Sex workers urge for trade to be legalized
Author: Joana Ramiro
Source: Russia Today
If there is one thing the Conservative Party has been concerned about since it took power, it's sex.
A total of 13 different sex acts have been banned from porn accessible in Britain in the last year. Even showing female ejaculation has been made illegal.
However, the risks to sex workers have garnered less attention, although prostitutes in Britain still report 60 instances of violence every month.
"Because of the stigma attached to what sex workers do, and the fact that the laws often criminalize them or their clients, and therefore pushes them further underground, sex workers are seen as easy targets, for violent, often serial, offenders," Alex Feis-Bryce, the chief executive of sex workers support charity National Ugly Mugs (NUM), told RT.
"That's why my organization exists, because sex workers are more frequently targeted by criminals than everybody else."
The police have been accused of not responding to the crisis adequately. NUM figures show that, in some areas, only two or three percent of sex workers that experience violence will report it to the police.
"I think the biggest barrier to sex workers reporting to the police is the actions of the police themselves," Feis-Bryce said, adding "in areas where the police pursue enforcement, whether that's arresting sex workers, raiding brothels, or even arresting the clients of sex workers, sex workers are far less likely to report to the police."
The sex workers who spoke to RT agreed with NUM, recounting how their interaction with the authorities had left them unable to trust the police enough to place a complaint.
Dominatrix Margaret Corvid explained how on two occasions her life had been at risk, but she did not feel that it was "worth the risk" of having the police take down her name and details, thus associating her with her work.
"The biggest danger that sex workers face, in the UK and in many other countries, is actually not the stereotypical dangers that people would think about, dangers from clients and so on," she added.
"The biggest dangers that we face are the dangers that criminalization causes, because criminalization, the fact that sex work or some aspects around sex work are illegal, in various ways, in various countries, means that when we are assaulted, we are harassed, raped, robbed, anything like that by a predator posing as a client, it's difficult for us to go to the police.
"Because we don't know if the police are going to help us or if they are going to look down on us because of our work and not help us, or, in some cases, we don't know if we are going to be thrown in jail."
