Sex Workers Deserve Safety

by- Roxanne Guiney

“The officer then spoke with [the sex worker] and said, ‘​She could be in a lot of trouble and that he did her a huge favor.’ The officer then asked what [the sex worker] was going to do for him in return” (Breen, 2021).

After or during a time of abuse or harassment, many people are afraid to report their situation, or they feel that reporting will get them nowhere. Imagine the added fear of possibly being fined or even arrested when reporting. Worse, imagine the abuser is a police officer.
 
When people hear about abuse against sex workers, their minds often jump to “trafficking” and nonconsensual sex work. However, consensual sex workers are abused as well, not only by customers, managers, and fellow workers but also by law enforcement. Especially in areas of the world where sex work is illegal, police officers have a unique position of power over these workers, and, at times, they use that power to extort, assault, and otherwise harass sex workers.
 
This article uses a broad definition of “sex worker.” It includes all performers in the sex industry regardless of whether they engage in sexual contact and regardless of whether their type of work is legal in their areas. In addition to full-service workers such as call girls, this definition extends to exotic dancers, cam models, phone sex operators, pornography talent, and massage parlor workers, among others.
 
Extortion
A simple way law enforcement can abuse their power against sex workers is through extortion. If the worker’s services are illegal in their location, an officer could simply demand a bribe for the worker to avoid arrest. According to Tamika Spellman, a sex worker rights activist in Washington D.C., police officers often extort money from sex workers “for ‘protection’ from being arrested,” and even then, the bribe only protects them from the officer they paid (Ludwig, 2020). Sex workers in South Africa face similar encounters with officers. Such bribes are fronted as fines, despite the officer keeping the money. These bribes can amount to a worker’s earnings for the entire night (Mgbako, 2011). A spokeswoman for the Organization of Sex Workers in the Dominican Republic (Otrasex) called such practices “robbery” (Sex Workers, 2021). 
 
Assault
A more frightening reality for sex workers is the threat of assault, including sexual assault, from police officers. This can range from coercion under the threat of arrest to outright rape. The spokeswoman for Otrasex reported that 86% of workers surveyed within a year in the Dominican Republic had been physically assaulted by police, and the officers “do not spare any ages” (Sex workers, 2021). In South Africa, a scientific study found that 14% of the female sex workers surveyed had been raped by police officers in the past year (Jewkes, 2021). Workers in South Africa have dealt with other forms of physical and sexual assault from the police, such as officers pressuring them to perform sexual acts for their release from custody (Mgbako, 2011). For transgender femme workers who do not avoid arrest, the police officers “actively encourage or passively condone inmate sexual abuse” after assigning the workers to male prison cells (Mgbako, 2011).
 
A recent case in Connecticut found an officer who continually sexually abused at least two sex workers by using his authority. Both women reported that they felt coerced and “feared legal repercussions if they didn’t have sex with him” (Breen, 2021). One of the women said that the officer expected unpaid sex from her because he did not arrest her on a prior occasion (Breen, 2021).
 
Other Harassment
Police can harass sex workers in a variety of other ways. Workers might face unjustified arrests, general mistreatment, frequent traffic stops, and deportation (Breen, 2021; Sex Workers, 2021; Smith, 2013). In Maryland, a scientific study found that 78% of sex workers have suffered some form of abuse by police officers in their life, and 41% reported that such encounters happen weekly or daily (Footer et al., 2019). Police in South Africa harass sex workers even when the workers aren’t engaging in prostitution, making arrests under other charges (Mgbako, 2011). One of the workers in Connecticut stated that if she didn’t perform the sexual acts the officer demanded, she would be “harassed and constantly pulled over” (Breen, 2021).
 
Such harassment can have impactful consequences. In what was dubbed “Operation Homeless,” law enforcement in Norway contacted sex workers’ landlords and threatened them with prosecution if they did not evict the workers from their homes (Smith, 2013). After a raid in the UK, migrant sex workers faced deportation to their home countries under the false pretense that they were victims of human trafficking, despite the workers insisting that they were consensual sex workers (Smith, 2013). In that same raid, the police officers “brought along journalists to photograph cowering women who were desperately trying to cover their faces. These images were then splashed across the press” (Smith, 2013).
 
Sex Workers’ Safety
Sex workers are already in a vulnerable position because of the nature of their work. Even those who work within the law face discrimination, harassment, and threatening situations. Because sex workers have such a tumultuous history with law enforcement, they rarely report abuse to the authorities (Mgbako, 2011). This creates yet more dangerous conditions for sex workers. Regardless of whether they operate within the law, sex workers deserve safety and humane treatment, not further victimization from those who are meant to protect them.
 
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References
 
Breen, T. (2021). IA file details cop’s rapes of sex workers. New Haven Independent. https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/gamarra
 
Footer, K. H. A., Park, N. E., Allen, S. T., Decker, M. R., Silberzahn, B. E., Huettner, S., Galai, N., & Sherman, S. G. (2019). Police-related correlates of client-perpetrated violence among female sex workers in Baltimore City, Maryland. American Journal of Public Health 109(2).
 
Jewkes, R., Otwombe, K., Dunkle, K., Milovanovic, M., Hlongwane, K., Jaffer, M., Matuludi, M., Mbowane, V., Hopkins, K. L., Hill, N., Gray, G., & Coetzee, J. (2021). Sexual IPV and non-partner rape of female sex workers: Findings of a cross-sectional community-centric national study in South Africa. Mental Health, 1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2021.100012.
 
Ludwig, M. (2020). Sex workers have never counted on cops. Let’s learn from their safety tactics. Truthout. https://truthout.org/articles/sex-workers-have-never-counted-on-cops-lets-learn-from-their-safety-tactics/
 
Mgbako, C. (2011). Confronting police abuse of sex workers. Huffpost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/police-abuse-prostitution_b_1130717
 
Sex workers denounce harassment, robbery and abuse by police officers. (2021). Dominican Today. https://dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2021/09/22/sex-workers-denounce-harassment-robbery-and-mistreatment-by-police-officers/
 
Smith, M. (2013). Soho police raids show why sex workers live in fear of being ‘rescued.’ The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/11/soho-police-raids-sex-workers-fear-trafficking