Violence against prostitutes
Violence against prostitutes is very common; they are at high risk of violent crime,[1] probably at higher risk of occupational mortality than any other group of women ever studied.
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Homicide rate [edit]
The homicide rate for female prostitutes was estimated to be 204 per 100,000,[2] which is considerably higher than that for the next riskiest occupations in the United States during a similar period (4 per 100,000 for female liquor store workers and 29 per 100,000 for male taxicab drivers).[3] However, there are substantial differences in rates of victimization between street prostitutes and indoor prostitutes who work as escorts, call girls, or in brothels and massage parlors.[4]
Violent clients, pimps and police officers [edit]
Perpetrators include violent clients, pimps, and corrupt law-enforcement officers. Prostitutes themselves often take their clients to out of the way places where they are less likely to be interrupted, which is very convenient for their attackers. Being criminals in most jurisdictions, prostitutes are less likely than the law-abiding to be looked for by police if they disappear, making them favored targets of predators.
According to a study conducted on one hundred and thirty people working as prostitutes in San Francisco, as adults in prostitution, 82% had been physically assaulted, 83% had been threatened with a weapon and 68% had been raped while working as prostitutes.[5]
Licensed brothels [edit]
While women who work on the streets are the most likely to be victimized, attacks and even murders on prostitutes have also occurred in licensed brothels. For example, in June 2003, a Thai prostitute was murdered with a knife by a customer in the Pascha brothel in Köln, Germany. She managed to press the alarm button in her room and security personnel caught the perpetrator; in January 2006, in the same brothel, another prostitute was attacked with a knife by a customer; the woman working next door alerted security and the perpetrator was caught. The victim survived.
Serial killers [edit]
Prostitutes (particularly those engaging in street prostitution) are also sometimes targeted by serial killers, who may consider them easy pickings and less likely to be missed, or who use the religious and social stigma associated with prostitutes as justification for their murder.
The unidentified serial killer (or killers) known as Jack the Ripper killed at least five prostitutes in London in 1888. Due to the frequent murders of prostitutes at that time and place, however, it is difficult to be certain of the number killed by Jack the Ripper. These particular murders are distinguished from other murders of prostitutes during the same time period due to the post-mortem mutilations that occurred, and it is for that reason that other murders of prostitutes are not usually attributed to the Ripper, or are disputed.
Peter Sutcliffe murdered 13 women, most of whom were prostitutes, from 1975-1980 in Northern England.
Gary Ridgway (aka the Green River Killer), confessed to killing 48 prostitutes from 1982 to 1998, making him one of the most prolific serial killers in American history.[6]
Robert Hansen murdered between 15 and 21 prostitutes, near Anchorage, Alaska, between 1980 and 1983.
Joel Rifkin confessed to killing 17 prostitutes in the New York area between 1989 and 1993, without there having been a missing persons report filed on any of the women during that time.
More recently, Robert Pickton, a Canadian who lived near Vancouver, made headlines after the remains of numerous missing prostitutes were found on his family farm. He has now been convicted of the murders of 6 women who went missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and is suspected by police of killing at least twenty more (though no charges have been filed in relation to their deaths). In December 2007 he was sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
In December 2006, Steve Wright murdered five prostitutes in Ipswich, England (see Ipswich serial murders).
References [edit]
Notes [edit]
- ^ Justicewomen.com Retrieved on 04-26-07
- ^ Potterat et al., 2004
- ^ Castillo et al., 1994
- ^ Weitzer 2000, 2005
- ^ "Prostitution Research & Education Website". Prostitutionresearch.com. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
- ^ CNN.com Retrieved on 10-27-07
Sources [edit]
- Potterat JJ, Brewer DD, Muth SQ, et al. (April 2004). "Mortality in a long-term open cohort of prostitute women". Am. J. Epidemiol. 159 (8): 778–85. doi:10.1093/aje/kwh110. PMID 15051587.
- Weitzer R (2005). "New Directions in Research on Prostitution" (PDF). Crime, Law, and Social Change 43 (4-5): 211–35. doi:10.1007/s10611-005-1735-6.
- Weitzer R (2006). "Moral Crusade Against Prostitution" (PDF). Society (March–April): 33–8. ISSN 1524-8879.
- Castillo DN, Jenkins EL (February 1994). "Industries and occupations at high risk for work-related homicide". J Occup Med 36 (2): 125–32. doi:10.1097/00043764-199402000-00006. PMID 8176509.
