KTD Client Violence, Criminalization, Harm Reduction, Police violence, Sexual Violence, Trafficking, Youth

Girls Do What They Have to Do to Survive: Illuminating Methods Used by Girls in the Sex Trade and Street Economy to Fight Back and Heal

Girls Do What They Have to Do to Survive: Illuminating Methods Used by Girls in the Sex Trade and Street Economy to Fight Back and Heal

Young Women’s Empowerment Project, YWEP, 2009.

Description:

We do not deny the fact that girls in the sex trade face violence. We decided that we would do this research to show that we are not just objects that violence happens to- but that we are active participants in fighting back and bouncing back. We wanted to move away from the one-dimensional view of girls in the sex trade as only victims to look at all aspects of the situation:
violence, our response to the violence, how we fight back and heal on a daily basis. We want to build our community by figuring out how we can and do fight back collectively and the role of resilience in keeping girls strong enough to resist.

KTD Client Violence, Harm Reduction, Police violence, Sexual Violence, Trafficking, Youth

Bad Encounter Line

Bad Encounter Line

Young Women’s Empowerment Project (YWEP) 2012.

Description:

The Bad Encounter Line was developed in response to the research. In the research, we saw that girls were facing tons of violence every day, and the highest number of them came from institutions. Everyone collectively knew that we wanted to find ways to fight back, and the idea of warning girls and making a form that girls could share how they fought back was one of our first goals. We use the BEL as a way to warn youth about experiences with institutional
violence. The goal is to inform youth and strategize ways to use harm reduction with institutions if they still need services. This process can also help youth find other ways to take care of themselves without needing to use institutions. We use the information from the data to guide our campaigns that directly help change the way systems work.

KTD Criminalization, Harm Reduction, LGBTQ, Trafficking, Youth

Surviving the Streets of New York: Experiences of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex

Meredith Dank, Jennifer Yahner, Kuniko Madden, Isela Banuelos, Lilly Yu, Andrea Ritchie, Mitchyll Mora, Brendan Conner

Surviving the Streets of New York: Experiences of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex

Urban Institute. February 25, 2015.

Abstract:

Based on interviews with 283 youth in New York City, this is the first study to focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth; young men who have sex with men (YMSM); and young women who have sex with women (YWSW) who get involved in the commercial sex market in order to meet basic survival needs, such as food or shelter. The report documents these youth’s experiences and characteristics to gain a better understanding of why they engage in survival sex, describes how the support networks and systems in their lives have both helped them and let them down, and makes recommendations for better meeting the needs of this vulnerable population.

KTD Criminalization, Harm Reduction, Police violence, Trafficking, Youth

Locked in: Interactions with the Criminal Justice and Child Welfare Systems for LGBTQ Youth, YMSM and YWSW who Engage in Survival Sex

Authors: Dank, M.; Yu, L.; Yahner, J.; Pelletier, E.; Mora, M.; Conner, B.

Locked in: Interactions with the Criminal Justice and Child Welfare Systems for LGBTQ Youth, YMSM and YWSW who Engage in Survival Sex

Urban Institute, Sept 2015

Abstract:

This report focuses on LGBTQ youth who become involved in the commercial sex market to meet basic survival needs, describing their experiences with law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and the child welfare system. Interviews with these youth reveal that over 70 percent had been arrested at least once, with many reporting frequent arrest for “quality-of-life” and misdemeanor crimes other than prostitution offenses. Youth described their experiences of being cycled in and out of the justice system as highly disruptive and generating far-reaching collateral consequences ranging from instability in the home and school to inability to pay fines and obtain lawful employment. This report is part of a larger three-year Urban Institute study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth; young men who have sex with men (YMSM); and young women who have sex with women (YWSW) engaged in survival sex.

KTD Criminalization, Harm Reduction, HIV, Public Health

Condoms as evidence of prostitution in the United States and the criminalization of sex work

Authors: Wurth, Margaret & Schleifer, Rebecca & McLemore, Megan & Todrys, Katherine. (2013).

Condoms as evidence of prostitution in the United States and the criminalization of sex work.

