The article is based on an empirical socio-legal analysis of criminal court case files concerning the abuse of prostitution in Slovenia. Based on the theoretical framework developed by Petra ...Ostergren, the authors analyse whether the Slovenian regulatory system on sex work is repressive, restrictive or integrative. The paper explores how the courts define "abuse" and "exploitation" of prostitution,1 how the participation of third parties in sex work activities is dealt with by the courts, how the vulnerability of sex workers is treated, and how the existence of consent is considered before the courts. The paper examines the files for moral arguments, stereotyping, and stigmatisation, as well as references to occupational risks in the field of sex work and sex workers' rights. In the conclusions the authors argue that in Slovenia the characteristics of the restrictive model, with elements of both repressive and integrative, prevail.
Criminality of Prostitution Abuse Frelih, Mojca; Učkar, Tjaša; Kogovšek Šalamon, Neža
Politička misao,
12/2023, Volume:
60, Issue:
4
Journal Article, Paper
Peer reviewed
Open access
The article is based on an empirical socio-legal analysis of criminal court case files concerning prostitution abuse in Slovenia. Based on the theoretical framework developed by Petra Östergren, the ...authors analyse whether the Slovenian regulatory system on sex work is repressive, restrictive or integrative. The paper explores how the courts define “abuse” and “exploitation” of prostitution, how the participation of third parties in sex work activities is dealt with by the courts, how the vulnerability of sex workers is treated, and how the existence of consent is considered before the courts. The paper examines the files for moral arguments, stereotyping, and stigmatisation, as well as references to occupational risks in the field of sex work and sex workers’ rights. In the conclusions the authors argue that in Slovenia the characteristics of the restrictive model, with elements of both repressive and integrative, prevail.
This article analyses the case of Slovenia, a post-socialist state with a notable history of state social interventions and institutionalised care. Nowadays, however, flexibilisation rules the labour ...market, and activation is the primary social policy measure, according to which benefits become conditioned upon inclusion into paid labour, and the state only intervenes in cases of severe poverty. In recent years, alongside changes in social policy, the state has introduced measures against illicit work, including work in private households. The demand for care work is growing, while it is increasingly being relegated to the private domain. Drawing on interviews with informal care workers, we delineate methodological concerns related to conducting qualitative research, arguing that the individualisation of care work has brought increased state control and, in consequence, fear among and marginalisation of care workers. Introducing the concept of chains of trust, the article concludes that the structural effect of the individualisation of care is seclusion behind the four walls of private households, where trust becomes the only currency.
The relationship between anti-SARS-CoV-2 humoral immune response, pathogenic inflammation, lymphocytes and fatal COVID-19 is poorly understood.
A longitudinal prospective cohort of hospitalised ...patients with COVID-19 (n=254) was followed up to 35 days after admission (median, 8 days). We measured early anti-SARS-CoV-2 S1 antibody IgG levels and dynamic (698 samples) of quantitative circulating T-, B- and natural killer lymphocyte subsets and serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) response. We used machine learning to identify patterns of the immune response and related these patterns to the primary outcome of 28-day mortality in analyses adjusted for clinical severity factors.
Overall, 45 (18%) patients died within 28 days after hospitalisation. We identified six clusters representing discrete anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunophenotypes. Clusters differed considerably in COVID-19 survival. Two clusters, the anti-S1-IgG
T
B
NK
IL-6
and the anti-S1-IgG
T
B
NK
IL-6
had a high risk of fatal COVID-19 (HR 3.36-21.69; 95% CI 1.51-163.61 and HR 8.39-10.79; 95% CI 1.20-82.67; p≤0.03, respectively). The anti-S1-IgG
T
B
NK
IL-6
and anti-S1-IgG
T
B
NK
IL-6
cluster were associated with moderate risk of mortality. In contrast, two clusters the anti-S1-IgG
T
B
NK
IL-6
and anti-S1-IgG
T
B
NK
IL-6
clusters were characterised by a very low risk of mortality.
By employing unsupervised machine learning we identified multiple anti-SARS-CoV-2 immune response clusters and observed major differences in COVID-19 mortality between these clusters. Two discrete immune pathways may lead to fatal COVID-19. One is driven by impaired or delayed antiviral humoral immunity, independently of hyper-inflammation, and the other may arise through excessive IL-6-mediated host inflammation response, independently of the protective humoral response. Those observations could be explored further for application in clinical practice.
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