User:BurroLoco/sandbox

Abuse by police officers is a narrow section of the wide range of harms suffered by sex workers, particularly poor sex workers. Nonetheless, police are often a significant source of abuse for sex workers. Greater exposure to the police often means more experience of police abuse; one study found that sex workers with greater police oversight were more likely to be obliged to provide free sexual services to the police than sex workers with less police oversight. For some groups of sex workers in some locations in the U.S., police are the primary source of violence and harassment. Police may be more abusive towards sex workers who have experienced more victimization from other sources; a study found that sex workers who had been manipulated, coerced, or forced into sex work were more likely to suffer police abuse than sex workers who chose to enter sex work.

Police abuse can have have long lasting consequences; when police falsely arrest someone for prostitution, the resulting record may make it difficult for that person to find jobs or get housing, forcing the person into prostitution as a matter of survival. Something as innocuous seeming as ordering someone to "move along" may force that person into an area that has more crime, resulting in the person being robbed, assaulted, or even murdered. When police target an HIV+ person for repeated arrests, they may prevent the person from going to scheduled appointments with health care providers. The resulting jail terms tend to disrupt medication routines. And sometimes abuse creates physical harm that is immediate and intentional, as when police officers physically assault a sex worker without evidence of crime and without making an arrest.

These and other forms of abuse are documented in the research studies and articles described below.

Studies in specific areas

Alaska

People in Alaska's Sex Trade: Their Lived Experiences and Policy Recommendations

Tara Burns

Undated

This is a summary report. There's an email address in the report if you want access to all the data or have questions.

Excerpt from a sex worker story:

One of [the police officers] put his hand up my skirt and ripped my underwear off. He slammed me down on the car, he injured me. Um, left me with some broken fingertips, broken toes, fractured cheekbone... I was bleeding, I had my skirt ripped... people were just mortified because they'd seen a teenage girl get assaulted by a police officer...

— study participant

The general trend of the study statistics was that the sex workers who had suffered the worst victimization in the past were the ones most likely to be abused by the police.

The following tables compare the experiences of three groups: all the participants in the study, the participants where were manipulated or coerced into sex work, and the participants who were forced into sex work.

Participants who were manipulated or coerced into sex work were more likely to attempt to report a crime, but the police were less likely to take their report and more likely to threaten or arrest them.

	Tried to report a crime	Police took report	Police threatened arrest	Police arrested
All	52%	44%	33%	6%
Manipulated or coerced into sex work	80%	20%	60%	20%

Participants who had been coerced or manipulated into sex work and participants who had been forced into sex work were more likely to be assaulted by a police officer.

	Assaulted by a police officer
All	26%
Manipulated or coerced into sex work	60%
Forced into sex work	50%

Participants who had been coerced or manipulated into sex work and participants who had been forced into sex work were more likely to be robbed or beaten by a police officer.

	Robbed or beaten by a police officer
All	9%
Manipulated or coerced into sex work	40%
Forced into sex work	50%

Baltimore

Investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department

U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civil Rights Division

2016-08-10

The DOJ found "indications that the BCPD disregards reports of sexual assault by people involved in the sex trade..." Investigators heard from the community that officers were coercing sexual favors from sex workers. Internal records indicated that this was true and the officers weren't being punished. Prior to the DOJ investigation, an internal investigation by the BCPD found an officer receiving sex from a sex worker in exchange for money and immunity from arrest. The case was closed without any attempt to gather more evidence, interview the police officer, or prosecute the officer. Cases were opened for the same officer a second and third time for the same offense. The witness for the third case died before she could be interviewed, and only then did the BCPD review the officer's phone records and discover that he had sent sexually explicit messages to a number of female sex workers. The officer was allowed to retire. The DOJ found similar cases involving other officers.

Violence against women in sex work and HIV risk implications differ qualitatively by perpetrator

Decker et al

2013

The primary form of police abuse was coercive sex, through the threat of arrest. In some cases the officer received the sexual service and arrested the sex worker anyway.

Chicago

Investigation of the Chicago Police Department

U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civil Rights Division and United States Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois

2017-01-13

Investigators found a video of police beating and threatening a sex worker while she was handcuffed and kneeling.

An Empirical Analysis of Street Level Prostitution

Levitt and Venkatesh

September 2007

This is a working paper that was never published, as far as I know. However, the results were discussed in Levitt and Dubner's book SuperFreakonomics.

