Sex+Work+in+United+Kingdom

= Sex Work in the United Kingdom  = There are an estimated 80,000 sex workers in the United Kingdom

Timeline
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 * **1161:** Henry II allowed for the regulation of brothels which included rules that prohibited forced prostitution (Johnson, 2016).
 * **1566:** Henry VIII made a royal proclamation that ended England's tolerance of prostitution. He called prostitutes dissolute and miserable.
 * **1660-1661:** Five issues of the Wandering Whore were published (Johnson, 2016).
 * **1757-1795:** Harris' List of Convent Garden is created and distributed. Harris' List was an annual directory of prostitutes working in London. Over 8,000 copies were sold a year. Harris' List was an essential book for men who were visiting men for pleasure. Brothels could be found around Convent Garden (Johnson, 2016).
 * **18th Century:** The public opinion about prostitution shifts; it is now considered indecent and immoral.
 * **1861:** Contagious Disease Act allows for the police to arrest prostitutes in ports and in Army towns and arrest them. The police would then take them to get tested for venereal disease. If prostitutes tested positive for anything they would be hospitalized until they were cured. It has been claimed that many women who were arrested were not prostitutes. The law was repealed on March 26, 1866.
 * **1959:** Britain legalizes prostitution but banned solicitation and other street acts with the Streets Offense Act of 1959
 * **2004:** Britain considers policy change
 * **2015:** Ireland criminalizes prostitution

England, Scotland & Wales
(Policing and Crime Act, 2009)
 * 1) __**Working as a prostitute in private is OK:**__ This means the exchange of sexual services for money
 * 2) __**No soliciting:**__ It is an offense for person in the street or vehicle that is in a public place to solicit another for the purposes of sexual services from a prostitute.
 * 3) **__It is illegal to be a PIMP:__** or intentionally cause or incite a person to become a prostitute in any part of the world, specifically if a person does this with this expectation of a gain for a third party
 * 4) __**Brothels are illegal:**__ where people resort for practices involving prostitution

Ireland
**ALL SEX WORK BANNED:** As of June 2015

**Location of Sex Workers **


(Data compiled by Smith & Kingston (2015) from a prominent online directory of people who advertise commercial sex work. The sample comprised 27,408 registered members of the site who advertised as escorts and who had logged in within two months. The information was obtained by counting member profiles using the site's internal search engine)

Money, Debt & Low Welfare Benefits

 * The sex work industry makes over 534 million pounds a year
 * Unfortunately, welfare doesn't pay enough to support a family so many sex workers chose the industry over other forms of work so they can support their families
 * Migrant sex workers travel to the UK to find work because they cannot find work in their own country

Housing and Addiction

 * Homelessness and drug addiction have been identified as the two most significant factors which prompt engagement in street sex work
 * Many sex workers participate in survival sex in which they participate in the street sex work in order to find a place to sleep

Violence and Power

 * Compared to other countries, the number sex trafficked victims is low in the UK
 * Sex trafficking is focused n by the government and often time overemphasized which causes extreme stigma against sex workers

Family Breakdown

 * Many sex workers have bee neglected by their families which increases their vulnerability to the field. Other sex workers have mental health issues as a result of being abused as a child.

Mental Health

 * Mental health issues are common amongst sex workers since many come from broken homes. Others have suffered from forms of abused.

Low Education

 * lack of training makes sex workers not viable for other forms of work. They do not have other skills.

Discrimination

 * Many sex workers have been stigmatized and suffer from forms of racism and prejudice. This can prevent social inclusion and cause them to turn to sex work. (Balfour & Allen, 2014)

Heteronormative Narratives Fuel Criminalization
In the United Kingdom there is an assumption that the sex work industry is fueled by predatory men paying to have sex with objectified women (Smith & Kingston, 2015). The reality is that the narratives of sex workers, including women who pay to have sex with men and members of the LGBTQ community, have been erased from Britain's heternormative society. Smith & Kingston (2015) found that there are diverse identities and practices in UK's modern sex industry. Currently, UK sex work policy affirms the dominant stereotypes and popular prejudices that exist. These laws exacerbate the dangers that sex workers and their clients may face in their attempt to avoid criminal prosecution. For example, if a sex worker were being raped in a private home she would not be able to call out for help as easily as she would be able to if she were in a brothel.

**What the Majority of UK Thinks... ** **What the Reality is.. ** (Smith & Kingston, 2015)

**Criminalization & Stigma**

 * Laws force sex workers into marginalized and vulnerable positions
 * Lack of support by the police and criminal justice system causes an external locus of control. This causes an increased likelihood of violence, poor health, addiction and inability to escape the situation
 * Sex workers are stigmatized by many of their health care providers and as a result do not receive proper medical care
 * Sex workers are stigmatized by the police, the public and even their clients (Balfour & Allen, 2014)

**Stigmatized Sex Workers Viewed Through an Ethnocentric Len**s
When it comes to sex work in the UK, there are a variety of sexual services advertised with over one hundred activities to chose from (Smith & Kingston, 2015). However, the majority of people in the UK have an ethnocentric view of denial of this population, in which their beliefs about sex workers go unquestioned (Bennett, 2004). Most people in the UK believe that sex workers are all the same, street sex workers (Hardy et al., 2010). The reality is, many sex workers have the right to chose which sex acts they would like to participate in (Sexual Offenses Act, 2003). For example, Smith and Kingston (2015) found that 84% of sex workers in the UK would not be willing receive BDSM and 68% stated they would not be willing to give BDSM. This view has been proven to defy the ethnocentric belief of people in Western society who are in denial of the dominant stereotype that sex workers will be exploited in whatever way possible to make money (Bennett & Bennett, 2004). People in the UK think sex workers have an external locus of control when in fact they predominately have an internal locus of control (Bennett & Bennett, 2004).

Open Door Sexual Health Service

 * Clinical and Complex case management service that primarily works with female street sex workers
 * Goal 1: Manages and minimizes harm amongst client group
 * Goal 2: Motivates women towards change in lifestyle
 * Goal 3: Facilitating fast track access to a range of health and social services that will help clients achieve first two goals (Balfour & Allen, 2014)

Recommended Readings
[|A Review of the Literature: Sex Work and Social Exclusion] [|Sex Workers and The Law]