Harm Reduction

Kent Police ‘Safe Exit’ Scheme Claiming to Help Women in Prostitution Instead Caused Them Harm

March 29, 2014 // 6 Comments

In 2009, Kent Police began a scheme in Medway called Safe Exit, supposedly to help women leave the sex trade by offering treatment for drug and alcohol addiction, training and education, and housing. These services along with others such as trauma therapy are needed by many women seeking to leave prostitution. But what our investigation uncovered was that instead of receiving these services, the women received a criminal record, a major obstacle preventing people leaving the sex trade by hindering other employment chances and keeping them trapped in prostitution.

26 March in Parliament, Stop the Criminalisation of Sex Work

March 19, 2014 // 2 Comments

An All-Party Parliamentary Group has just recommended changing the prostitution laws to criminalise clients. Criminalising clients will not stop prostitution, nor will it stop the criminalisation of women. But it will make it more dangerous and stigmatising for sex workers...

In the Booth with Ruth – Pye Jakobsson, Sex Workers’ Rights Activist from Sweden

March 17, 2014 // 12 Comments

I am concerned with labour exploitation in general. I have my doubts regarding if the trafficking terminology is really helpful... Without a clear distinction between sex work and forced labour we can never really address the exploitation that happens in the sex industry as well as in other industries...

MEDIA RELEASE: Drugs and HIV groups call on UK to reject United Nations drugs declaration | Harm Reduction International

March 16, 2014 // 3 Comments

Drugs and HIV groups call on UK to reject United Nations drugs declaration... Lack of co-ordination, leadership and transparency from Home Office, Foreign Office and DFID has played into the hands of hardline states such as Russia...

National Police Lead for Prostitution, ACC Chris Armitt, Discusses the Merseyside Model

March 10, 2014 // 6 Comments

I think any steps that are taken that enhance the police response to attacks on vulnerable groups such as sex workers are important... The Merseyside model aims to build trust and confidence amongst sex workers to report when they are attacked, which allows the police to identify and arrest dangerous people who pose a threat to the whole of society.

The Swedish Model Criminalising The Purchase of Sex Is Dangerous: The European Parliament Should Have Rejected It

March 4, 2014 // 16 Comments

In sound bites, the Swedish Government has been spinning their sex purchase ban, known as the “Swedish model” or sometimes the “Nordic model” though it is not adopted by all Nordic countries, as a success. However, research does not show it has reduced sex trafficking or sex work. In addition, their own police report demonstrates it has pushed prostitution indoors with nearly three times as many Thai massage parlours in Stockholm and the vicinity.

In the Booth with Ruth – Meg Munoz, Former Sex Worker, Trafficking Survivor, Ally and Rights Advocate

March 2, 2014 // 47 Comments

Too many human rights abuses are happening, too many opportunities being lost, and too many freedoms being denied... When you have those being trafficked being criminalized, we’ve got a problem. When you have sex workers being denied the full opportunity to engage, participate, and provide for themselves, something’s horribly wrong...

Policing Prostitution – The Merseyside Hate Crime Model That Prioritises Protection of Sex Workers

February 22, 2014 // 9 Comments

This joined-up approach prioritising protection over enforcement enables women in the sex trade to feel safe reporting crimes committed against them. Because trusting relationships with the police have been developed, reporting of crimes has dramatically increased. Women in prostitution in Merseyside know when they call the police they will be treated as any other victim of crime...

More Than 560 NGOs and 94 Researchers Demand Members of European Parliament to Reject Ms Honeyball Report

February 19, 2014 // 3 Comments

An incredible number of 549 NGOs and civil society organisations as well as 45 academics and researchers have signed letters to the members of the European Parliament asking them to reject a report by MEP Mary Honeyball, which asks EU Member States to consider the criminalisation of the clients of sex workers...

Action Alert: Stop Attacks, Arrests & Evictions Against Sex Workers

February 11, 2014 // 6 Comments

From The English Collective of Prostitutes: Violence against sex workers is increasing. Tragically, two sex workers have been murdered in London in the past three months. At the same time, the police have stepped up raids, arrests and closures of premises where women are working in relative safety. This is despite senior police officers admitting that: “[police] operations to tackle the trade are "counterproductive" and likely to put the lives of women at risk.” Eighteen flats in Soho, Central London, have been closed. Most of the women who were evicted are mothers and have now lost their livelihood. Women are appealing against eviction on 10, 17 and 24 February at Isleworth Crown Court. Please join us in demanding that these closures be stopped.

The emerging tensions between police forces on how to police prostitution

January 30, 2014 // 0 Comments

Originally posted on What Can I Do About It?:
A difference of opinion on how to police prostitution: Association of Chief Police Officers members Chris Armitt, Martin Hewitt and Mark Gilmore. In a previous post (The policing of prostitution in West Yorkshire) I discussed how West Yorkshire Police is not following the Association of Chief…

Dr Jay Levy, Researcher and Consultant, Discusses the Outcomes of the Criminalisation of the Purchase of Sex in Sweden

January 21, 2014 // 22 Comments

Dr Jay Levy conducted research in Sweden over several years on the outcomes of the Swedish criminalisation of the purchase of sex. His research and political interests include outcomes of sex work legislation and discourse; outcomes of drug legislation and discourse; feminist theory, gender theory, and queer theory; harm reduction, HIV/AIDS, STI, and blood-borne infection policy and law.

“I Have A Dream… If MLK could see us now” by Jes Richardson

January 20, 2014 // 3 Comments

"What would Martin Luther King Jr. think of the abolition movement today? What would he think of the movement that uses his name? If he was alive today, I believe he would call out the bitterness and hate. He would call out the injustice of the people. He would speak against the movement that silences the voices from within the sex industry..."

Criminalising Clients Puts People Working On-Street in Greater Danger and Forced ‘Exiting’ Does Not Work

January 20, 2014 // 17 Comments

Since reading of the murder of Mariana Popa, a 24-year-old Romanian woman working on-street in Ilford Lane in October 2013, I have thought about her often. Her death occurred just as police embarked on a hard line 'cleaning up the streets' approach to prostitution named Operation Clearlight.