The study compared two neighborhoods, one where none of the women had pimps, and one where all the women had pimps. The women without pimps were more likely to be arrested and three percent of all sexual services were provided to police officers free of charge. This almost certainly means that the sexual services were extorted, most likely by threatening arrest. The women with pimps were less likely to be arrested and didn't provide free sexual services. Sex workers were more likely to have sex with a police officer than be arrested by one.

Sisters Speak Out: The Lives and Needs of Prostituted Women in Chicago

Raphael and Shapiro

August 2002

Twenty four percent of street-based sex workers had been raped by a police officer. Twenty percent had experienced other sexual assault from police officers. Women doing survival sex and women in drug houses experienced a lot of violence from police. Thirty percent of exotic dancers who had been raped were raped by police, and twenty percent of the sexual violence they experienced was committed by police. Twenty five percent of escorts had been robbed by a police officer. Eighteen percent of escorts had been forced to masturbate a police officer.

Denied Help: How Youth in the Sex Trade & Street Economy are Turned Away from Systems Meant to Help Us & What We Are Doing to Fight Back

Torrez and Paz

2012

This is a survey of bad encounters experienced by young sex workers. Bad encounters were divided into three categories: violence, harassment, and refusal to help. The largest source of both harassment and violence was the category of police, which included the Chicago Police Department, the FBI, and security guards in schools.

New Orleans

Investigation of the New Orleans Police Department

U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civil Rights Division

2011-03-16

Investigators heard complaints that police where targeting transwomen for prostitution arrests, and sometimes fabricating evidence.

In Harm's Way: State Response to Sex Workers, Drug Users, and HIV in New Orleans

Human Rights Watch

2013-12

Survey respondents said that police profiled transgender people as sex workers and subjected them to verbal abuse and sexual misconduct, including demands for sex in exchange for leniency. Police were arresting people for solicitation if they carried condoms. Even trans sex workers who weren't arrested for carrying condoms saw it happen to others and where afraid to carry condoms. Some police officers used possession of condoms to coerce trans sex workers into providing free sexual services.

People who tested positive for HIV while in jail were visited by an HIV task force that scheduled appointments at a clinic. However, many people were rearrested before their scheduled appointment. One woman was arrested ten times in three years, preventing her from going to any scheduled appointments to receive care for her HIV infection during that period.

New York City

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City, Volume I

Curtis et al

December 2008

Transgender youth reported being picked up for prostitution or loitering for prostitution when they weren't working. One eighteen year old transgender youth reported being extorted for sex by police officers eight times. Once arrested, transgender youth were more likely to be sexually exploited by jail staff than cisgender youth were.

Two quotes from cisgender study participants:

The DT who arrested me gave me his number after I went through booking. Then after my court appearance, he pulled me into a corner and was like tonguing me down.

— eighteen year old female

Police raped me a couple of times in Queens. The last time that happened was a couple of months ago. But you don't tell anybody. You just deal wit it.

— nineteen year old female

A young woman described going to the police to help another girl with an abusive pimp, only to be arrested.

New York Prevalence Study of Commercially Exploited Children: Final Report

Gragg, et al

2007-04-18

This study covered NYC as well as a few upstate counties. Most of the data came from NYC.

Police officers propositioned underage youth and made lewd comments. Most female youth in the study reported trading sex to avoid arrest. Pimps were not arrested or received less jail time than the youth that worked with them, even when one of the youths was identified as fourteen years old.

Revolving Door: An Analysis of Street Based Prostitution in New York City

Thukral, et al

2003

Abuse varied by location and police officer. Women were more likely to be arrested or ticketed in Brooklyn. Interactions with police in the Bronx were more likely to involve off-duty officers. However, a white woman in the Bronx reported that the police targeted her because she was white, telling her that she was making white people look bad. In Bushwick police harassment was so bad that a service organization was forced to change its location to protect its outreach staff. Latinas reported the worst harassment, including name-calling, stalking, and throwing food. A couple of women based in Bushwick reported daily harassment that caused them to avoid leaving their homes.

Examples of police language:

bitch

ho

slut

you're not dead yet?

we gotta go clean up the trash

why should we help you?

A transwoman said she was subjected to constant harassment, and the officers who harassed her were the ones who wanted "oral sex on the side."

