Violence against prostitutes include violent and harmful acts, both physical or psychological, against individuals engaging in prostitution. It occurs worldwide, with the victims of such acts of violence being predominantly women. In extreme cases, violent acts have led to their murder while in their workplace.
Prevalence Women working in prostitution experience higher levels of violence against them than the general population of women. A long-term study published in 2004 estimated the homicide rate for active female prostitutes who had worked in Colorado Springs from 1967 through 1999 to be 204 per 100,000 person-years. The overwhelming majority of the 1,969 women in the study were street prostitutes. Only 126 worked in massage parlors, and most of these women were also prostituted on the streets.
Although the Colorado Springs prostitutes appeared to be representative of all US prostitutes in terms of prevalence and number of sexual partners, and while they worked as prostitutes (and died) in many parts of the country, prostitutes elsewhere might have different mortality rates and profiles. This homicide figure is considerably higher than that for the next riskiest occupations in the United States during the 1980s (4 per 100,000 for female liquor store workers and 29 per 100,000 for male taxicab drivers). The prevalence of violence against prostitutes varies by location. A study of prostituted women and girls in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada over the age of 14 who used illicit drugs other than marijuana found that 57% of prostitutes experienced some form of sex-based violence over an 18-month period. A study of 1,000 female (both cisgender and transgender) prostitutes in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, found 93% of women surveyed had been the victim of rape in the past year.
Types of violence
Physical Physical violence is defined by World Health Organization as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation". Physical violence is more commonly experienced by outdoor prostitutes with 47% of prostitutes working outdoors reporting being kicked, punched, or slapped in one study. In a study of prostitutes working in San Francisco, 82% of participants reported having experienced some type of physical violence since entering prostitution, with 55% of these assaults being committed by a client. A different study found a slightly lower rate with 74% of sex-workers reported experiencing some form of physical abuse in their lifetime. The general consensus among most studies regarding violence against prostitutes is that rates of physical violence against prostitutes is extremely high, particularly among women who experience higher rates of physical violence than their male counterparts.
Psychological Psychological abuse, also referred to as mental abuse or emotional abuse is characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The United Nations Population Fund says that this type of violence "includes, but is not limited to, being insulted (e.g. called derogatory names) or made to feel bad about oneself; being humiliated or belittled in front of other people; being threatened with loss of custody of one's children; being confined or isolated from family or friends; being threatened with harm to oneself or someone one cares about; repeated shouting, inducing fear through intimidating words or gestures; controlling behavior; and the destruction of possessions."
There are certain types of psychological or emotional abuse that sex workers are more prone to such as denial of basic needs, forced drug or alcohol consumption, and being arrested for carrying condoms to name a few. Women working in prostitution are especially vulnerable to psychological abuse, particularly verbal abuse, because many customers and other members of society view them as "whores" or as generally undesirable women. Often verbal abuse will occur either while the service is being given, or after it has been given and the customer is not satisfied. In both these cases, verbal abuse can be a precursor to sexual violence from the client. In one study, 78% of sex-workers reported having experienced emotional or psychological abuse in their lifetime.
Sexual Sexual violence is any sexual act or attempt to obtain a sexual act by violence or coercion, unwanted sexual comments or advances, acts to traffic a person or acts directed against a person's sexuality, regardless of the relationship to the victim.World Health Organization., World report on violence and health (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2002), Chapter 6, pp. 149.Elements of Crimes, Article 7(1)(g)-6 Crimes against humanity of sexual violence, elements 1. Accessed through McDougall, Gay J. (1998). Contemporary forms of slavery: systematic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices during armed conflict. Final report submitted by Ms. Jay J. McDougall, Special Rapporteur, The risks of sexual abuse are overall lower than the risks of physical abuse, with the exception of indoor prostitutes who report a higher rate of rape or attempted rape than any one type of physical violence. Rates of sexual assault and rape are higher among women (including transgender women) than among men, though the overall rate is high with one study finding that 68% of respondents had been raped since entering prostitution. In another study, 44% of sex-workers reported having experienced sexual abuse in their lifetime. These high levels of sexual violence suffered by sex workers have very traumatic effects on the men and women working as prostitutes. High levels of rape and other forms of sexual violence while working as a prostitute have been linked to higher levels of PTSD.
Contributing factors Studies have shown that younger prostitutes tend to experience more client violence than their older colleagues. Furthermore, cisgender and transgender female sex workers are also more likely to experience violence committed by a client than their male prostitute counterparts.
