Do you believe the prostitutes are easier victims of crime because they often live under the radar?

Not necessarily. They learn how to be tough and how to handle difficult customers.

Just by virtue of what they do they put themselves in danger. Would you let a strange man in your door at night thinking nothing of it?

They make their own destiny and learn how to live with it.

Interesting you should mention it today – in the evening I am going to the International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers event and vigil on behalf of my peer-run organisation, the Counterpublic Collective – we have made a formal statement in addition to having a speaker from our group and in general, we believe that, yes, sex workers are a lot more likely to be victimized and killed because perpetrators are under (the sometimes rightful) the illusion that nobody will miss them if they’re dead. I recently read about a serial killer who said ‘I killed prostitutes because it was easier to get away with’. And, yes, I do believe sex workers are less likely to go to the police and report abuse or rape – the cops are against them, they’re unsafe around cops…I know this from the perspective of the transgender and gender non conforming community (who are often poor and end up having to do sex work) – we are not buddies with the police…in fact, we have to make our own groups and put our own systems in place like Safe Outside the System, for example, in order to get help after specific incidents.

I think they are likely victims of crime because of their profession. They often get attacked by johns or pimps. They work out on the street at all hours of the night where they are likely targets of robbery and assault.

It’s because they willingly go with strangers.

I’m going with an emphatic yes.

Unless I’m missing something, there’s no real question here.

Yes, they are, and not because they are under the radar as you say, but because of the personal nature of their business. However, violence seems to be spreading, with gunmen and assailants turning up in every type of store, business, public transportation and parking lot, not to mention people being killed by stray bullets in their own house.

Because of their risky lifestyle and their meeting with strangers on a regular basis, this could definitely increase their chances of becoming victims of crime more often than an average citizen would. Additionally, working late evening and early morning hours would also present a danger in that some criminals might be more emboldened to commit crimes under the cover of darkness and possibly with less chance of detection and getting caught.

I’m kind of amazed, not to insult anyone, that people blame prostitution rather than the criminalization of prostitution for the dangers of it.

- Where prostitution is legal in the U.S., there is negligible physical risk, including from STDs – as condom use appears to be highly regulated (see Nevada Brothels).

- Criminalization of prostitution enables human trafficking, as young girls and boys brought here illegally cannot go to authorities as they are technically guilty of a deportable crime.

- Street prostitution generally victimizes young girls, who are physically terrorized by pimps.

- Prostitutes victimized by clients cannot go to the police for the same reasons.

- Prostitutes, even when not trafficked, when doing it in a criminilized environment are often little more than slaves.

- Claims of rape from prostitutes are generally ignored.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir – thank you so much. Why didn’t I know about this event, dammit!

I’m a supporter of C.O.Y. O. T. E., but that so far it isn’t any better for the actual prostitutes. It’s not blaming them to recognize how dangerous it is.

@YARNLADY – True – however, people on this thread have actually attributed blame to the prostitutes. I find it troubling that prostitution itself is even blamed. Personally, I don’t really see how an argument can be formulated to show how it’s a reasonable determination that prostitution, as a profession, makes the professional an easier victim of crime.

@iamthemob True – however, people on this thread have actually attributed blame to the prostitutes. I find it troubling that prostitution itself is even blamed. I would hope that is not the direction the thread will go. The thought came to me because if you watch enough documentaries about serial killers or serial rapist it seems by a large part their victim of choice are prostitutes. I think as @Simone_De_Beauvoir and @iamthemob (yourself) is that when something do happen to them they are less likely to say anything because the cops are already more against them than for them and they don’t trust cops. And since many are estranged from their families if they go missing the only ones who would maybe notice are the pimps which won’t care so long as she already handed the night’s booty over to them, or a fellow prostitute. People in most communities don’t want them there and might even be happy if some started going missing. So, these good citizens are not really going to say anything. With so little people to give a damn I am thinking like rats, when one is knocked off no one will care, and if you have something no one cares about it is easier to target them.

@Hypocrisy_Central @iamthemob At the event last night, a study was brought up (conducted among NYC street based sex workers) which reports that 80–90% of sex workers interviewed experienced violence on the job or as a result of their work and 27% experienced it from the police.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir – I’m assuming that violence includes sexual violence as well from all assailants, unfortunately.

@iamthemob You are correct.