Criminalization

When survival is treated as a crime.

This category examines how laws, policing, and courts target sex workers and other marginalized people — not to create safety, but to enforce control. From arrests and stings to probation, diversion programs, and incarceration, criminalization turns poverty, autonomy, and survival into punishable offenses.

Here, we break down the real costs of criminalization, expose the systems that profit from it, and center the voices of those living under its weight.