Thirty percent of the participants reported threats of violence from the police, and twenty seven percent reported experiencing violence. One participant reported seeing officers get out of their cars, beat sex workers, get back in their cars, and leave. Another said that her greatest fear during arrest was "not coming home at all." The white woman from the Bronx said "... they throw you on the floor and they step on you..."

Another participant reported seeing officers injure a women in the pelvic area to prevent her from working.

... it was like he was squeezing a handball or something, but really really hard... it was two guys in a car and they drove up on the sidewalk. He pushed her against the wall and then he pushed her against the wall after he finished that and then he said "now get off the street"...

— study participant

One participant reported that an officer followed her for thirty blocks in his civilian car. Another reported that an officer followed her and warned off clients with his bullhorn. Another reported that an officer felt her breasts and made her expose them as cars were driving by while he wrote a ticket. Some statements made by police officers to sex workers:

It's hot tonight, it's a sweep, you should get out of here, now what can you do for me?

You wanna get arrested or you wanna give up some head?

I gave you two cigarettes, you want anything else, you know what you can do for me.

Can I rub against you for $10? [said during arrest]

Either you give me a blow job or I'm going to lock you up.

— various police officers, quoted by study participants

Several participants reported having money stolen while being searched or arrested.

A sampling of the false arrest stories:

• A participant reported getting a summons while waiting to have her hair done.

• A transwomen who was first arrested for prostitution at age fifteen reported that "I got arrested for prostitution long before I knew what prostitution was." She also said "... they just snatch you coming out of the subway, just because you're a tranny."

• A ciswoman was approached in a park by an officer who checked and discovered that she had no outstanding warrants. He walked away and another officer approached her and arrested her. She was held for five hours before being released. By way of explanation, a police officer said "See this sheet? All these warrants aren't yours.[sic]"

• Another woman reported coming out of the grocery store after buying groceries one day. The police approached her, spilled her groceries on the ground, and arrested her for prostitution.

In New York State's Human Trafficking Intervention Courts, prostitutes might be called victims, but they're still arrested, still handcuffed, and still held in cages.

No author

No date

This is an article from the Vice website. It opens with an ex-sex worker's story of false arrest; when she turned down an undercover officer's offer of money for sex, the police arrested her anyway. She informed the reporter that it's common for new officers to arrest women walking to the park where she was arrested, even though they're not working. One woman was arrested because the police said she was waving while wearing a low cut top and a miniskirt. Her attorney took pictures of her at arraignment wearing a jacket and pants and got the charges dropped. Another woman was arrested while wearing a peacoat and jeans that "outlined her legs."

A transwoman named Ryhannah Combs was picked up on prostitution charges while running errands. She was carrying no condoms but the arresting officer said she was carrying nine. Instead of being put in a cell, she was chained to a wall. The city settled when she sued.

A staff attorney at the Trafficking Victims Advocacy Project said that the police frequently verbally abused her clients when arresting them, and on multiple occasions have engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior.

Women who are addicted and becoming dope sick are targeted for sex. This was described as "a deal with the Devil," because the police officer will keep coming back for information, sex, or an easy arrest.

Washington, DC

Move Along: Policing Sex Work in Washington, D.C.

Arrington, et al

2008

For interactions initiated by the police, 38.5% of survey respondents reported being humiliated or verbally abused by police during relatively minor interactions such as checking ID. One respondent said the officer called her a whore, prostitute, and trick. During 8.6% of these interactions, officers confiscated or destroyed safe sex supplies, including condoms. 17.3% of participants side that police-initiated interactions involved the officer asking for sexual services, or demanding sexual services to avoid arrest. 9.1% of participants reported being assaulted by police officers. 3 respondents reported strip searches.

Seventy eight participants were profiled as sex workers and ordered to "move along." The most common result of this was that they ended up in an area where they felt less safe.

75% of trans people and 82.4% of Latinos said they were treated worse than others when they were in lock up.

When the survey respondents initiated contact with the police, usually to report a crime, in a number of cases the police tried to have sex with them. This seemed to be particularly true of trans Latinas.

Studies not limited to specific areas

Human Rights Violations of Sex Workers, People in the Sex Trades, and People Profiled as Such

Best Practices Policy Project, Desiree Alliance, and Sex Workers Outreach Project- NYC

2014-09-15

This was submitted as part of the UN Universal Periodic Review of the U.S.A.