User:17lpratt/New sandbox

Violence against prostitutes

Contributing factors[edit]
Studies have shown that younger prostitutes tend to experience more client violence than their older colleagues. Furthermore, cisgender and transgender female sex workers are also more likely to experience violence committed by a client than their male prostitute counterparts.

Social Stigmas: Transgender Sex Workers
As represented through a study on transgender sex workers, trans women, especially those of color, tend to endure higher rates of violence then that of cisgender women due to discriminations and intersectional factors. There are a variety of contributing factors, including the social stigmas surrounding transgender women that push them into sex work as a means of survival; this includes high unemployment rates typically due to legalized discriminations, a lack of education or career opportunities, and mental health issues resulting from transphobic experiences from adolescence through adulthood. It is shown in one study that transgender women chose to remain in sex work despite the risks of violence and HIV contraction as a means to gain the social and economic support that society typically fails to provide. This is specifically seen with black transgender women who are paid less for sex work, and are therefore pushed to see more clients, increasing their chances of exposure to violence.

Although transgender sex workers are able to attain their own sense of community, they are still faced with discrimination which often represents itself in violence on the streets. Since these discriminations are deeply embedded in societies such as the United States, many transgender sex workers are met with abuse or exploitation from law enforcement, rather than protection or support. On top of the typical risk of rape and robbery that prostitutes face by their clients and police, transgender prostitutes face the additional burden of transphobic acts of violence and harassment. One study includes 48 transgender women of color from San Francisco who share their experiences with violence during sex work--one participant recalls: "The police see you on the sidewalk, they will snatch your hair off your head, if you have on a wig and they will call you 'boy', loud, so everybody can hear over the speaker phone" [p. 774]. Another participant describes being forced into performing oral sex on an officer in order to escape the threat of arrest. This transphobic violence is also perpetuated by clients, as shown through another participant who describes the death of her friend, who was killed and dismembered by a client who originally believe she was a cisgender woman.

Sources:

Sausa, Lydia A., JoAnne Keatley, and Don Operario. "Perceived Risks and Benefits of Sex Work among Transgender Women of Color in San Francisco." Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol. 36, no. 6, 2007, pp. 768-77''. ProQuest'', https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.albany.edu/docview/205940640?accountid=14166, doi: http://dx.doi.org.libproxy.albany.edu/10.1007/s10508-007-9210-3 ..

Moorman, Jessica D., and Kristen Harrison. “Gender, Race, and Risk: Intersectional Risk Management in the Sale of Sex Online.” Journal of Sex Research, vol. 53, no. 7, Sept. 2016, pp. 816–824. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00224499.2015.1065950.

Nemoto, Tooru, et al. “Social Support, Exposure to Violence and Transphobia, and Correlates of Depression Among Male-to-Female Transgender Women With a History of Sex Work.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 101, no. 10, Oct. 2011, pp. 1980–1988. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2010.197285.