East London Project

New research alert! Our @LSHTM study in @STI_BMJ found that more than one in five sex workers have faced recent verbal, physical or sexual violence from police officers. sti.bmj.com/content/early/… 🧵 1/

@NationalUglyMug @ProstitutesColl @SexWorkHive @sexworkreshub

📣New @EastLdn paper out in @CPHjournal. We document how east-London-based #sexwork ers’ encounters with police, local government, immigration, and mainstream health & support services have: ⏩threatened their safety & health ⏩disciplined their lives ⏩denied them justice A 🧵

@eastldn @CPHjournal See our full study for more details: rb.gy/uyklun @pippagrenfell @rs643_rachel @JanetEastham @twoshadesofhope @JocelynElmes @lucyvplatt @maggieoneill9 11/

@eastldn @CPHjournal ⏩Urgent action is needed to stop police violence against sex workers, deliver them justice and redress related health & social harms. #Decriminalisation is a vital step but this also requires major shifts to tackle institutional racism, misogyny and other discrimination. 10/

@eastldn @CPHjournal ⏩Enforcement and specialist service cuts harm sex workers. We urge local governments and public health agencies to speak out about the impact this has on these members of the communities they serve. 9/

@eastldn @CPHjournal Sex workers with diverse lived experiences described how they pushed back against these conditions, and called for funds to be directed: ☑away from sex-work related enforcement ☑towards respectful, specialist and peer-led health & support services We echo these calls. 8/

@eastldn @CPHjournal ‘Necropolitical assemblages’-@AchilleMbembe1-of enforcement & service-cuts worsened sex workers’ living conditions & dictated whose lives & needs mattered. They positioned sex workers as threats to communities instead of community members, & contributed to health inequalities. 7/

@eastldn @CPHjournal Marginalised and minoritised workers were worst affected; women who work on the street, global-majority and migrant workers were particularly targeted by police, denied justice when reporting violence, and impacted by service conditions & cuts. 6/

@eastldn @CPHjournal Sex workers and other stakeholders attributed these funding cuts to tensions over sex-work ‘governance’ and data-sharing, and a downplaying of sex workers’ needs. Some sex workers described newer ‘exiting’-commissioned projects offering insufficient experience & services. 5/

@eastldn @CPHjournal Sex workers faced discrimination & conditional treatment in mainstream services, so many relied on a trusted sex worker health & support service to navigate rigid & hostile systems, report violence & access care. By the end of the research, this service was heavily defunded. 4/

@eastldn @CPHjournal ❗Most police & local-authority interviewees described sex work-related enforcement as protecting vulnerable women &/or community safety. ❗But sex workers described structurally & physically violent encounters with officers, & routinely being denied justice. 3/

@eastldn @CPHjournal We interviewed sex workers working in street and indoor settings, as well as police, local authority representatives, and staff from specialist health and support services, in 3 East London boroughs. 2/

7/ See our full study for more detail 👉 rdcu.be/cXrw7 @LSHTM @EastLdnProject @corbeau_1863 @NationalUglyMug @rs643_rachel @pippagrenfell @lucyvplatt @jogwalker10 @NIHRresearch @JocelynElmes

6/ The extensive police enforcement that land disproportionately on ethnic or racialized minority sex workers further support sex workers’ & human rights organisations’ calls to decriminalise sex work as a matter of racial justice as well as one of broader health & social justice

New research alert! Our @lshtm study examines the effect of police enforcement on sexual and emotional violence among sex workers in East London – exposing the disproportionate negative impacts on ethnically/racially minoritized and LGB sex workers rdcu.be/cXrw7