Reports
Proceed Without Caution
The ECP interviewed 12 women about the impact of ‘prostitute’s cautions’ and convictions on their lives. This community-based research was conducted by sex workers, many of whom have convictions themselves, who interviewed their work mates and friends. Read more.
What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Job Like This?
By looking at sex work in the context of other jobs traditionally done by women, this report broke through mystifications and the divisions between sex workers and other women workers, highlighting exploitation across the range of jobs, showing evidence that sex work isn’t inherently, or exclusively, exploitative. Read more.
EU Migrant Sex Work in the UK Post-Referendum
Newly published research by Dr Laura Connelly (University of Salford) and the English Collective of Prostitutes finds violence, xenophobia and threats of deportation against migrant sex workers from the European Union have risen since the EU Referendum. Read more.
Sex Workers are Getting Screwed by Brexit
Arrests and deportations of EU migrant workers have been rising, particularly since the Brexit referendum in 2016. The ECP compiled case studies of some of the women in its network who have been targeted by the police and immigration officials over the last five years, and who in some cases have successfully defeated attempts to deport them. Read more.
Decriminalisation of Prostitution: The Evidence
In November 2015, a parliamentary symposium in the House of Commons. brought together, for the first time in the UK, the largest and most robust body of evidence to date on decriminalisation. This report includes the key findings and the full transcript of the evidence submitted on the day and in writing, which provides a definitive source of statistical and qualitative information to inform law and policy. Read more.
Sex Workers’ Access to Covid-19 Support in the UK
This survey examined the impact of Covid-19 on the everyday lives of sex workers in the UK. On 22 March 2020, the UK entered its first Covid-19 lockdown. Sex workers stopped working and had no income. Many women were immediately pushed into destitution, unable to pay their rent or feed themselves and their children. Read more.
What Mothers and Other Caregivers Want and Need
In a survey of 1065 respondents from 50 countries (including women from the ECP network), an overwhelming 84% said that caring deserves a care income. They wanted more time with their family, and to work outside the home part-time rather than full-time. Read more.
Exposed From all Sides: The Role of Policing in Sex Workers’ Access to Justice
New research which interviewed 199 sex workers on their experience of policing and access to justice. Developed by the European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance in cooperation with 13 national partner organisations, including ECP. Read more.
Undeserving Victims?
This Community Report on Migrant Sex Worker Victims of Crime in Europe was developed by the European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance with partners in 10 countries, including the ECP. It highlights some of the key obstacles faced by sex workers in reporting crime and accessing justice. Read more.
Sex Workers Too: Summary of Evidence for VAWG 2020-24 Consultation
In February 2021, ECP collaborated with National Ugly Mugs and Umbrella Lane to gather sex workers’ experience of violence to feed into the Home Office 2020-2024 Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) National Strategy. Read more.
Sex Workers on the Frontline
In this report, the European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance (ESWA) summarises the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on sex workers across Europe in 2020. The report also highlights the various grassroots actions that ESWA members, including ECP, carried out during the crisis, illustrating the power and resilience of sex worker collectives. Read more.
No Silence to Violence: a report on violence against women in prostitution in the UK
ECP contributed to this report from Sex Worker Advocacy and Resistance Movement (SWARM) in 2018. it discusses violence experienced by sex workers and is specifically intended to reach people working in organisations and services tackling violence against women in the UK, drawing on sex workers’ experiences of selling sex and accessing services. Read more.
The Fight to Decriminalise Sex Work
ECP contributed to this collection, published in 2020 by Beyond Trafficking and Slavery/openDemocracy which invited sex workers’ rights groups and allies around the world to discuss what works and doesn’t work when arguing for the decriminalisation of sex work. Read more.
From Vulnerability to Resilience: Sex Workers Organising to End Exploitation
This resource is the outcome of the European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance (ESWA) programme Rights not Rescue that the ECP partnered on. This project aimed to empower migrant sex workers to fight trafficking and exploitation in the sex industry and strengthen ESWA’s advocacy on issues relating to migration, exploitation and trafficking. Read more.
Visual Violence: Sex Worker Experiences of Image-Based Abuses
This research report from National Ugly Mugs in partnership with ECP, Umbrella Lane, Sex Worker Advocacy and Resistance Movement (SWARM), and the Sex Workers’ Alliance Ireland (SWAI) demonstrates sex workers’ experiences of visual violence – from image theft, to filming without consent, to blackmail Read more.
Sex Workers’ Access to Justice
This report featured in a special issue of the International Journal of Gender, Sexuality and Law records the information and policy recommendations from the ECP’s 2020 webinar Sex Workers: Access to Justice which brought together sex workers, violence against women organisers, academics, and human rights groups to examine the violence faced by sex workers and obstacles of accessing justice. Read more.