THE CONDOM QUANDARY

they were carrying out a search. Our shop had a little basin holding condoms, and
they found that little basin and asked why we had them in our shop, and said this
must be a prostitution venue. What was really annoying was that they weren’t from
the nearby police station. The police made us carry the basin full of condoms to
the police station and said they were evidence or whatever. 116
Sex workers also reported that the police take photos of condoms they find during these
searches. 117 The police also confiscated the condoms and treat finding condoms as the
determinative factor in whether to take the sex worker back to the police station for further
inquiries or penalty. Among the 29 interview respondents who experienced police searches
for condoms while streetwalking or in their homes or entertainment venues, 69% (20/29)
were taken to the police station where an administrative penalty was imposed, 13.8% (4/29)
were taken to the police station for further inquiries without a penalty being imposed, and
17% (5/29) had no further action taken against them. Junfang, a female sex worker who
works on the street, said:
As soon as I stand in an alleyway, I’ll get caught. If you’re not carrying condoms,
he [the policeman] will make you stand there and interrogate you, but as long as
you refuse to admit it and say you’re just passing through, he can’t take you away.
But if there are condoms, the police will take you in. 118
5.2.3 Reliance on condoms as “evidence” and police violence, abuse, and coercion
Sex work-related offenses are mainly handled pursuant to several administrative measures,
and consequently, there is no judicial review or involvement of the court system. 119
Accordingly, it was not possible to obtain documentation of the penalties reported by
interview respondents. As a result, there is no way of determining which cases involved law
enforcement officers using condoms as “evidence” to determine an act of “prostitution,” or
in which cases penalties were imposed because of condom possession.
The possession of condoms, in itself, is not in fact evidence of a sexual transaction. Given
the private nature of most commercial sexual transactions, eyewitness evidence is hard to
come by, so condoms are the easiest material evidence to uncover. Although condoms can
only serve as supporting evidence in a chain of evidence, the majority of law enforcement
effort is applied to searching for condoms.
Police violence, abuse, and coercion was reported by interview respondents of all gender
categories. 120 Forms of abuse included:
47