11.40 - 12.10
Speaker: Marieke van Doorninck
Affiliation: Dutch
Institute for Prostitution Issues
Presentation Title: Keeping
the Balance: The Dutch Experience of 20 Years Streetwalking Zones
Abstract
Since the mid eighties local policies regarding street prostitution
have changed in the Netherlands. Instead of enforcing repressive policies
by arresting women and chase motorists, eight Dutch towns decided to regulate
street prostitution through the installation of official streetwalking
zones.
The zones have been successful in protecting public order and establishing
a safer workplace for street sex workers at the same time. This doesn't
mean the zones have not been confronted with a range of problems through
the years. The Dutch experience shows that the policy of zoning is a matter
of constantly keeping the balance between the pro's en cons of regulated
street prostitution and between the interests of different groups.
12.10 - 12.40
Speakers: Dr. Maggie
O'Neill and Rosie Campbell
Affiliations: Staffordshire
University and UK Network of Sex Work Projects
Presentation Title: Participatory
Action Research (PAR) With Sex Workers and Communities Affected by Street
Prostitution: Working Together to Create Change, One Step Forward, One
Step Back.
Abstract
A West Midlands Health Action Zone commissioned our
research having identified street prostitution as a significant issue
for residents in terms of well being and community safety. The challenge
to the research team was to consult with residents, sex workers and statutory
and voluntary agencies over a period of ten months to get as clear a picture
as possible of the major issues, concerns, experiences and ideas for change.
The research method we used was Participatory Action Research (PAR). Participatory
Action Research aims to involve communities themselves in the research
process and to produce research that can inform policy development in
order to improve the quality of life of communities.
Using PAR methodology the research developed a strategic action plan to look at ways of managing prostitution through consultation and collaboration with all those involved and affected by prostitution: residents; community groups; women and young people involved in prostitution; statutory and voluntary agencies.
The outcomes of the research are both narrative and visual. They were included in the full report for the funders. The visual outcomes were exhibited at the Walsall New Art Gallery 2001 and therefore accessible to a wide population. Other processes of dissemination such as this paper will hopefully be a further means of encouraging research that crosses genres and works with people's creativity and ideas and hopes for change.This paper will;
- Describe the research methods used
- illustrate some of the key isues identified by residents and sex worker
uisng some of the visual images they produced
Reflect on the extent to which key recommendations in the strategic action
plan e.g. further developing services for sex workers, establishing a
"managed area" and establishing an inclusive multi-agency prostitutuion
forum have been actioned. The paper will assess how principles of good
practice for multi agency working, outlined in the report, have informed
new approaches developed. The paper will argue that for policy and interventions
to be sustainable and effective it is vital that policy is based on research
that has consulted local communities and that has tried to assemble an
evidence base.
14.00 - 14.30
Speaker: Professor
David Canter
Affiliation: Centre
for Investigative Psychology, University of Liverpool
Presentation Title: Controlling
Client Violence: Street Worker Strategies
Abstract
It is widely recognized that street workers experience
high levels of violence in the course of work. The risk of these attacks
is well known by the women themselves. They therefore use a number of
strategies in an attempt to manage their dealings with clients so as to
minimize the likelihood of experiencing violence. Studies report that
securing control of the encounter is viewed by street workers as a critical
factor in their work (e.g. McKeganey & Barnard, 1996). The women have
been found to employ a range of measures to ensure they are in control
of the encounter. Any policy for the handling of the street sex trade
therefore needs to take account of the strategies the women use in so
far as they are effective. It is therefore necessary to gain a further
understanding of the different processes the women use and how they do
in relate to the actual levels of violence the prostitutes experience.
A survey of 100 street prostitutes was carried out, as preparation for a television documentary. This asked a range of questions about how the women managed their relationship with their client. It also explored their drug taking and related matters that increased their vulnerability. Analysis of responses indicate that the women who do not use illegal drugs have the least risk of experiencing violence, followed by those who will never go to certain locations due to safety concerns, and those who will only provide services to clients in a location they have chosen themselves. The analysis also reveals different levels and varieties of client violence in the prostitute-client interaction. The implications for policies of containment or removal of street level prostitution are discussed.
14.30 - 15.00
Speaker: Professor Roger Mathews
Affiliation: Middlesex
University
Presentation Title:
Prostitution: A National Audit
Abstract
Although there has been a growing amount of research
on prostitution in recent years much of this has been limited to certain
localities and has been mainly for the consumption of specific funding
bodies. Consequently our knowledge of variations in the sex trade around
the country is limited and our overall knowledge of prostitution is patchy.
