New Research: The Effect of Systemic Racism and Homophobia on Police Enforcement and Sexual and Emotional Violence among Sex Workers in East London

New Research: The Effect of Systemic Racism and Homophobia on Police Enforcement and Sexual and Emotional Violence among Sex Workers in East London
14 October 2022

We are delighted to announce the publication of “The Effect of Systemic Racism and Homophobia on Police Enforcement and Sexual and Emotional Violence among Sex Workers in East London: Findings from a Cohort Study” in the Journal of Urban Health. The article is open access and can be read by clicking the link!

The research has been conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in collaboration with our CEO, Dr. Raven Bowen. It explores the experiences of intersectional discrimination and disadvantage experienced by sex workers in East London, including criminalisation, police presence, and violence.

Some of the main findings of the research include:

  • Ethnically/racially minoritized sex workers reported more police encounters, partly due to increased representation in street settings

  • After accounting for street work, compared to white-identifying counterparts, ethnically/racially minoritized sex workers had:
    2 times higher odds of being arrested or spending time in prison
    3 times higher odds of experiencing police extortion or rape

  • Experience of emotional violence in the form of abuse and harassment from clients, intimate partners or other members of the community was pervasive, but higher among ethnically or racially minorized groups
  • Evidence shows that repressive policing disproportionately targets minoritized and marginalised sex workers, has a negative impact on sex workers health and is linked to heighted risk of rape and emotional violence
  • The extensive police enforcement, violence, arrest, imprisonment and extortion that lands disproportionately on ethnic or racialised minority sex workers further supports sex workers’ and human rights organisations’ calls to decriminalise sex work as a matter of racial justice as well as one of broader health and social justice

“Decriminalization of sex work must…occur concurrently with decriminalizing drug possession and use, and addressing social exclusion and discrimination in relation to sex work, sexual and gender identity, housing, poverty, race, and ethnicity.”

NUM is currently undertaking research into the experiences of sex workers of colour within the UK. To find out more about our Racial Justice project and previous work, please click here.