Groundbreaking Study Will Examine Criminalization in Oregon

A first-of-its-kind large-scale study is taking place in Oregon examining how laws that criminalize consensual adult sex work affect sex workers and survivors of trafficking.

Project Impact is a partnership between Influents Innovations, an Oregon health research organization, and advocacy groups led by sex workers and survivors of trafficking around the state. The paid, anonymous survey will examine how criminalization affects access to healthcare, childcare, housing, banking, employment, and other areas of people’s lives.

“This will be unique for any state to have this level, almost any research at all,” said Kate Marquez, the project’s director and a former sex worker. “Having incontrovertible data is both armor to protect us, but also it’s going to be just fascinating what we find through this research.”

The study follows years of advocacy for decriminalization in Oregon, with several standout moments in recent years. The Oregon Sex Workers Human Rights Commission held hearings in 2021 and 2022, with DSW Legal Director Melissa Broudo participating as a commissioner. In 2023, advocates secured legislative funding for studies on criminalization and decriminalization, but Governor Tina Kotek ultimately vetoed the funding. A smaller Portland State University study that followed found that criminalization increased risks of abuse, violence, and exploitation and created barriers to housing, employment, banking, and community support.

The movement continued to build momentum. In 2025, the Oregon Safer Workers Coalition, formerly the Oregon Sex Workers Committee, released a detailed report outlining a path to full decriminalization. These are just a few of the milestones in a much longer history of organizing by sex workers, survivors, advocates, and allies across Oregon.

Project Impact also has a deeply personal connection to the history of the sex worker rights movement. Marquez used $150,000 left over from funds entrusted to her after the death of her close friend Carol Leigh, the pioneering sex worker activist who coined the term “sex work,” to launch the project.

There is already substantial evidence about the harms of criminalization and the benefits of decriminalization. But current, Oregon-specific research can provide advocates and policymakers with an important tool. Together with OSWC’s roadmap for reform, Project Impact is helping build on years of organizing and advocacy in Oregon and bringing the movement closer to its goal of decriminalizing consensual adult sex work.