criminalized prostitution around the time of the First World War, largely as a result of the actions of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, among other social reform groups. The Mann Act of 1910 was created to halt the perceived growing threat of the “white slave trade,” though a 1908 investigation by the Bureau of Investigation (now known as the FBI) into prostitution in New York City showed that most of the so-called ‘white slaves’ in the city were, in fact, sex workers. In this way, the Mann Act created a national perception of sex workers as victims.)

Royce Presentation by Yanhoo Cho

NERC Amnesty Decrim Policy 2019 presentation

FROM DECRIM TO RECRIM: Ten years of recriminalized indoor sex work in Rhode Island

10 Years After Re-Criminalization: Slideshow

The New Virtual Crackdown on Sex Workers’ Rights: Perspectives from the United States

Bella Robinson: COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) Talks #Decrim #SexWorkIsRealWork

We Don’t Need Your Pity, We Need Our Rights: Thesis by Julianna Brown, Brown University ’18 (Thesis Presentation) (Poster 1, Poster 2) by Julianna Brown and Bella Robinson

Bad Neighbor: Thesis by Dayana Tavarez (Thesis Presentation and Thesis Presentation Script)

Whitewashing Abolition: Race, Displacement, and Combating Human Trafficking The event partners with the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice Human Trafficking research cluster and includes workshops, panels, and discussions. Full Conference Video

Prostitute to Sex Worker Advocate: Bella Robinson, Executive Director of COYOTE, RI by Emily Rehmet

Policing Modern Day Slavery Sex Work and the Carceral State in Rhode Island by Bella Robinson and Elena Shih