rape

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...

BBC1 Inside Out – Documentary Investigating Policing of Prostitution in the South East – Monday 13 Jan, 7.30PM

January 10, 2014 // 5 Comments

A short documentary investigating the policing of prostitution in the South East will air on Monday 13 January at 7.30PM. It will compare this with the Merseyside hate crime

International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers – 17th December

December 17, 2013 // 40 Comments

I wanted to write something for International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers but I didn't think I could as I've been in too much of a dark place these last few weeks with my own suffering from the repercussions of sexual violence. I wanted to go to London to stand in solidarity with sex workers and allies to mark this day, but for the same reasons, tonight, I couldn't do that either. Then I felt selfish wrapped up with my own pain when tonight there will be women in the sex trade who will be raped, who will be beaten and some will be murdered. So I have to say this...

Coming Back from Soul Destruction – Ruth Jacobs interviewed on Women Move the Soul

October 30, 2013 // 7 Comments

We know them. We all know a woman who struggles with drugs and alcohol. Perhaps she’s a woman in your family, a friend or even a co-worker, but we know them. If you have not been a drug addict then you cannot know what they go through. You can’t imagine the pain they feel from moment to moment and the things that they are driven to do because of that addiction.... Ruth Jacobs has been there – in the very recesses of hell – and she came back to us...

BBC1 Inside Out: The Merseyside Hate Crime Model of Policing Prostitution – Monday 21 Oct, 7.30pm

October 19, 2013 // 12 Comments

The Merseyside hate crime model of policing prostitution leads the country. In these two documentaries for Inside Out, airing on BBC1 in the London and North West regions, writer Ruth Jacobs investigates why crimes against sex trade workers are going unpunished, clearly showing the urgency for the Merseyside model to be made UK wide to prevent more rapes and save lives, taking more rapists and murderers off the streets.

Speak out: Rape and Sexual Assault in Yarl’s Wood Immigration & Removal Centre

September 30, 2013 // 14 Comments

Sexual and racist abuse and other violence by guards have prompted regular protests, even hunger strikes, by women detained in Yarl’s Wood. The same names of guards having sex with women in their care come up over and again. It appears to be so widespread that it is impossible for the authorities, including the Home Office, not to have known about it until it was publicly exposed. Women have been deported without the alleged rape being investigated – a cover up?...

Niki Adams of the English Collective of Prostitutes Discusses Decriminalisation & the Merseyside Model

September 11, 2013 // 11 Comments

"Since 1975, the International Prostitutes Collective has been campaigning for the abolition of the prostitution laws which criminalize sex workers and our families, and for economic alternatives and higher benefits and wages. No woman, child or man should be forced by poverty or violence into sex with anyone. We provide information, help and support to individual prostitute women and others who are concerned with sex workers’ human, civil, legal and economic rights."

Soul Destruction: Unforgivable – recent reviews & only 99p / $1.55 for a limited time

September 11, 2013 // 2 Comments

This is a fascinating read of a world that remains unfamiliar to many women. What I liked the most about this book was how the author wrote her characters with such love – they were likeable women in an industry that is despised by many – addictions and all. I came away with a better understanding of prostitution and a stronger resolve to work towards a better world for ALL women – Trista Hendren, Feminist & Author

My most in depth article arguing for the Merseyside model to be made UK wide | The F-Word

August 22, 2013 // 15 Comments

The stigma against people in the sex trade cannot be denied. They suffer undeservedly because of that stigma at the hands of the police, and also at the hands of criminals who view them as 'easy targets'. As a stigmatised and vulnerable group, crimes against them are unequivocally hate crimes.

Soul Destruction: Unforgivable (a story of drug addiction and prostitution) reduced to 77p/$1.19 for a limited time

August 12, 2013 // 11 Comments

If you missed Soul Destruction: Unforgivable when it was free on Kindle yesterday, all is not lost as the publisher has reduced it to 77p/$1.19 for the next week. The main storyline is based loosely on real events; though in real life, tragically the rapist wasn't stopped.

Free to download on Kindle today only – Soul Destruction: Unforgivable (a story of drug addiction and prostitution)

August 10, 2013 // 1 Comment

In the spring of 1997, Shelley Hansard, a call girl who tries to live by the Golden Rule, finds herself in a suite at The Lanesborough Hotel with a dead client. Her fear of becoming a murder suspect pushes her deeper into addiction. Heroin costs her more than money and crack induces psychosis – seeing and hearing people others can’t. As an intravenous user, her desirability as a top London call girl is waning and the skills required to keep up her multiple personas are weakening. Among her few friends and what remains of her broken family, she...

Victim-centred: The Merseyside Model – Ruth Jacobs interviewed on Policing Today (Part 2)

August 8, 2013 // 12 Comments

In the second part of an exclusive Policing Today interview, author and human rights campaigner Ruth Jacobs talks about human trafficking and the urgent changes needed to the criminal justice system’s attitude towards victims of sexual crime.

From Prostitution to Art – Artist Sherry Dooley’s powerful and moving life story

August 8, 2013 // 12 Comments

Being gang raped by knife-point wasn’t one of the highlights of being manipulated into the lifestyle... Having the Portland Police look me straight in the eye, as I stood before them, bloodied, beaten, and with my breast exposed, and tell me that no crime had been committed because I was a prostitute was just another blow.

In the Booth with Ruth – Rachel Moran, Author and Survivor of Prostitution

July 23, 2013 // 11 Comments

I wanted to tell people the truth about all that I had seen. I wanted to record the degradation and the simple human suffering that’s an inevitable and intrinsic part of sexual exploitation, and I wanted, most importantly, to talk about how we can put a stop to it.