Of the 585 reports of violence received by the charity (National Ugly Mugs) in 2023, only 11% felt safe enough with support to make a full report to police and only 45% consented to provide anonymous intelligence.
“We all know that predators target sex workers because they can do so with impunity,” says Bowen. “Sex workers are rarely believed.”
She adds: “On Wednesday, while the police were apologising for their mishandling of Emma’s case, a sex worker was being raided for sharing working premises with others to keep women off the deadly streets at night. Working together from premises is a life-saving strategy but we criminalise this as brothel-keeping. This is part of why we support full decriminalisation.”