The Risks of Street Prostitution: Punters, Police and Protesters

For female street sex workers in Britain, selling sex means managing risks. Violence from male clients, harassment from community protesters and criminalisation through overpolicing are daily hazards on the street. Using qualitative data and extensive field observations of the street market in Birmi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland) Scotland), 2004-08, Vol.41 (9), p.1703-1717
Main Author: Sanders, Teela
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cities
Communities
Financial risk
Geography
Occupational hazards
Police
Police services
Policing
Prostitution
Public policy
Risk management
Safety
Section 1. Commercial Sexual Spaces, Markets and Community Responses
Sex industry
Sex workers
Sexual violence
Sexuality
Street protests
United Kingdom
Urban areas
Urban studies
Violence against women
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Summary:For female street sex workers in Britain, selling sex means managing risks. Violence from male clients, harassment from community protesters and criminalisation through overpolicing are daily hazards on the street. Using qualitative data and extensive field observations of the street market in Birmingham, UK, it is argued in this paper that street sex workers do not passively accept these risks but, instead, manage occupational hazards by manipulating, separating, controlling and resisting urban spaces. Women actively use space to inform their collective and individual working practices to minimise harm and maximise profits. However, the findings conclude that sites of street prostitution are made increasingly dangerous for women through punitive policing policies, conservative heterosexual discourses and a lack of realistic prostitution policy that addresses the central issues relating to commercial sex.
ISSN:0042-0980
1360-063X
DOI:10.1080/0042098042000243110