NUM responds to the Home Office Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls strategy
21 July 2021
Today, 21st July 2021, the UK Home Office has published their updated strategy for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). NUM, alongside the English Collective of Prostitutes and Umbrella Lane, contributed to the evidential stage of this with Sex Workers Too, incorporating primary data collected from members of all three of these organisations. Additionally, NUM sits on the VAWG Stakeholder group and participated in meetings and focus groups towards the development of the 2021-2024 Strategy.
NUM’s response to the report is considered in detail below. Ultimately, we are pleased to see the recognition of structural barriers which exist and make it harder for sex workers and people from other marginalised groups to achieve justice in the face of harm; however, we remain concerned by the terminology and language used within the report, and the displacement of the burden of stigma onto sex workers, rather than to society, which creates and perpetuates this harm.
Sex work is most clearly addressed on pages 30 and 31 of the strategy. The report does not unequivocally deem all sex work to be exploitation or violence, but does recognise that exploitation and violence can exist within sex working contexts. The report also uses the term “prostitutes’ multiple times, and we are concerned about the use of this derogatory term as it is deemed to be a slur by members of the sex work community.
Furthermore, the report notes that sex work has “inherent vulnerabilities involved (such as the increased risk of robbery, sexual assault or, for online activity, the risk of images being recorded and used without consent).” The idea that sex work is an inherently vulnerable occupation serves to displace the responsibility for eradicating the stigma which creates these vulnerabilities away from those who have the power to do so. This is a deeply concerning notion.
While we recognise that structural inequities such as poverty, racism, sexism, along with stigma and discrimination can lead to exploitation and delimit choice for sex workers, the ‘inherent vulnerabilities’ are associated with their ‘outlaw status’ – their lack of access to rights, police and social protections. It is the responsibility of us all to combat sex work stigma and eradicate the conditions which lead to violence and harm against members of our society.
The same section also describes the concept referred to throughout the rest of the report as ‘revenge porn’ – “the risk of images being…used without consent” – but does not apply this term to sex workers specifically. Sex workers’ experiences of image-based abuse must be included so not to ‘other’ and minimise the real and significant harms that they experience in having intimate images of themselves shared or monetised without consent. NUM is currently leading a community-based research project with sex worker-led groups called ‘Visual Violence: Sex Work and Image-based Abuse‘ that will include sex workers in definitions of and resources for responses to imaged-based violence.
We are thankful for the acknowledgment of the fact that many sex workers will not report harms to police due to “stigma and being blamed”, noted on page 31. Also, as indicated on page 52, personal characteristics such as ethnicity, gender and age were barriers to receiving support, along with identifying as a sex worker. This reflects the findings of both our survey regarding the VAWG strategy and our recent work with sex workers of colour. It is important to note, however, that sex working is an active done for money, benefit or reward, and an occupation for some, but is not a personal characteristic as the strategy suggests.
The need for greater trust in both the police and CJS was also noted in the recently-released HMICFRS review on responses to rape, which NUM also participated in. We hope to work together more with the Home Office in the future to ensure sex worker’s experiences with police and courts are documented as part of improving prosecution rates. Alongside this, NUM would like to be included in exploring what role we can take beyond our sharing of anonymous intelligence (with the consent of survivors) with the Serious Crime Analysis Section (SCAC) and MPS intelligence with regards to the understanding of sexual offending. As the report notes:
“Sometimes we see men who are violent who started off with violence against a sex worker, because that’s seen as less serious, or easier.”
The stigma and perceived disposability of sex workers can only be changed when reports of harm against them and harms to non-sex workers are taken as seriously.
NUM is encouraged to see on page 72 that the Government is committing to tackling harms that can be associated with sex work, ‘that people who want to leave should be given every opportunity to find routes out’ and that there will be a ‘stand alone’ strategy to address Modern Slavery. NUM will be working on transition supports and associated digital tools with sex workers later this year and will have recommendations for strategic investment in supporting people in controlling their levels of invovlement in adult industries. We hope that this indicates an end to conflation between sex work and trafficking, a conflation which ultimately harms both sex workers and trafficking victims/survivors.
NUM is also interested in supporting sex workers as part of ending the exploitation that can occur on online sites, as noted on page 78. Through partnerships with Adult Services Websites (ASWs) such as Vivastreet, who already work with NUM, police and the Home Office in this respect, exploiters and fraudsters who harm sex workers can be identified and held accountable.
The Online Safety Bill, which is currently at a draft stage, is mentioned throughout the report. During the consultation process, it is vital that online sex workers are engaged and heard, ensuring that the Bill does not create opportunities for further online harms. The legislation must ensure that sex workers are able to achieve justice against harms perpetrated in online spaces in an equitable way to other women and girls within the VAWG strategy.
Finally, we are encouraged to see the desire for improvements to the Stalking Protection Orders (2020) on page 73. Stalking and harassment is the third most frequently reported crime type to NUM by sex workers, and it is positive to see this being taken seriously as a form of violence. Once again, sex workers must be able to access these protections much like any other person affected.
We would like to extend our thanks to English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) and Umbrella Lane for their collaboration on this submission, and in particular to every individual who responded to our survey and whose thoughts and ideas were pivotal in shaping our response. We would also like to thank the VAWG stakeholder group for including NUM within this consultation process, giving sex workers” voices ‘a seat round the table”.
Our mission is to end all forms of violence against sex workers. Much of this falls within the VAWG remit. We hope that the Home Office recognises the unique needs of sex workers and ensures that they hear directly from them in implementing strategies to not just aimed at the safety of sex workers, but the safety of us all.
NUM is keen to remain strategic partners with the VAWG committee, inputting on decisions regarding investment in services and shaping strategies for the future. We are committed to partnering on strategies that make women (and other genders) safer, and we hope that the Home Office recognises the value of including NUM and active sex workers in the battle for an end to gender-based violence.