Policing roulette: Sex workers’ perception of encounters with police officers in the indoor and outdoor sector in England
| Author | Eva Klambauer |
| DOI | 10.1177/1748895817709865 |
| Published date | 01 July 2018 |
| Date | 01 July 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895817709865
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2018, Vol. 18(3) 255 –272
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895817709865
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Policing roulette: Sex workers’
perception of encounters with
police officers in the indoor and
outdoor sector in England
Eva Klambauer
King’s College London, UK
Abstract
The regulation of sex work continues to be a divisive topic in England and internationally. Policies
governing the policing of the sex industry in England are continually revised and debated, but
are seldom grounded in empirical evidence of sex workers’ experiences. Based on 49 qualitative
interviews with sex workers in England, this article finds that indoor sex workers had far more
positive experiences with the police than outdoor sex workers. Despite this difference, both
indoor and outdoor sex workers perceive their interactions with the police through the lens of
their stigmatized status as sex workers and do not expect respectful treatment by the police.
This article presents compelling evidence that an enforcement-led approach to policing creates
insuperable barriers to the success of protective policing.
Keywords
Legal marginalization, policing, sex work, stigma
Introduction
The regulation of sex work1 continues to be a divisive topic with policies governing the
policing of the sex industry being continually revised in England. Most recently, the intro-
duction of the so-called Nordic Model of client criminalization was considered by a par-
liamentary inquiry (Home Affairs Committee, 2016). Policy guidelines on sex work are
seldom grounded in empirical evidence of sex workers’ experiences with and attitudes
towards the police (Brooks-Gordon, 2006). While the selling of sex itself is legal in
Corresponding author:
Eva Klambauer, The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, UK.
Email: eva.klambauer@kcl.ac.uk
709865CRJ0010.1177/1748895817709865Criminology & Criminal JusticeKlambauer
research-article2017
Article
256 Criminology & Criminal Justice 18(3)
England and Wales, sex work remains quasi-criminalized by virtue of most associated
activities being illegal.2 Living and working on the margins of legality, sex workers are
likely to internalize their position in society as immoral, deviant and criminalized subjects
(Krüsi et al., 2016). This is particularly evident in sex workers’ perceptions of their inter-
actions with the police. The interactions between sex workers and police officers and sex
workers’ perception of these interactions are not only influenced by the laws the police
enforce, but also by gender dynamics, stigmatization, eroticization and social class (Krüsi
et al., 2016). Sex workers are both disproportionately subjected to the disciplining func-
tions of law and ‘experience relatively high levels of victimization including assault, rape,
drugging, verbal abuse, theft, abduction, kidnapping, blackmail, harassment, and persecu-
tion’ (Prior et al., 2013: 574). Hence, the quality of the police–sex worker relationship can
have a substantial impact on sex workers’ safety and well-being.
This study strengthens the body of empirical evidence demonstrating that the crimi-
nalization of sex workers significantly worsens the relationship of sex workers and the
police. Policing sex work in a criminalized legal environment creates opportunities for
the abuse of power by police officers (Boittin, 2013; Fick, 2016; Kotiswaran, 2011;
Rhodes et al., 2008; Williamson et al., 2007). Several studies have shed light on the nega-
tive impact of police discretion3 (Dewey and St Germain, 2014; Frances and Gray, 2007;
Williamson et al., 2007) and police corruption and bribery (Boittin, 2013; Kotiswaran,
2011; Tenni et al., 2015) on criminalized sex industries. Other studies focused on the
impact of enforcement-oriented policing on sex workers’ working practices, and as a
result, their safety (Krüsi et al., 2014; Sanders, 2004; Saunders and Kirby, 2010). Studies
on the impact of the ‘Nordic Model’ of client criminalization in Sweden provided evi-
dence that any form of criminalization, even indirect, worsens the relationship of sex
workers and the police, making sex workers less likely to report crimes (Levy and
Jakobsson, 2014).
The vast majority of existing literature on sex workers’ interactions with the police
focused on street-based sex workers. Street-based sex workers are the most marginalized
sex workers with a greater prevalence of health problems and exposure to violence and
exploitation (Armstrong, 2014; Krüsi et al., 2014; Mellor and Lovell, 2012; Phoenix,
1999; Salfati et al., 2008; Sanders, 2001; Van Doorninck and Campbell, 2006). In
England and Wales, street-based sex workers operate in a highly criminalized and stig-
matized environment (Carline and Scoular, 2015; Hubbard, 2004; Phoenix, 2006; Sagar,
2007, 2009). In addition, street-based sex workers are often marginalized in myriad
ways, due to substance abuse, poverty, homelessness and criminal records for sex work
or drug-related offences and petty crime. Consequently, it has been found that street-
based sex workers are likely to fear the police and perceive their interactions with police
officers more negatively than other sex workers (Saunders and Kirby, 2010).
This study contributes to the literature on sex work by providing unique access to the
experiences of less-researched indoor sex workers. To understand the complexities sur-
rounding the relationship of sex workers and the police, it is imperative to study the
experiences of sex workers from different sectors and backgrounds, not only those who
are most marginalized. Previous studies demonstrated that many independent indoor sex
workers work in the sex industry voluntarily,4 free from the pressures of extreme poverty,
drug use or exploitative third parties (Pitcher and Wijers, 2014; Sanders, 2009b). In
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