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.
At the Million Women Rise march against violence on Saturday 8 March, a woman who was going to speak about sex workers’ safety was dropped from the platform at the last minute. Teresa MacKay from Ipswich Trades Council had been invited to address the rally in Trafalgar Square and had submitted in advance her speech […]
Government feminists and Christian fundamentalists have joined forces claiming that prostitution is violence. They rightly say that attacks against prostitute women are common and that it’s only when five are murdered in one place that it starts to provoke debate.They want to criminalise men who buy sex, as Sweden has done. But prosecuting clients is […]
The tragic murders of five young women in Ipswich in December last year led to an unprecedented outpouring of public concern and showed that the government, police and media are way behind where the public is at.The media was caught off guard. One Guardian journalist told us recently that she arrived in Ipswich with other […]
Joan Smith acknowledges that “women are driven into prostitution by poverty”, but doesn’t address benefit cuts, low wages, debt, lack of affordable housing, and addiction to expensive drugs. Instead, she targets clients (“Prostitutes are victims not criminals”, 13 April). She claims that police can’t deal with sex workers being beaten or raped because they are […]
Contact: Cari Mitchell 020 7482 2496 / 07811 964 171 Policies which contributed to the tragic murders of five young women in Ipswich are being reintroduced The Safety First coalition is appalled at proposals of zero tolerance against clients and removal of street prostitution announced yesterday by Ipswich Local Authorities, police, health […]
A conference looking at ways to protect prostitutes is to be addressed by a vicar from Ipswich, scene of last year’s serial prostitute killings. The Rape, Race and Prostitution Conference, in London, will examine how women could be better protected by changes to the justice system. It will also consider women who are the victims […]
Campaigning for justice in the 21st century Saturday 10 March 9.30-5pm Trinity Reformed Church, Buck Street, London NW1 (Kentish Town Road end, behind Sainsbury’s, Camden Town tube) Entrance: £20 funded organisations and professionals; £10 waged; £5 low waged; £3 unwaged; asylum seekers free. No one turned away for lack of funds. Wheelchair accessible (toilets nearby) All […]
Julie Bindel’s obsession with male sexuality hides that it is women’s poverty and lack of viable economic alternatives that keep prostitution alive (Not a service like any other, January 16). Most sex workers are mothers and young people struggling to survive. Even government research found that “74% of women working indoors cited the need to […]
Dear Sir,My interview (Mean Streets, 13 January 07) on what forces women into prostitution, takes what I said about pimps and Black men out of context.The interviewer asked if there were pimps and drug suppliers, and if they were mostly Black men. I said I didn’t know any drug dealers or pimps and that the […]
A sex workers’ support group has called for an amnesty for prostitutes and clients after three women were found dead and two reported missing. The naked bodies of Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol and a third woman were found near Ipswich over the past eight days. Police are also looking for prostitutes Annette Nicholls and Paula […]