new study from san fran- average age of sex workers?....44...... racial majority?......

http://stjamesinfirmary.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/RHM34+-+Lutnick_2009.pdf [1]

out of 247 participants- 119 were african american, 77 caucasian, 27 mixed , 20 latina, 2 asian pacific,2 first nations.

sample group mostly from street based sex work -ages from 18 to 69. 

also, 128 or 52% were injection drug users- not 90% as some would have us believe.

worker reported neveada mandatory health checks as invasive and described the experiences as being poked and proded also stating it was ridiculously over done in nevada.

An argument frequently used against criminalization is the rampant violence sex workers experience in criminalized settings.1,2,9,17-24 Police abuse, such as sexual demands in lieu of arrest19,23 and excessive use of physical force have been reported, e.g. in Canada and the United States.21,25 Most crimes against sex workers go unpunished, as most sex workers do not go to the police when they have been victimized.3,22,23,26 Few papers address the risk of violence among female sex workers in San Francisco. In a crosssectional study of 783 adults accessing health care at St. James Infirmary from 1999-2004, we found that 36.3% of the women experienced sex work-related violence, and 7.9% police violence.24

Abstract: Sex work is a criminal offence in San Francisco, USA, and sex work advocates have so far unsuccessfully campaigned for decriminalizing it. Some groups argue that the decriminalization movement does not represent the voices of marginalized sex workers. Using qualitative and quantitative data from the Sex Worker Environmental Assessment Team Study, we investigated the perspectives and experiences of a range of female sex workers regarding the legal status of sex work and the impact of criminal law on their work experiences. Forty women were enrolled in the qualitative phase in 2004 and 247 women in the quantitative phase in 2006-07. Overall, the women in this study seemed to prefer a hybrid of legalization and decriminalization. The majority voiced a preference for removing statutes that criminalize sex work in order to facilitate a social and political environment where they had legal rights and could seek help when they were victims of violence.Advocacy groups need to explore the compromises sex workers are willing to make to ensure safe working conditions and the same legal protections afforded to other workers, and with those who are most marginalized to better understand their immediate needs and how these can be met through decriminalization. ©2009 Reproductive Health Matters. All rights reserved.

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