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Criminalizing sex workers makes them more vulnerable to violence SFBayView.com
May 05 by
Rachel West Evidence
shows that criminalization makes sex workers more vulnerable to
violence. Prostitute women facing rape, sexual assault and murder are
afraid to report for fear of arrest – especially if they have
outstanding warrants – or deportation. In
one case, a woman who wanted to press charges against a violent rapist
was not allowed to do so because the police said that any outstanding
warrants against her would be enforced. We later heard that the same man
had attacked another woman. When
a women insists on her right to move forward with her case, sexism,
hostility and a “don’t care” attitude by the police and courts
means that few rape cases end in conviction, even fewer when the victim
is a prostitute. Black sex workers face racism at every stage of the
criminal justice process and are even less likely than whites to get
protection or justice against rape, racist sexual assault or other
violence. Serial
murderers often start with prostitute women and then go on to murder
other women. This is one reason we say that when prostitute women
aren’t safe, no woman is safe. Extending
criminalization of women with Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution (SOAP)
orders has had a devastating effect on the safety of people on the
street. Introduced in the ‘90s, SOAPs authorize people to be banned
from an area, fined or imprisoned. SOAPs have divided communities,
allowed more abuse of power by the police and helped to whip up an
atmosphere of hostility against children, other young people, sex
workers and people of color. When
women working on Capp Street were asked what changes would help them to
get out of prostitution, almost all of them said: affordable housing and
childcare. About 70 percent of prostitute women are mothers, mostly
single mothers struggling to support families. There
is little or no recognition for women as the main caregivers everywhere.
Women’s wages are less than 76 percent of men’s – less for Black
and immigrant women – far below what is needed to survive. Welfare
“reform” has taken away the right to the little money that served as
a last resort from being out on the street and has resulted in over 11
million women, mainly single mothers, losing their only income. San
Francisco’s recommendations and resolution You
need look no further than the case of serial rapist Jack Bokin to know
why San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Resolution No. 1564,
“Mitigating Violence Against Prostitutes,” should be immediately
implemented. Bokin had attacked and violently raped at least three women
when Judge Perker Meeks let him out on bail. He was finally convicted
and sentenced to 231 years largely because of a campaign spearheaded by
US PROStitutes Collective and Legal Action for Women, who kept a
constant presence of observers in court and publicized the court
proceedings. Implementation
of the Supervisors’ “Mitigating Violence Against Women” resolution
could for the first time mean that the police and courts would be
required to prioritize protecting prostitute women from rape and other
violence and that the $7.6 million now used to prosecute sex workers
would be used instead for protection and services for women. The
1996 San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution, of which US PROS was a
key member, brought for the first time representatives from Black,
immigrant, youth, l/b/g/t and women’s groups, organizations on AIDS,
health workers and lawyers together with the mayor’s office, the
district attorney, the public health department, the police and
neighborhood residents After
two years of active debate and careful considerations, the task force
put forward groundbreaking recommendations that protection from violence
is the priority and that the City should move towards decriminalizing
prostitution, a view shared by the majority of the general public. But
some have questioned why the San Francisco resolution demands that
offences of rape and violence be vigorously prosecuted. Nia Jackson from
US PROStitutes Collective explains: “Ideally
we are against prisons. We campaign against imprisonment especially for
crimes of poverty like prostitution. We are against the abuse of
prisoners and recognize that prisons are the new sweatshops, all of
which we oppose. We have fought for an end to the brutal regimes that
exist where women and others imprisoned are systematically raped, abused
and pushed to suicide. “But
in a case like Jack Bokin, and other rapists and murderers, in the
absence of any secure alternative to prison, women’s right to live in
safety has to take precedence.” Amnesty
for the homeless, a solution for women? According
to a 1991 Senate Judiciary hearing, nationally 50 percent of all
homeless women and children are on the streets because of violence in
the home. Hundreds are forced to sell sex to survive. One third of San
Francisco’s homeless are women. Yet domestic violence is still treated
as a low priority by SF police. As
a result of pressure from homeless people, the District Attorney in San
Francisco recently agreed to an amnesty that withdraws all pending
warrants for so-called “nuisance crimes.” This amnesty could also be
granted to sex workers facing charges of loitering and soliciting. It
would help break the endless cycle where women are forced back on the
streets to pay outstanding fines. As
poverty, homelessness, debt and cuts in welfare have increased, more
women, especially mothers, have ended up in jail or prison for “crimes
of poverty.” Those convicted of a drug related felony upon release
cannot get welfare for life and cannot get access to subsidized housing.
What are women supposed to do if not turn tricks to ensure that there is
food on the table? This
is in a country where $1.1 billion a day is spent on the Iraq war and
occupation, while those in power claim there is no money for education,
healthcare, housing, social security and other community resources. It
is clear that the demand is intensifying in San Francisco and many other
places for money not to go to war or to criminalize people, and also for
an end to criminalization of sex work and the violence and divisiveness
it promotes. Recent legislation to decriminalize prostitution in New
Zealand has resulted in women having the support to report violence. The
SF Task Force recommendations on prostitution offer direction for the
City, and the implementation of the Supervisors’ Resolution No. 1564
would be a big step on the road to justice for all of us made vulnerable
to attack and other degradation by poverty and lack of resources. We ask
for your support.
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