THE CONDOM QUANDARY

Table 8: Possession of condoms in the past month with and without police interrogation
5.2 Law enforcement actions relating to condoms as evidence
To understand how searches were carried out, we interviewed 74 sex workers who had
experienced police searches for condoms. Interview respondents said the police’s main
methods for handling prostitution cases were attempts to catch sex workers “in the act,” or
“stop and search” operations on the street, in residences and in entertainment venues.
5.2.1 Actions targeting sexual transactions
Catching sex workers at the scene is the main method that police used to handle sex work
cases. Forty seven of the 74 interview respondents reported that they had experienced
one or more police raids while in the process of engaging in or attempting to engage in a
commercial sexual transaction, or while soliciting clients or being solicited by an undercover
investigating officer (entrapment). Most of the locations were indoors, such as in hotel
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