Violence
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.
Video: ECP Church Occupation 1982
Since 1981, when the English Collective of Prostitutes issued the first rights sheet for prostitute women in England and Wales, we have been taking up cases of false arrest and intimidation by police. In 1982, we occupied the Church of the Holy Cross in King’s Cross, London, for 12 days. We were inspired by […]
Statement: Prostitutes are innocent ok!
Excerpt from Some Mother’s Daughter, The Hidden Movement of Prostitute Women Against Violence, International Prostitutes Collective, Crossroads Books 1999, pp49-51. 1981: The trial of the Yorkshire Ripper, serial murderer Peter Sutcliffe, who murdered 13 women. PROSTITUTES ARE INNOCENT OK! We are picketing today to protest against the handling of the Ripper case — by the court, the […]