Protecting Prostitutes: How the Legal Blind Eye Brings Violence to the Oldest Profession

A recent wave of murders in England has UK police on the hunt for a serial killer that is targeting prostitutes. The violence against these sex workers is a pattern that has been repeated throughout the country for decades. The recent crimes have refueled the historical debate on society's attitude and responsibilities toward the oldest profession.

In the UK, prostitution is not illegal but soliciting a prostitute and operating a brothel are. The same goes for France and Sweden where offering sex for money is not a crime but clients risk prosecution. In both the Netherlands and Germany prostitutes are considered legally self-employed persons whose income is subject to tax. In these two countries prostitution occurs in managed zones, brothels and red light districts.

The five women recently murdered in Suffolk County were all street prostitutes, meaning they were alone on the street when they encountered their murderer. Although the town of Ipswich where they solicited clients had a managed red light district, use of the unpopulated area was limited to nighttime and no sexual activity was allowed to take place there.

Ultimately, the street prostitutes solicit business in a dark, dangerous area and are then required to leave to an even more remote area. The last image of Suffolk County murder victim Tania Nicol is from a closed circuit street surveillance camera. It shows the young woman walking alone on a deserted street. It is obvious from the images how vulnerable a situation all of these women were in.

According to the BBC, none of the women murdered in Suffolk County were sexually assaulted. As the police develop the murderer's profile, many motives are under consideration. Regardless of the reason behind the crimes, one fact seems blatantly clear: these women were targeted by the killer because they were vulnerable.

The International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers (ICRSW) claims that vulnerability is a direct result of social attitudes towards prostitution. Ana Lopes, president of the International Union of Sex Workers (IUSW) in London, says "sex workers are currently forced into dangerous working situations by the illegality surrounding their profession. Decriminalization would allow them to work safely and be protected by European labor laws. It is also an essential starting point to reducing stigma against sex workers which leads to their being even more vulnerable to attack."

In November of 2003, a U.S. truck painter named Gary Ridgway confessed to the murder of 48 women. Known as the Green River Killer, Ridgway described his methodology to the court: "I picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught." Most of Ridgway's victims were prostitutes who worked on "the strip" close to Sea-Tac airport which serves Seattle and Tacoma.

A similar high profile murder case is currently under way in Canada. Robert Pickton, a Canadian pig farmer is on trial for the murder of two prostitutes from Vancouver, Mona Wilson and Serena Abbotsway. He is a suspect in the murders of at least 26 more sex workers from Vancouver's red light district known as Eastside.

Eastside is known locally as Low Track. It is the poorest neighborhood in all of Canada, a 10-block urban wasteland. It is the heart of British Columbia drug scene with thousands of addicts finding heroin and crack cocaine here. Most of the female drug addicts in Eastside support their habits via prostitution. The neighborhood has the highest HIV infection rate in North America.

In 1986, an expo center opened in Eastside and a slew of legislation was passed to sweep the streets of prostitutes (prostitution is legal in Canada but laws place restrictions on activities related to sex work). Federal cutbacks in the 1990s decreased welfare and mental health services. Most of the women prostitutes in Eastside were mothers and most of them had entered the sex trade as children.

In 1997, Robert Picton was charged with attempted murder of a drug-addicted prostitute from Eastside at his farm. The charges were dropped but the investigations led the police to face the reality that over 50 prostitutes had vanished from Eastside without a trace. The alarming number of women who were missing unnoticed made clear that this part of the population was deemed unworthy of the same attention given to other citizens.

The stigma attached to prostitution is very much a reality in Eastside. However, the high rates of drug addiction and STDs that plagues this down-trodden area is much less prevalent in regions where prostitution is legal. The Dutch government legalized prostitution in 2000 with the hope of making it easier to tax and regulate. In Germany where there are some 400,000 prostitutes, the country decriminalized prostitution with a plan that offers pensions, health insurance and the right to a 40 hour work week in sanitary conditions. In both the Netherlands and Germany, prostitutes pay taxes on their earnings.

A recent study found that HIV/AIDS in Dutch prostitutes affected about 7% of the population and that only about 10% of prostitutes there suffer from drug addiction. Although still a cause for concern, these statistics are a far cry from Vancouver's Eastside where the numbers are alarmingly reversed.

There are still street prostitutes in Germany and the Netherlands, but the decriminalization of sex work allows true tolerance zones with increased safety measures, like security cameras, privacy screens and social services. Street prostitutes working in these areas have immediate access to support services, and even simple luxuries like coffee and a place to take a shower. The foreign ministry in the Netherlands claims that tolerance zones have increased the safety of street walkers.

In Ipswich, the red light district has security cameras but little else. No social workers, drug outreach programs or medical services. The red light district on the city's west side was just an otherwise abandoned area. The 80,000 women in Britain who work as prostitutes are part of a $1.2B industry yet left to their own defenses in dangerous situations created in large part to the country's legislation.

The recent murders of street prostitutes in Suffolk County, as well as the numerous serial killings worldwide, relay a message that is hard to face: violent criminals prey on those who society casts aside. When prostitution is run underground into black markets violence follows.

Advocates for sex workers believe that if social attitudes towards prostitution changed the violence would decrease. In the UK, law makers are open-minded to finding ways to make the streets safer for prostitutes. The need to address the issue successfully is more evident given the current murders in Suffolk County.

The discrimination against prostitutes is unfortunately institutionalized. Dr. Ian Stephen, a consultant forensic psychologist working on the Ipswich murders said his biggest worry is that the Suffolk County killer will mistake "any woman who's out on the street at night on their own as a prostitute." What he meant is that no woman is safe. What he said was he has more concern for women who are not prostitutes. In effect, the statement reinforces the acceptance of violence against sex workers.

In a different light, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, told the BBC that "what we are reminded of in the last couple of days, is that every one of these young women is someone's daughter and someone's child. They are human beings who have been very vulnerable and who are made very vulnerable by aspects of our society that need change."

The Archbishop's statement is supported by many activists for prostitutes including Harry Shapiro of DrugsScope who hopes the murders will persuade the UK to fund more drug rehabilitation programs. High-risk prostitution, the solicitation of sex clients on the streets, is often linked with a cycle of drug addiction, family issues, mental health and poverty.

In response to the recent murders, the Suffolk Drug Action team in Ipswich has increased its street presence and the opening hours of the community drug treatment center in hope that women seeking help will find it more available. The crimes have shaken local officials who vow to learn a lesson from the current situation and consider solutions that will work to protect prostitutes based on other programs throughout the EU.

Resources:

"The psychology of a killer" BBC News, December 12, 2006

"Making Sex Pay" by Clare Murphy, BBC News, January 17, 2003

"New plan to permit small brothels" BBC News, January 17, 2006

"Man Admits Green River Killings" by Chris Summers, BBC News, October 31, 2003

"Managing prostitution in the UK" by Alexis Akwagyiram, BBC News, December 12, 2006

Crime Library http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/greenriver/index_1.html

International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers http://www.sexworkeurope.org/

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution