Vulnerability and involvement in drug use and ... - Sex Work Europe

Vulnerability and involvement in drug use and sex work
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These are harm reduction interventions aimed at:
– reducing drug consumption amongst sex workers and their clients;
– promoting sexual safety via safer sex with commercial partners;
– ensuring safer sex practices are not undermined by disinhibiting drug effects or
by reduced capacity for physical control; and
– ensuring personal physical safety is not undermined by disinhibiting drug effects
or by reduced capacity for physical control.
Targeting the most vulnerable
This study recommends the following courses of action.
● S e rvices acknowledge adult sex worker choice and remind policy makers and serv i c e
p roviders that their participants did not see sex work as a problem in its own right.
● Adults choosing to do sex work are permitted the same opportunities to work
safely and according to the same employment laws as other workers.
● A pragmatic policy position is taken that recognises that sex work is unlikely to be
eradicated in the near future. Such a policy should therefore focus on reducing
the harms, which have become associated with sex work.
● Services work jointly to ensure the early identification of both vulnerable young
people and trafficked women attempting to sell sex indoors. This would be more
achievable if indoor sex premises were licensed, regulated and well-managed.
These policies are more achievable than eradicating sex work and more socially
responsible than allowing abuses to flourish in this unregulated business.
Preventing children being abused through prostitution
To prevent children being abused through prostitution, this study recommends the following
course of action.
● S e rvices identify children at risk for involvement in prostitution. Almost all of the
most vulnerable children are already in contact with services. More could be
done via the care system and the criminal justice system to prevent their
involvement at an early age. Vulnerable children need support to ensure they
a re securely housed, socially included and have access to services on the basis
of need.