Journal of the International AIDS Society. 16. 18626. 10.7448/IAS.16.1.18626.

Abstract:

The vulnerability of sex workers and transgender women to HIV infection is a result of many factors including stigma, social and physical isolation, economic deprivation, and legal and policy environments that criminalize their behaviour. Recent systematic reviews have found high HIV prevalence among both populations, including an 11.8% pooled HIV prevalence among female sex workers in 50 countries and a 19.1% HIV prevalence among male-tofemale transgender women in 15 countries worldwide. Studies in the United States have also documented high HIV prevalence among people who report transactional sex and transgender populations.

KTD Criminalization, Harm Reduction, HIV, Public Health

Global epidemiology of HIV among female sex workers: influence of structural determinants

Shannon K, Strathdee SA, Goldenberg SM, Duff P, Mwangi P, Rusakova M, Reza-Paul S, Lau J, Deering K, Pickles MR, Boily MC.

Global epidemiology of HIV among female sex workers: influence of structural determinants.

Lancet. 2015 Jan 3;385(9962):55-71. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60931-4. Epub 2014 Jul 22. PMID: 25059947; PMCID: PMC4297548.

Abstract:

Female sex workers (FSWs) bear a disproportionately large burden of HIV infection worldwide. Despite decades of research and programme activity, the epidemiology of HIV and the role that structural determinants have in mitigating or potentiating HIV epidemics and access to care for FSWs is poorly understood. We reviewed available published data for HIV prevalence and incidence, condom use, and structural determinants among this group. Only 87 (43%) of 204 unique studies reviewed explicitly examined structural determinants of HIV. Most studies were from Asia, with few from areas with a heavy burden of HIV such as sub-Saharan Africa, Russia, and eastern Europe. To further explore the potential effect of structural determinants on the course of epidemics, we used a deterministic transmission model to simulate potential HIV infections averted through structural changes in regions with concentrated and generalised epidemics, and high HIV prevalence among FSWs. This modelling suggested that elimination of sexual violence alone could avert 17% of HIV infections in Kenya (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 1-31) and 20% in Canada (95% UI 3-39) through its immediate and sustained effect on non-condom use) among FSWs and their clients in the next decade. In Kenya, scaling up of access to antiretroviral therapy among FSWs and their clients to meet WHO eligibility of a CD4 cell count of less than 500 cells per μL could avert 34% (95% UI 25-42) of infections and even modest coverage of sex worker-led outreach could avert 20% (95% UI 8-36) of infections in the next decade. Decriminalisation of sex work would have the greatest effect on the course of HIV epidemics across all settings, averting 33-46% of HIV infections in the next decade. Multipronged structural and community-led interventions are crucial to increase access to prevention and treatment and to promote human rights for FSWs worldwide.

KTD Criminalization, Harm Reduction, HIV, Public Health

Public Health Crisis: The Impact of Using Condoms as Evidence in New York City

Public Health Crisis: The Impact of Using Condoms as Evidence in New York City

PROS Network/Sex Workers Project. April 2012

From the Conclusion:

While the sample size for this study was small, the results demonstrated that people in the sex trade in all five boroughs have experienced, observed, or heard of the confiscation of condoms and the use of condoms as evidence, and that this has affected the number of condoms they carry and the frequency with which they carry them, as well as in some instances, their condom use. These findings are corroborated by the DOHMH Study, which found an even higher rate of confiscation of condoms by police.

While many survey participants expressed confusion about the number of condoms that they are legally allowed to carry, the results of this study revealed that people can be harassed or arrested for possessing even one condom. Despite the fact that most prostitution cases do not go to trial, condoms are frequently vouchered and cited in criminal court complaints and supporting depositions as arrest evidence in prostitution‐related cases.

These policies and practices may have a dangerous impact on safer sex practices in general. Of the participants in the survey who are involved in the sex trade, 45.7% reported that they have not carried condoms out of fear that it may get them in trouble with the police or lead to their arrest. For all too many people in the sex trade, the importance of safe sex is outweighed by the importance of avoiding police harassment, humiliation, sexual and physical abuse, and arrest, as well as the potential indirect consequences of arrest (including vulnerability to HIV transmission and/or violence while in detention).

