Sex workers face a lot of violence. Sex workers in London are 12 times more likely to be murdered than other women. It is much safer to work indoors with others but this is illegal.
Criminalisation increases violence. Attacks on sex workers doubled in Scotland after kerb crawling laws were introduced which criminalised clients. A 2014 survey found that where arrests of sex workers and clients were high, only 5% of sex workers who were victims of a crime reported it. This compared to 46% of victims in areas where police adopted a harm reduction approach.
ANOTHER PRECIOUS LIFE LOST A 24-year-old woman was murdered on Monday night in Ilford Lane, Ilford. This tragic killing comes in the wake of Operation Clearlight a major police crackdown on street prostitution in this area which began in September. Over 200 women have received “prostitute cautions” and many have been arrested for loitering and […]
Report by Irem Az.Dora Ozer, who was a trans woman sex worker in Kusadasi, Turkey, was killed by one of her clients on July 9th. Two days after her murder, Petite Jasmine was killed by her abusive ex partner who unbelievably had been given custody of their children “because of” Jasmine’s job. To protest violence […]
Jasmine and Dora 4-Ever from Carol Leigh on Vimeo. In 2012 during the International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC, I met and interviewed Petite Jasmine with Pye Jakobsson from Rose Alliance of Sweden. Petite Jasmine was murdered one year later, a victim of the stigmatisation and legal discrimination that sex workers face. She was […]
Justice for Dora! Justice for Jasmine! Justice for all sex workers who are victims of violence! WHAT: International Day of Protest against the violent abuse and murder of sex workers. WHEN: Friday 19 July 2013 3:00-4:00pm WHERE: Swedish Embassy, 11 Montagu Place, London W1H 2AL, London. CONTACT: London protest, contact: Cari Mitchell, English Collective of Prostitutes, 07811 964171/020 7482 2496, ecp@prostitutescollective.net, Sex Worker Open University, swou@gmail.com. International protests […]
**ECP comment on the article below. It is important that Andrew Boff has raised that he is concerned, as we are, about the high levels of violence against sex workers. But we have no reason to believe that if attacks on sex workers are categorised as hate crimes it will make any difference. Has it […]
(Reuters) – Sex workers in London are being forced to slash prices they charge clients because of the impact of the recession on the British economy and an influx of foreign competition, putting themselves at greater risk of attack, according to a report.The study by the Westminster City Council, the local authority which covers much […]
Labelling attacks against prostitutes as hate crimes could end the agony of those who suffer in silence, police have been told. Complaints by sex workers about violence are rare because they are either not taken seriously or treated as an occupational hazard. Labelling attacks as hate crimes would oblige police to investigate the crime rather […]
In January 2012, Sheila Farmer was prosecuted for keeping/ managing a brothel (SOA 2003). Ms Farmer became a single mother at aged 23. With great difficulty she trained and got work as a computer programmer but after she lost her eyesight and developed a brain tumour as a result of childhood diabetes, she turned to […]
In Somalia, Lul Ali Osman Barake was sentenced to a year in jail after reporting rape by a gang of men in military fatigues. She described being raped twice, first by the military, second by the judicial system. Following an international outcry, the verdict was quashed on appeal (Report, 8 March). Rape victims in Britain […]
Over 2000 people, mainly women, sallied down Piccadilly for the second London Slutwalk on 22 September. Home-made placards ruled from ‘Sluts & Plebs Unite’ to ‘Compensate Rape Survivors, not Banks’. Many reflected fury at police, prosecutors and courts which ensure that ‘97% of all rapists won’t spend a day behind bars’.At the rally in Trafalgar […]