From the category archives:

sex work

U.S. Continues to Discriminate Against Sex Workers, Deny HIV Prevention Funding

by Cara July 27, 2010

Last Friday, Titania Kumeh wrote an excellent blog post at Mother Jones about the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, and the over 100 sex workers and advocates who protested outside. The protest was about how U.S. funding to fight HIV transmission explicitly and deliberately excludes sex workers, even though they are one of the groups [...]

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New Report Details Police Abuses Against Cambodian Sex Workers

by Cara July 20, 2010

Trigger Warning for discussions of sexual violence and police violence, specifically including violence against sex workers and transphobic violence. Earlier this year, I wrote about an Amnesty International report about sexual violence against women in Cambodia, and the judicial response (or more accurately, lack of judicial response) to sexual violence. A section of that report [...]

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Oregon Police Officer Confesses to Sexual Violence Against Sex Workers

by Cara July 2, 2010

Trigger Warning for descriptions of sexual violence, specifically sexual violence against sex workers. Continuing in an unfortunately long line of stories about police officers using their state power as a means to commit sexual violence against women, comes this one out of Oregon. An officer named Joshua Jensen (left) was alleged to have forced two [...]

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NY Bill Allows Sex Trafficking Victims to Clear Prostitution Convictions

by Cara June 28, 2010

Good News: earlier this month, the New York State legislature passed a bill allowing victims of sex trafficking to have prostitution convictions against them vacated. The bill currently only awaits Governor Paterson’s signature, but activists are hopeful that he will give it his stamp of approval: Sex trafficking victims may soon be able to have [...]

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Cambodian Police Often Require Bribes Before Investigating Rape Cases

by Cara March 9, 2010

Yesterday, International Women’s Day, Amnesty International released two reports on sexual violence against women and judicial response to this violence. The report Breaking the silence: Sexual justice in Cambodia focuses on how police corruption intimidates, frightens, and harms victims in Cambodia who attempt to come forward, usually with one’s chances of justice falling along class [...]

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U.S. Sailor Acquitted of Rape, Despite Admission of Physical Force

by Cara November 24, 2009

Trigger Warning for rape apologism and graphic descriptions of sexual violence In Sydney, a U.S. sailor has been acquitted on charges of raping a sex worker who told him to stop — even though he admitted, in court, to using a “lock down maneuver” to pin her to the bed. A New South Wales District [...]

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Defense Attorney Calls Rape Victims “Whores,” and Worse

by Cara August 27, 2009

Trigger Warning Every single time I argue that a rape apologist defense attorney has hit a new low, I speak too soon. This time, the evidence that there was still further to sink just came at a particularly rapid speed, and with a particularly hard impact. Outside Charleston, West Virginia, a defense attorney defended a [...]

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Anti-Sex Worker Bigotry Makes Its Way Into Rape Trial

by Cara August 17, 2009

Rape shield laws exist in the United States to prevent a defense attorney from questioning an alleged rape victim about her (or his) previous sexual history. And they exist for a damn good reason — because a sexual assault victim’s sexual history has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not she was actually raped. [...]

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Strip Club Hires Kidnapped and Assaulted 14-Year-Old Girl, Then Sues Her

by Cara June 24, 2009

This story comes straight out of the WTF files.  A 14-year-old girl was allegedly kidnapped, sexually assaulted numerous times, and forced to perform at a strip club.  Everyone involved agrees that the girl, who again is 14, did indeed perform there.  There is absolutely no debate about that particular aspect at all, in fact.  And [...]

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Police Arrest Rape Traffickers, Then Book Trafficked Women on Drug Charges

by Cara June 13, 2009

A reader sent me this disgusting little story about a father and son who were running some sort of rape trade business together.  The two men were roping women into working for them by saying they’d be providing massages, and then held the women captive so that they could sell the right to rape them [...]

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