KTD Criminalization, Harm Reduction, HIV, LGBTQ, Public Health

Sex Workers at Risk: The Use of Condoms as Evidence in Four US Cities

Sex Workers at Risk: The Use of Condoms as Evidence in Four US Cities

Human Rights Watch. (July, 2012) [public health, HIV, United States]

From the Summary:

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 300 persons for this report, which focuses on police use of condoms as evidence to enforce prostitution and sex trafficking laws, as part of an investigation into barriers to effective HIV prevention for sex workers in the four cities covered by this report. Those interviewed included nearly 200 sex workers and former sex workers as well as outreach workers, advocates, lawyers, police officers, district attorneys, and public health officials. In New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles our investigation focused on complaints of police using condoms as evidence while targeting sex workers on the street. In San Francisco, condoms were used as evidence for street enforcement to some extent, with police photographing rather than confiscating condoms, in what appeared to be a dubious nod to public health concerns. In San Francisco, much of the anti-prostitution enforcement using condoms as evidence targeted women working in businesses such as erotic dance clubs, massage businesses, and a nightclub with transgender clientele.

Police use of condoms as evidence of prostitution has the same effect everywhere: despite millions of dollars spent on promoting and distributing condoms as an effective method of HIV prevention, groups most at risk of infection—sex workers, transgender women, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth—are afraid to carry them and therefore engage in sex without protection as a result of police harassment. Outreach workers and businesses are unable to distribute condoms freely and without fear of harassment as well.

KTD Harm Reduction, HIV, Public Health, Stigma

No Lectures or Stink Eye: The Healthcare needs of People in the sex trades in New York City

No Lectures or Stink Eye: The Healthcare needs of People in the sex trades in New York City.”

Persist Health Project, April 2014.

Persist (Providing Education and health Resources in Support of Individuals in the
Sex Trade) Health Project (Persist) is a New York City-based (NYC) organization, made up
of nurse practitioners, health educators, community organizers, and social workers, who
are/have been in the sex trade (or are committed allies). We believe that people in the sex
trade, regardless of our experiences, are entitled to health care spaces that are supportive and
affirming of the realities of our lives. We work to build our own spaces to serve other
community members; we also work with health care professionals to better serve us and
others in communities involved with or impacted by the sex trade.

This study is the result of focus groups conduced in New York City with sex workers of various backgrounds in the needs and barriers to accessing health care.

KTD Criminalization, Harm Reduction, HIV, Labor, Public Health

Negotiating safety and sexual risk reduction with clients in unsanctioned safer indoor sex work environments: a qualitative study

Authors: Krüsi, Andrea, Jill Chettiar, Amelia Ridgway, Janice Abbott, Steffanie A. Strathdee, and Kate Shannon.

Negotiating Safety and Sexual Risk Reduction with Clients in Unsanctioned Safer Indoor Sex Work Environments: A Qualitative Study.

American Journal of Public Health 102 (6): 1154–59.

Abstract:

Objectives: We examined how unique, low-barrier, supportive housing programs for women who are functioning as unsanctioned indoor sex work environments in a Canadian urban setting influence risk negotiation with clients in sex work transactions.

Methods: We conducted 39 semistructured qualitative interviews and 6 focus groups with women who live in low-barrier, supportive housing for marginalized sex workers with substance use issues. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed.

Results: Women’s accounts indicated that unsanctioned indoor sex work environments promoted increased control over negotiating sex work transactions, including the capacity to refuse unwanted services, negotiate condom use, and avoid violent perpetrators. Despite the lack of formal legal and policy support for indoor sex work venues in Canada, the environmental-structural supports afforded by these unsanctioned indoor sex work environments, including surveillance cameras and support from staff or police in removing violent clients, were linked to improved police relationships and facilitated the institution of informal peer-safety mechanisms.

Conclusions: This study has drawn attention to the potential role of safer indoor sex work environments as venues for public health and violence prevention interventions and has indicated the critical importance of removing the sociolegal barriers preventing the formal implementation of such programs.