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.
For an end to the discrimination of prostitute women everywhere. Our workshops at the Beijing forum in 1995 were attended by sex workers from many countries, South and North. They made clear how much we have in common — all supported decriminalization and viable economic alternatives to prostitution. Founded in 1975, the English Collective of […]
Despite acknowledgement that at least 60 prostitute women have been murdered in the last 10 years, the government is today announcing that it is abandoning its consultation and proposed review of the prostitution laws in favour of increased enforcement. This goes against all the evidence which shows that criminalization and crackdowns make sex workers more […]
Letters to the Editor The inquiry into ‘Camden Ripper’ Anthony Hardy, held in private, which exonerated the psychiatrists, did not go far enough into Hardy’s previous violence or the authorities’ responsibility for not prosecuting him earlier. Yet he was known to hate women, particularly prostitute women, had a history of extreme violence and hospital staff […]
Street Sheet, (San Francisco) June 2005, p7 You need look no further than the case of serial rapist Jack Bokin to know why the SF Board of Supervisors (BOS) resolution 1564, Mitigating Violence Against Prostitutes should be immediately implemented. Bokin had attacked and violently raped at least three women when Judge Perker Meeks let him […]
Evidence shows that criminalization makes sex workers more vulnerable to violence. Prostitute women facing rape, sexual assault and murder are afraid to report for fear of arrest – especially if they have outstanding warrants – or deportation.In one case, a woman who wanted to press charges against a violent rapist was not allowed to do […]
By Jon Silverman In November 2002 the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, told a London conference Britain was facing a growing threat from Balkan crime gangs, who make vast profits by smuggling – whether guns, drugs, or women destined for the sex trade. The following month two Albanian cousins were given long jail sentences for living […]
Caroline RyderYou’d have thought people would have finally got used to prostitution by now, what with it being the oldest profession in the world.But it wasn’t until 1982, when a group of angry “sex workers” occupied the Church of the Holy Cross in Kings Cross, that politicians and the media sat up and listed to […]
Buy the book here. Jenny Kitzinger, director Centre for Media and Communications Research, Brunel University, Uxbridge Vice girl, social pariah, the victim who “asks for it”—these are some of the stereotypes about prostitutes. Rape, beatings, and abuse are often seen as inevitable, almost justified, hazards of “the lifestyle.” The murder of at least six prostitutes in […]
Vulnerable women need protection, not deportationEnglish Collective of Prostitutes response toSetting the Boundaries, Reforming the Law on Sex OffencesWe oppose the introduction of a specific trafficking offence. We oppose the introduction of a new offence of trafficking. The recent police and immigration raids on over 50 flats in Soho leave no doubt that trafficking is being […]