Sex workers are increasingly at risk of violence, and being forced to do things they don't want to – and the internet is at least partly to blame. That's the frank assessment of women who have worked on the streets and in the legal and illegal brothel industries, and have been interviewed by Fairfax Media.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
All say that there is considerably less demand for sex work than five years ago and, as women compete for fewer clients, they are facing demands for unsafe sexual practices and regular violence.
Project Respect, a not-for-profit group that supports women in the sex industry, is calling for the everyday violence against sex workers to be recognised as just as significant a problem as violence against women more broadly.
Kathleen Maltzahn, the group's founding director, says there was a view that once sex workers had taken a client's money, they consented to everything that occurred with that client.
"As long as people think, 'you took the money so therefore you consented', that's going to be a big problem," she says.
The women interviewed by Fairfax Media said the rise of internet "hook up" sites such as sugardaddyforme.com and f---book.com were making it easier for men to connect with sex workers and sexual partners, and contributing to a downturn in the industry.
They say violence is a daily part of their life. The most common forms are biting, slapping, pinching, hair pulling, verbal abuse and rough sex, which they say is present in almost every interaction. None had reported being victims of this violence, which they considered "part of the job".
At Project Respect's Fitzroy office, four women who have recently left the sex industry sit around a table. Haltingly at first, they tell their stories.
Jen* says when she started brothel work five years ago, women could make $500-$600 over a seven-hour day shift. Now, they'd be lucky to make $200.
Hannah, who spent about six years doing street sex work in St Kilda, says that as the industry declines, sex workers have been forced to drop their prices, and offer services that would have previously attracted a high fee.
"Now, they're expecting you to do things you never want to do."
She was once kidnapped by a client for four-and-a-half hours, and counts herself lucky to have made it out alive. Another client held a gun to her head, and she has been raped several times. A woman she knew had been thrown from a moving truck and broke her leg and a bone in her neck.
Sara says that when she stopped working at a Sydney brothel some months ago, the number of women offering sexual services without the protection of condoms had doubled. When she left the industry, she was experiencing "more and more violence", and increasingly using drugs and alcohol to cope.
Hannah interjects: "You need to do drugs to do the work; you need the drugs to forget about the work".
While domestic violence has become a national talking point and the subject of a royal commission, violence against sex workers remains hidden.
The Crime Statistics Agency, which is responsible for processing, analysing and publishing crime statistics in Victoria, does not collect data on violence against sex workers. The agency says it does not collate assault statistics based on people's occupations.
In Ms Maltzahn's words, this shows "you measure what you value".
"Women show tremendous resilience and strength, but we know that the price of women being left alone with any form of violence is very costly, and we can't have a group of women in society who can't be confident they can go to the police whatever their situation."
Victoria Police Senior Sergeant Marilyn Ross, of the Victoria Police Sex Industry Co-ordination Unit, said her team was aware that both physical and sexual assaults were being committed against sex workers.
She said police believed crimes were under reported because of the stigma attached to sex work, workers' wariness about police, and cultural and language barriers.
She said police encouraged sex workers to report crimes committed against them.
"Police are not here to judge people for what they do for a living," she said. "When a crime is reported we need to ensure we investigate it as we would any other crime against a person, in a professional and respectful manner."
* Names have been changed.
