East London Project

Participatory research project to see how removing policing against sex work could affect sex workers’ safety, health and access to services in East London

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

New research alert! Our @LSHTM study in @STI_BMJ found that more than one in five sex workers have faced recent verbal, physical or sexual violence from police officers.
https://t.co/KqSD6w1gQn
🧵 1/

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

@NationalUglyMug @ProstitutesColl @SexWorkHive @sexworkreshub

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

📣New @EastLdn paper out in @CPHjournal. We document how east-London-based #sexwork ers’ encounters with police, local government, immigration, and mainstream health & support services have:
⏩threatened their safety & health
⏩disciplined their lives
⏩denied them justice
A 🧵

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

@eastldn @CPHjournal See our full study for more details: https://t.co/gGtfdQ1yMM
@pippagrenfell @rs643_rachel @JanetEastham @twoshadesofhope @JocelynElmes @lucyvplatt @maggieoneill9 11/

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

@eastldn @CPHjournal ⏩Urgent action is needed to stop police violence against sex workers, deliver them justice and redress related health & social harms. #Decriminalisation is a vital step but this also requires major shifts to tackle institutional racism, misogyny and other discrimination. 10/

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

@eastldn @CPHjournal ⏩Enforcement and specialist service cuts harm sex workers. We urge local governments and public health agencies to speak out about the impact this has on these members of the communities they serve. 9/

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

@eastldn @CPHjournal Sex workers with diverse lived experiences described how they pushed back against these conditions, and called for funds to be directed:
☑away from sex-work related enforcement
☑towards respectful, specialist and peer-led health & support services
We echo these calls. 8/

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

@eastldn @CPHjournal ‘Necropolitical assemblages’-@AchilleMbembe1-of enforcement & service-cuts worsened sex workers’ living conditions & dictated whose lives & needs mattered. They positioned sex workers as threats to communities instead of community members, & contributed to health inequalities. 7/

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

@eastldn @CPHjournal Marginalised and minoritised workers were worst affected; women who work on the street, global-majority and migrant workers were particularly targeted by police, denied justice when reporting violence, and impacted by service conditions & cuts. 6/

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

@eastldn @CPHjournal Sex workers and other stakeholders attributed these funding cuts to tensions over sex-work ‘governance’ and data-sharing, and a downplaying of sex workers’ needs. Some sex workers described newer ‘exiting’-commissioned projects offering insufficient experience & services. 5/

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

@eastldn @CPHjournal Sex workers faced discrimination & conditional treatment in mainstream services, so many relied on a trusted sex worker health & support service to navigate rigid & hostile systems, report violence & access care. By the end of the research, this service was heavily defunded. 4/

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

@eastldn @CPHjournal ❗Most police & local-authority interviewees described sex work-related enforcement as protecting vulnerable women &/or community safety.
❗But sex workers described structurally & physically violent encounters with officers, & routinely being denied justice. 3/

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

@eastldn @CPHjournal We interviewed sex workers working in street and indoor settings, as well as police, local authority representatives, and staff from specialist health and support services, in 3 East London boroughs. 2/

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

7/ See our full study for more detail 👉
https://t.co/o728DVHv0e
@LSHTM @EastLdnProject @corbeau_1863 @NationalUglyMug @rs643_rachel @pippagrenfell @lucyvplatt @jogwalker10 @NIHRresearch @JocelynElmes

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

New research alert! Our @lshtm study examines the effect of police enforcement on sexual and emotional violence among sex workers in East London – exposing the disproportionate negative impacts on ethnically/racially minoritized and LGB sex workers https://t.co/o728DVqrYe

[East London Project @EastLdnProject]

6/ The extensive police enforcement that land disproportionately on ethnic or racialized minority sex workers further support sex workers’ & human rights organisations’ calls to decriminalise sex work as a matter of racial justice as well as one of broader health & social justice