Social stigmas: transgender sex workers As represented through a study on transgender sex workers, trans women, especially those of color, tend to endure higher rates of violence than that of cisgender women due to discriminations and intersectional factors. There are a variety of contributing factors, including the social stigmas surrounding transgender women that push them into sex work as a means of survival; this includes high unemployment rates typically due to legalized discriminations, a lack of education or career opportunities, and mental health issues resulting from transphobic experiences from adolescence through adulthood. It is shown in one study that transgender women chose to remain in sex work despite the risks of violence and HIV contraction as a means to gain the social and economic support that society typically fails to provide. This is specifically seen with black transgender women who are paid less for sex work, and are therefore pushed to see more clients, increasing their chances of exposure to violence.
Although transgender sex workers are able to attain their own sense of community, they are still faced with discrimination which often represents itself in violence on the streets. On top of the typical risk of rape and robbery that prostitutes face by their clients, transgender prostitutes face the additional burden of transphobic acts of violence and harassment. One study includes 48 transgender women of color from San Francisco who share their experiences with violence during sex work—one participant recalls: "The police see you on the sidewalk, they will snatch your hair off your head, if you have on a wig and they will call you 'boy', loud, so everybody can hear over the speaker phone" [p. 774]. Another participant describes being forced into performing oral sex on an officer in order to escape the threat of arrest. This transphobic violence is also perpetuated by clients, as shown through another participant who describes the death of her friend, who was killed and dismembered by a client who originally believed she was a cisgender woman.
Legal vs. illegal sex work Laws prohibiting prostitution can make it difficult for the men and women engaging in prostitution to report any violence they may experience while on the "job". Often transactions or arrangements to meet up with clients must be made in secret in places where prostitution is illegal. The decriminalization of sex work in New Zealand has shown that violence is reduced when sex workers are not forced to work alone, or in isolated places. Sex work was always legal in New Zealand but decriminalization removed laws that increased danger.
Indoor vs. outdoor working environment There are substantial differences in rates of victimization between street prostitutes and indoor sex workers who work as call girls, or in brothels and massage parlors.Weitzer 2000 Women who work legally in licensed brothels are much less likely to be victimized, as are indoor workers in countries where sex work is legal.Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity: Embracing Diversity - Page 527, Janell L. Carroll - 2009 A 1999 study of 240 prostitutes found that half of sex-workers working outside faced some type of violence in the past six months, compared to a quarter of those working indoors. +Experiences of client violence by prostitutes working indoors or outdoors. Values are numbers (percentages) of prostitutes unless stated otherwiseExperiences with ViolenceOutdoors (n=115)Indoors (n=125)Ever experienced client violence93 (81)60 (48)Experienced violence in past six months58 (50)32 (26)Types of Violence Ever Experienced:Slapped, kicked, punched54 (47)17 (14)Threatened with physical violence45 (39)18 (14)Robbery42 (37)12 (10)Attempted robbery30 (26)6 (5)Beaten31 (27)1 (1)Threatened with a weapon28 (24)8 (6)Held against will29 (25)19 (15)Attempted rape (vaginal or anal)32 (28)21 (17)Strangulation23 (20)7 (6)Kidnapped23 (20)3 (2)Forced to give a client oral sex20 (17)4 (3)Raped (vaginal)25 (22)2 (2)Attempted kidnap14 (12)1 (1)Slashed or stabbed8 (7) ----Raped (anal)6 (5)8 (6)Reported at least one incident of client violence to police41/93 (44)11/60 (18)
Perpetrators
Violent clients, pimps and police officers Perpetrators may include violent clients and pimps. Clients often attempt to maintain a power balance that favors them over the prostitutes. This is often done through different methods of violence such as sexual, emotional, and physical. Though pimps may be perpetrators of violence against sex workers with 53% of sex workers in one study reporting that violence at the hands of pimps is a major problem, 33% of subjects interviewed in that same study reported that the main benefit to having a pimp is the protection from potential assault.
Because of the illegality of sex work in many parts of the world, sex workers often have to service clients in discreet and isolated spaces where they are less likely to get caught by the police. Because of this isolation, sex workers are made more vulnerable to attacks by their clients. According to a study conducted on one hundred and thirty people working in San Francisco as street sex workers, 82% had been physically assaulted, 83% had been threatened with a weapon and 68% had been raped while working as prostitutes.