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About The SERP Institute (Ireland)

The Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute is Ireland’s only independent research body dedicated to the study of commercial sexual exploitation. Our research influences academic discourse and creates useful knowledge for law and policy makers, practitioners, survivors and activists. The SERP Institute is an internationally-recognised centre of excellence in generating new evidence and informing policy to combat the harms of all forms of commercial sexual exploitation in Ireland and beyond. Our evidence has been utilised by lawmakers in Ireland, the UK, Europe and the US. The team has over fifty years of expertise combined in research, policy and advocacy work on these issues. Working on an all-island-of-Ireland basis, we monitor and investigate the nature and impact of the sex trade on victims, survivors and wider society, bridging the gap between research and frontline practice to disrupt the myths and expose the truth about the commercial sex trade. Originally established in 2017 as a research programme (The Sexual Exploitation Research Programme – SERP) by Emeritus Associate Professor Ursula Barry in the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice at University College Dublin, SERP was subsequently led by Associate Professor Dr Marie Keenan. In 2023, with the aid of philanthropic support provided via Community Foundation Ireland, we became a fully-fledged independent research and policy institute. The SERP Institute investigates, with integrity, the ways in which sexism, poverty, racism and individual vulnerabilities are exploited in the pursuit of profit. In doing so, the Institute’s work enhances the broader understanding of commercial sexual exploitation and the different manifestations of the sex trade in all its guises.

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