In Spring 2018 a team of researchers at the University of Bristol were commissioned by the Home Office and the Office of the South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner to report on the current ‘nature’ and ‘prevalence’ of prostitution in England and Wales.
This pre-pandemic 2019 report offers a snapshot of the experiences of 500 or so women interviewed and the NGOs and professional bodies supporting women in this area. Important limitations apply: it only looked at over 18s. Voices specifically absent or underrepresented were ‘Migrant sex workers; plus British and non-British individuals who are/were forcibly coerced, who are/were trafficked, who are/were sexually exploited and/or who are traumatised in relation to their experience’.
The research team developed a working definition which took a broad view of the sex industry:
‘Prostitution and/or sex work constitutes the provision of sexual or erotic acts or sexual intimacy in exchange for payment or other benefit or need.‘
Therefore they looked at
Bar-based sex work and hostess bars
BDSM, kink and fetish
Brothels, parlours, saunas
Erotic and exotic dance
Erotic massage
Escort: independent
Escort: agency
Pornography, Glamour and Erotica
Sex parties
Street and outdoor
Sugar arrangements
Telephone, text-based, TV-based, Live voyeurism Therapeutic services
Webcamming
A very concerning conclusion is that it shows that in the UK we don’t even bother to nationally collect data on how many women are involved in this work. That’s how much we care about women and their safety. They’re completely expendable.
At very least the onus should be on the shills, advocates and beneficiaries of this exploitation to come up with actual evidence that it’s harmless and empowering to women or just doing a job like anything else or whatever claims they make.
Yet to absolutely nobody’s surprise, this report- even with its acknowledged significant gaps in the data- provides insight pointing to very worrying conclusions for the welfare of women.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/842920/Prostitution_and_Sex_Work_Report.pdf
As the authors’ preface points out:
‘We recognise that there are many individuals in prostitution who are subject to acute exploitation and serious and sustained harm. Some identify selling sex as a pleasurable and lucrative career choice, or as a therapeutic vocation. Our sense from the data that we have collected and from reviewing existing research is that a substantial proportion of individuals (mainly women and trans women) are selling sex to get by financially, given different constraints in their lives around caring responsibilities, physical and mental health, lack of access to social security benefits and support services, workplace discrimination, or other reasons. Their situation is compounded by stigma and managing safety, and many find that the longer they sell sex, the harder it can be to leave completely. This moves beyond individual ‘choosing or ‘not choosing’ and recognises the structural economic and social context in which choices are narrowed: or in the case of those coerced in to selling sex, choices removed. We ask readers of this report to recognise and hold these tensions in mind.‘