User:BurroLoco/sandbox
Studies in specific areas
Alaska
- People in Alaska's Sex Trade: Their Lived Experiences and Policy Recommendations[1]
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... people were just mortified because they'd seen a teenage girl get assaulted by a police officer, two police officers.
— 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.
52% of all participants had tried to report a crime, and the police took 44% of their reports, threatened 33% with arrest, and arrested 6%. 80% of participants who had been manipulated or coerced into sex work had tried to report a crime, and the police took 20% of their reports, threatened 60% with arrest, and arrested 20%.
26% of all participants had been assaulted by an officer. 60% of those who had been coerced or manipulated into sex work and 50% of those who had been forced into sex work had been assaulted by an officer.
9% of all participants had been robbed or beaten by an officer. 40% of those who had been coerced or manipulated into sex work and 50% of those who had been forced into sex work had been robbed or beaten by an officer.
Baltimore
- Investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department[2]
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 perpetuator
Decker et al
2013
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-13-876
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
https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/925846/download
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
2007-09
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 in order to avoid arrest. The women with pimps were less likely to be arrested and were never extorted for sex. Sex workers were more likely to have sex by a police officer than arrested by one.
- Sisters Speak Out: The Lives and Needs of Prostituted Women in Chicago
Raphael and Shapiro
2002-08
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 https://ywepchicago.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/bad-encounter-line-report-2012.pdf
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
https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2011/03/17/nopd_report.pdf
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
2008-12
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/225083.pdf
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
http://sexworkersproject.org/downloads/RevolvingDoor.pdf
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 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."
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.
This is just a sampling of the false arrest stories.
- 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
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/yvq9bx/sex-workers-and-the-city-0000550-v22n1
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
https://dctranscoalition.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/movealongreport.pdf
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.
References
- ^ Tara Burns. People in Alaska's Sex Trade: Their Lived Experiences and Policy Recommendations (PDF) (Thesis).
- ^ U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civil Rights Division (2016-08-10). Investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department (PDF) (Report).