Prostitution reform transformed the industry but attitudes towards sex workers need to catch up, Prostitutes Collective co-founder Dame Catherine Healy has said after the alleged murder of a Christchurch sex worker on New Year’s Eve.
A 42-year-old man was charged with the murder of 34-year-old Bella Te Pania on December 31 in Christchurch.
Dame Catherine said Ms Te Pania, a young mother, was the latest Christchurch-based sex worker to be the victim of violence.
“We’ve had five women (in Christchurch) who have been murdered in 15 years in the context of sex work,” she said.
“(It’s) Often put onto the activity of the sex worker, sometimes the sex worker and her actions are analysed and critiqued.”
Dame Catherine said while prostitution had been legalised 17 years ago, in many ways attitudes towards sex workers needed to catch up.
“We have to address attitudes towards sex workers, that people understand sex workers and they’re not demonised, that’s really important,” she said.
“I think it would be really helpful to think of sex workers as humans, as members of society. To be respectful, to support decriminalisation.”
The legalisation of prostitution in 2003 had resulted in sex workers being more willing to report crimes to police.
“I remember when it was criminalised, people were really reluctant to cooperate with the police because their activities were deemed illegal or antisocial,” she said.
“I know the dynamic has changed, I know that sex workers do feel more able to report violence and speak up…they will contact police and report acts of violence.”
Reform also gave sex workers more options, particularly for street-based prostitutes around potential moves off the street, though Dame Catherine pointed out that most of the street-based sex work was carried out without any violence.
“We do tend to have a shrinking population of street-based sex workers and while street-based sex work can be safe for some, we do have more options provided there aren’t homelessness and things like that.”
“We can work towards getting sex workers indoors where they can control their environments a little bit more easily.”
Dame Catherine said the issue of violence against sex workers was not exclusive to Christchurch, but that the population of street-based prostitutes in the city was different compared with other parts of the country.
“The street-based sex workers (in Christchurch) are mostly women, Auckland, for example, we have a high population of whakawahine, trans-women, those are two different kinds of populations,” she said.
“Now across New Zealand, when we think about the number of sex workers and the number of clients, most of the relationships occur in a safe environment and the outcomes are safe.”
“That can equally mean that street-based sex workers who meet their clients through connections on the street, most of the outcomes are safe.”
SHARE ME