THE CONDOM QUANDARY

In response to why they (187 respondents) do not always carry condoms, two reasons
were most prevalent: (1) fear of police searches and confiscation of condoms as evidence
of prostitution [41.7% (78/187)], and (2) unwillingness of clients to use condoms [37.4%
(70/187)]. As with condom use, female respondents are more likely to cite policing and
clients as the reason for not carrying condoms. Among 162 women who reported not
always carrying condoms, 45.7% (74/162) reported not doing so out of fear that the police
will search for condoms and use them as evidence of prostitution, 40% (65/162) cited the
reason as clients not wanting to use condoms. But only 17.6% (3/17) male and 12.5% (1/8)
transgender respondents cited fear of police as the reason for not carrying condoms.
5.1.3 Law enforcement actions and condoms
Among respondents, 35.4% (183/517) sex workers -- including female (133), male (23) and
transgender (37) -- said they had experienced searches for condoms by the police. The
principal method of interrogation used by the police was to confiscate unused condoms
(66), collect used condoms (70), and/or ask sex workers about condoms (132).
Among the respondents who had been interrogated by the police in the past year, 21.1%
(47/222) reported that they would now use condoms less often, and 36.5% (81/222) said
that they reduced the number of condoms they carried after having had interactions with the
police.
The research found that the consistent condom use rate (in the past month) is lower
among respondents who had been interrogated by the police (in the past year) than those
who had no such experience: the rate of consistent condom use is 47.7% (106/222) and
67.8% (200/295), respectively. Among them, the difference was clearest among female sex
workers. Only 44.7% (71/259) of female sex workers who had been interrogated by the
police had used condoms consistently – a substantially lower figure than for female sex
workers who had not been interrogated by the police (66%, 95/144).
39