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

Preventing child abuse through prostitution and separating the experiences of sex work and
drug use
This study has highlighted two key issues that need to be addressed:
● the need to prevent young people under 18 being abused through prostitution;
and
● the need to break the connection between problem drug use and sex work.
In order to address these issues a range of interventions are required, which involve both
specialist and mainstream services, including the police and social services. To take account
of the multi-service involvement and the complex needs of the young people involved in sex
work and drug use, it is recommended that harm reduction services are targeted at young
people engaged in sex work and drug use. To be effective we suggest that these services
have the following features:
● a focus on establishing and maintaining contact with young people vulnerable to
prostitution and developing problem drug use; and
● offer advice, support and referral on a wide range of personal safety, health and
social issues.
Young people also re q u i re support to help them leave, and ways to prevent other
vulnerable young people being drawn into these activities in the first place need to be
c o n s i d e red. This re q u i res co-ordinated work between the police and other workers in the
criminal justice and care systems to identify young people at risk. The police also have an
i m p o rtant role to target abusers.
F u t u re re s e a rch should explore the impact of licensing sex work premises by local
authorities. This re s e a rch would explicitly explore the potential for separating the
environment for sex work and drug use and preventing under-18 year-olds getting drawn
into prostitution. Such a study would assess the impact of licensing and determine the
conditions that sex work premises would have to meet in order to gain and keep their
license to operate.
Summary of conclusions and recommendations
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