NCJ Number
224412
Date Published
2008
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This chapter presents findings from the author’s research and then critically discusses some of the views, experiences, and responses of local residents from two very different areas within a major English city regarding sex work on the streets of their neighborhood.
Abstract
The responses of the residents varied widely, ranging from being oblivious to or passive toward the sex workers’ activities on their neighborhood streets to being violent and/or otherwise harmful to the women involved. One of the most obvious concerns cited by suburban residents was the impact of street sex work on the physical environment, such as discarded condoms, syringes, soiled underwear, and sanitary protection being discarded on the streets or in residents’ gardens. Some residents believed that the sex workers had made their neighborhoods magnets for drugs and crime, thus causing a decline in the quality of neighborhood life and the value of residents’ property. The potential social impact of street sex work was viewed by residents as related to three issues: the noise and congestion of vehicles of the clients of sex workers, the threatening and sometimes violent behavior of pimps against residents, and the verbal abuse and constant propositioning toward male residents. The British Government’s Coordinated Prostitution Strategy,--which focuses on prevention, countering demands, developing routes out of prostitution, and addressing off-street prostitution--may hold promise, but what is needed is a policy that recognizes both the rights of residents to a quiet neighborhood free of activities that undermine the health, privacy, and quality of life of residents, as well as the right of sex workers to be protected from harm as they sell their services. Whatever policies are developed in resolving competing concerns and interests, all affected parties must have input for policy development. 1 table, 1 figure, 6 notes and 34 references