From the English Collective of Prostitutes
When will sex workers' safety be prioritised?
A man has been charged with the murder of three women in Bradford.
When will sex workers’ safety be prioritised?
The discovery of a woman’s body, now confirmed to be that of Suzanne Blamires, has focussed press attention on the disappearances of three women in Bradford. Stephen Griffiths has been charged with their murder. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the families and friends of Susan Rushworth, Shelly Armitage and Suzanne Blamires.
The public outrage over the murder of five young women in Ipswich – where the police were slow to connect the deaths and act effectively – seems to have spurred the police into adequate action this time.
Yet Susan Rushworth disappeared a year ago, and we don’t why it has taken so long to find her murderer. And the scandalously prejudiced and incompetent investigation into the Yorkshire Ripper, who murdered 13 women, some of them in Bradford, and attacked many more, has not left our minds – leads were not pursued because the police considered sex workers’ lives to have no value. Many more women died as a result.
Although Griffiths has been charged, the police should declare an amnesty from arrest for prostitution offences so that anyone with information can come forward without fear of arrest. If Griffiths is guilty, he is a serial attacker who has been operating for some time and it is likely that other women have suffered at his hands – they may have valuable information to the extent of his crimes, as may clients and others. If he is not guilty, the information other women may have is urgently needed.
Despite the announcement of Griffiths’s prosecution, we must ask: how many more times do families and communities have to go through this agony? Sex workers continue to pay the price for decades of criminalisation and, more recently, for a government-led moral crusade against prostitution. Safety has been discarded and must now be prioritised.
Serial murderers tend to have a history of rape and other violence, including domestic violence. Women Against Rape reports that the conviction rate for reported rape in West Yorkshire is 8%, slightly higher than the national average but still shamefully low. If women were able to come forward to report attacks and these were vigorously investigated, violent men could be stopped, maybe even before they kill. Sex workers face particular obstacles in getting justice. One woman from Bradford who was assaulted four times commented: “I didn’t bother to report because I knew that nothing would be done.”
Women in our network in Bradford complain about increased arrests, raids and prosecutions, especially since the Policing and Crime Act. One woman working from premises reported a campaign of racist attacks, including faeces being smeared on her windows – the police did nothing. But a few days later she was arrested and charged with “running a disorderly house” – an ancient offence which is no longer on the statute books. Proceeds of Crime legislation is fuelling prosecutions as the police get a cut of any money or assets seized. In Scotland, when kerb-crawling offences were introduced attacks on sex workers doubled.
The economic crisis and now proposals to slash welfare benefits and other community resources, to pay for a debt run up by voracious bankers, are forcing more women, particularly mothers, into prostitution to support themselves and their families. Police raids are driving them underground and into more danger.
Seven years ago New Zealand successfully decriminalised prostitution. While there has been no increase in prostitution, sex workers are now more able to come forward and report violence.
The feminist ministers who championed the Policing and Crime Act and other laws that increased the criminalisation of sex workers and clients, refused to pay attention to what New Zealand had achieved. Decriminalisation is Liberal Democrats party policy. Will they implement it before more women lose their precious lives?
English Collective of Prostitutes 020 7482 2496 ecp@allwomencount.net www.prostitutescollective.net
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From the International Union of Sex Workers and GMB
Put safety first
28 May 2010
The IUSW and GMB sex workers' branch call to prioritise safety in the wake of the Bradford murders.
The recent murders in Bradford have highlighted once more the human tragedy that results from laws that discount sex workers’ safety.
The International Union of Sex Workers released this statement:
An inherent contradiction between prosecution and protection
There is an inherent contradiction between the police role of prosecution and protection, Street sex workers have faced additional criminalisation in the Policing and Crime Act 2009 (which defined persistent soliciting as more than twice in three months and removed the requirement for persistence by kerb crawlers); indoor sex workers are also more vulnerable as a result of premises closure orders. Bradford Police have acknowledged they have been using the full range of the law against women working onstreet – arrests, ASBOs and kerb crawling crackdowns.
Increased enforcement endangers sex workers. It does not add to the options and support available, but increases antagonism and distrust between street workers and police. Those deterred by knowledge of police campaigns against kerb-crawlers are the most law-abiding; such campaigns do nothing to affect the behaviour of those intending to assault, rape, abduct, rob, or kill, who will not be prevented by the prospect of a fine for kerb-crawling.
Greater fear of the police and a smaller number of clients does nothing to reduce the amount of money the women need, so street sex workers are more likely to interact with those they would otherwise avoid, cut prices in order to secure a client, take greater risks and engage in activities they would prefer to avoid, including sex without a condom.
Greater desperation leads women to work in more isolated locations (further from other sex workers) and to go with clients without negotiation as they have no time to assess potential clients or agree prices, boundaries, safe sex and other limits. Women are more likely to find themselves in a situation they would have declined with more time to make a decision.
The cost to communities
Sex workers pay the price most directly for this failure, at worst in tragedies like that currently playing out in Bradford, but communities also suffer the consequences of damaging and futile law enforcement. Kerb crawling crackdowns result in
• sex workers’ dispersal over a wider area
• sex workers are more likely to approach passersby in search of business,
• more aggressive competition to attract clients and between sex workers
and
• longer hours onstreet needed to generate the same amount of money
All of which not only harm women selling sex but increase impact on communities. In addition, women revert to other forms of crime as a way to make up the money that cannot be earned from sex work.
Failed legislation
The Street Offences Act 1959 has had more than fifty years to demonstrate beneficial effects; the Sexual Offences Act 1985, which criminalises kerb crawling, more than twenty five. If this legal approach was going to solve the problems associated with street prostitution, it would have worked by now. Yet, rather than listen to the voices of projects that provide frontline services to women onstreet and to sex workers themselves, the Policing and Crime Act brought in “more of the same”.
Putting safety first
The law endangers us, but it doesn’t have to be this way. In Liverpool, specialist service the Armistead Project and Merseyside Police have worked together, and crime against sex workers is treated initially as hate crime. Armistead have built trust with sex workers to increase reporting of crimes against them. The results speak for themselves - a 67% conviction for rape and 90% of cases for violence against sex workers that went to court during 2005 to end March 2009 resulted in convictions.
The IUSW campaigns for these policies to be adopted nationwide.
To contact the IUSW call 07772 638 748.
To contact the UKNSWP call 07957 978 018.
Notes:
The International Union of Sex Workers is the only UK organisation of individuals themselves working in the sex industry. We campaign for human, civil and labour rights, and the full protection of the law for everyone who works in the sex industry and for the inclusion of sex workers in decisions which will affect our rights and safety. The IUSW offers a unique source of expertise and experience from people who see reality of the industry day to day.
www.iusw.org
The UK Network of Sex Work Projects (UKNSWP) is the umbrella body for nearly 70 frontline services across the UK, including Bradford and Huddersfield.
uknswp.org
