This chapter provides insights into the lived experiences of sex workers in South Africa and the legal and policy frameworks that shape their lives. Its goal is to move the discourse beyond punishment and retribution (the criminal law as justice) through an intersectional analysis of the position of the sex worker in South Africa within a transformative constitutional dispensation. The chapter further argues that criminalisation is an inadequate response to sex work as it fails to address the complex, multi-faceted realities that shape sex workers’ lives. This chapter, therefore, highlights the critical need to reframe the lens through which sex work is approached. It shows that counteracting social injustice requires a nuanced understanding of the lived realities of marginalised people.