This paper draws on national research which has been carried out which
has tried to collate the available evidence which is currently available
from the organizations and agencies which are involved in supporting and
regulating prostitution. From the information gathered an attempt will
be made to examine the operation of sex work in different parts of the
country, to identify trends as well as different forms of organization
and policing. The aim of this overview is to inform policy and to extend
our understanding of the numbers of women involved in street and off street
prostitution, their ages, their involvement in drug use and to review
the level of services and support which is available.
back to
programme
15.00 - 15.30
Speaker: Hilary
Kinnell
Affiliation: UK
Network of Sex Work Projects
Presentation Title: Is
Violence towards Sex Workers an essential part of Prostitution Control
Policy?
Abstract
This paper will explore sex workers' vulnerability
to violence, in the context of current theoretical debates about commercial
sex, and rapidly changing public policy towards it in Britain. Evidence
from analysis of attacks on sex workers, and from reports on the deaths
of 73 sex workers murdered or unlawfully killed between 1990 and 2002,
suggests that street sex work is particularly dangerous. This paper will
also seek to demonstrate that current policing strategies and much public
policy towards commercial sex exacerbates sex workers' vulnerability to
violence, to the extent that it is possible to conceptualize violence
against sex workers as an aspect of public policy, providing both deterrence
and punishment for involvement in sex work.
16.00 - 16.30
Speaker: Tina Hall
Affiliation: Linx
Project
Presentation Title: 'Ugly
Mugs': Increasing the Safety of Sex Trade Workers, Tackling Dangerous
Individuals
Abstract
This presentation explores the successes of a pioneering
intelligence-based scheme set up on Merseyside to reduce attacks on sex
trade workers.
The Linx Project's Ugly Mugs scheme collects and analyses intelligence on incidents and particularly dangerous individuals. Reports are collected from workers and key information shared with police and other agencies in order to target offenders.
The presentation will highlight specific Linx project innovations such as the Ugly Mugs Summary Sheets and award-winning Ring Master system and will show how they are used to prevent further attacks on vulnerable workers.
16.30 - 17.00
Speaker: Dr Jenny
Pearce
Affiliation: Middlesex
University
Presentation Title: Meeting
the Challenge: Accessing Drug Using Young People Exploited through Prostitution
Abstract
This paper draws on recent research into issues facing
young people who experience problems with drug and alcohol use and who
also talk of either swapping or selling sex as a means of supporting their
lifestyle. It looks at the reasons that young people become vulnerable
to sexual exploitation through abuse of drugs and alcohol, exploring the
interrelationship between dependence on drugs, alcohol and violent, manipulative
adults who use young people for their own gain. The paper concludes by
drawing on initiatives in policy and practice that can support young people
while gathering evidence against those who abuse them.
17.00 - 17.30
Speaker: Judith
Connell
Affiliation: University
of Glasgow
Presentation Title: The
Health and Safety of Male Sex Workers in Edinburgh and Glasgow
Abstract
Background
It is increasingly recognized that the exchange of
sexual services for money and/or material gain carries with it certain
health costs. Public concern over prostitution has most often focused
on the spread and transmission of STIs and, in particular, the risk and
exposure to HIV in populations of female prostitutes. This discourse of
sexual risk - both to the sex worker and client - has also shaped the
research agenda on male prostitution. The consequence is, however, a somewhat
restricted perspective on male prostitution and fails to recognize that
the risk of acquiring and transmitting HIV is clearly not the only significant
health risk experienced by male prostitutes.
This study departs from the dominant HIV focused research paradigm and seeks to investigate, in greater detail than previously in the UK, the family and social backgrounds of male sex workers, the timing and nature of entry into sex work, efforts to leave sex work and some of the day to day realities of involvement in prostitution. Central to this study are the mental and physical health consequences of participation in sex work for men, and the issue of personal safety during sex work.
Aims and Objectives
This presentation will address the health and safety
of male street workers and will employ data from non-participant observations
and interviews conducted with male sex workers in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
· Non- participant Observations
Field notes will be used to describe the social context and circumstances of male sex work in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
· Interviews with Male Sex Workers
Male sex work interview data will describe:
- The background to sex work
- Personal safety in male sex work
- Incidents between male sex workers and sex work: clients, organisers
of sex work, other sex workers and the general public
- The health consequences, both physical and mental of engaging in sex
work.
Results
Analysis of observational and interview data demonstrates:
- The detrimental impact sex work has had on the physical and mental health of male prostitutes in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
- The harm associated with sex work through incidents of verbal, physical and sexual assault.
