ABSTRACT Author: Rosie Campbell Not Getting Away With It: addressing violence against sex workers as hate crime in Merseyside Adopting a participatory approach, this thesis examines Merseyside Police’s treatment of violent and other crimes against sex workers as hate crime - through the lens of what is referred to as the ‘Merseyside hate crime approach’ The first academic study to do so, it describes the development of the approach and explores the key elements which constitute it. It proposes the approach is a banner encompassing a range of policing and partnership initiatives - not just the inclusion of sex workers in the force’s hate crime policy, but including, critically, a wider shift from enforcement to protection-focused policing and improved support for sex worker victims of crime. Based on analysis of data from interviews with 22 sex workers and 39 police officers, it reports support for the approach and the notion that sex workers can be victims of hate crime. It argues that sex workers’ experiences of victimisation fit a number of definitions of hate crime, straddling those foregrounding prejudice and those foregrounding the targeting of ‘perceived vulnerability’. As such they can be included as a hate crime group and there are tangible benefits for inclusion. However, the thesis asserts there is some way to go in fully integrating sex workers into hate crime procedures in Merseyside. It supports the further development of an inclusive model for understanding hate crime which includes non- established hate crime groups and recognises intersectionality. It argues that the hate crime approach to sex work is progressive - within the UK framework of the quasi-criminalisation of sex work, it offers a rights-based approach to addressing violence against sex workers. Nonetheless, it cautions the approach should not be seen as an end it itself in the regulation of sex work, with international research evidence pointing to decriminalisation as a more conducive framework to address crimes against sex workers. 1 Not Getting Away With It: addressing violence against sex workers as hate crime in Merseyside Author: Rosie Campbell A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Applied Social Sciences Durham University June 2016 2 Table of Contents ABSTRACT 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 8 CHAPTERS Chapter One: Introducing the research – the importance of conceptualising violence against sex workers as hate crime 11 Main objective 11 Background: why this research? 11 Research questions and aims of the research 21 Researching sex work and hate crime in Merseyside 22 Structure of the thesis 24 Chapter Two: Literature review – sex work, violence, policing and hate crime 30 Introduction 30 Levels and nature of violence against sex workers 32 Criminalisation, regulation and policing of sex work in the UK: contributing to violence 43 ‘Othering’, stigma and the discourse of disposability 62 Feminist theory and violence against sex workers: diverse lived realities 69 Hate crime: definitions, inclusivity and intersectionality 76 Chapter Three: Research methodology 88 Introduction 88 Guiding principles: feminist research methodology and Participatory Action Research (PAR) 89 A method for understanding experiences of hate crime and policy: in-depth interviewing 96 Accessing my research sites: building on established relationships and collaboration 101 Defining my research sample 104 Socio-demographic summary of the research sample 108 Ethical issues in sex worker research: my experiences 111 3 Analysing experiences of hate crime and policy: a grounded theory approach 117 A brief reflexive account: being researcher/outreach worker/policy influencer 121 Conclusion: negotiating the boundaries between research, outreach, policy development and change? 125 Chapter Four: Contextualising the Merseyside hate crime approach – key periods and strands 127 Introduction 127 Hardship, heroin, HIV and the rise of ‘harm reduction’: 1980-1995 128 Community action, community safety, regeneration and research: 1995-2003 131 Crucial debates around safety - murder and ‘managed areas’: 2003-2005 143 Naming it as hate crime - the public protection of sex workers: 2005-2011 146 Key strands of the hate crime approach 159 Conclusions 169 Chapter Five: The changing relationship between sex workers and the police – from ‘enforcement’ to ‘public protection’ 171 Introduction 171 Context: the bad old days of enforcement – cycle of arrest; dispersal; and responding to residential complaints in the 1980s and 1990s 173 An uneasy relationship: police stigmatisation and ‘othering’ of sex workers in the 1980s and 1990s – knowing the ‘rules of the game’ 177 Dealing with and reporting crimes against sex workers in the 1980s and 1990s 185 Current police attitudes concerning sex workers: towards ‘public protection’ and change 188 Conclusions 205 4 Chapter Six: Treating crimes against sex workers as hate crime – police perspectives 208 Introduction 208 Police officer awareness of the hate crime policy 208 Majority support for the policy: viewing sex workers as victims of hate crime 210 Officer perceptions of sex workers as a hate crime group: fitting the definitions – vulnerability and visibility 211 Hate crime and off-street sex work 223 Practical benefits: improved response and prioritisation 225 Police ambivalence and critical perspectives 229 Treating crimes against sex workers as hate crime: full inclusion and sustainability 234 Conclusions 240 Chapter Seven: Treating crimes against sex workers as hate crime – sex worker perspectives 243 Introduction 243 Current and former sex workers’ awareness and understanding of hate crime 244 Awareness of the sex work and hate crime policy 247 Sex worker support for the hate crime policy 249 Personal experiences and understanding of hate crime: hostility, targeting and vulnerability 256 Sex work misogyny and gender-based hate crime 267 Sex worker hate crime and intersectionality 269 Conclusions: It’s hate crime! Making the case for sex workers as a targeted hate crime group 272 Chapter Eight: Improvements in victim support and justice for sex workers 274 Introduction 274 A specialist Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA) for sex workers: development of a good practice role 276 Sex worker experiences and views of the ISVA: from report to court 280 Police experiences and views of the ISVA: a key element of change in improving access to justice 288 Unity: specialist rape and sexual assault team 294 Sex workers as good witnesses 298 Getting justice 303 Conclusions 306 5 Chapter Nine: Conclusions - reflecting on the Merseyside hate crime approach and the outcomes of the research 310 Sex workers and hate crime: towards an inclusive framework 311 The Merseyside hate crime approach 318 Hate crime and ‘protection’ focused policing 320 Research into practice: impacting on practice in Merseyside and beyond 325 A way to go! 331 Not an either/or: the hate crime approach And decriminalisation 333 APPENDICES 337 Appendix One: Participant information leaflets 337 Appendix Two: Participant consent forms 347 Appendix Three: Police focus group guide 353 Appendix Four: Interview guides 362 Appendix Five: Armistead current and former service user interviews: socio-demographics 383 Appendix Six: Merseyside Police force interviews: socio-demographics 389 Appendix Seven: Ethics committees - procedural details 394 Appendix Eight: NVIVO node trees - summary tables 395 8.1: Service user interview data 8.2. Police interview and focus group data Appendix Nine: Merseyside cases, January 2006 – 23rd July 2013: summary table 399 Appendix Ten: Merseyside cases to court – four case studies 407 Appendix Eleven: Enforcement-focused versus protection-focused policing 410 BIBLIOGRAPHY 412 6 List of Illustrations Figure 1. Hanane Parry. Source: The Leader, 30th December 2010. 144 Figure 2. Pauline Stephen. Source: BBC News, 22nd July 2003. 144 Figure 3. Sex work hate crime graffiti – Peter Sutcliffe stencil. Source: photograph taken by author. 150 Figure 4. Anne Marie Foy. Source: BBC News, 14th June 2011. 151 Figure 5: International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, 17th December 2011, Stanley Street, Liverpool. Source: photograph by Armistead Centre. 326 List of Abbreviations ASBO Anti Social Behaviour Order 45 CPS Crown Prosecution Service 106 ISVA Independent Sexual Violence Advisor 28 MIT Major Incident Team 142 NPCC National Police Chief’s Council 49 NUM National Ugly Mugs 13 SARC Sexual Assault Referral Centre 161 SCAS Serious Crimes Analysis Section 13 SMP Safer Merseyside Partnership 137 UKNSWP UK Network of Sex Work Projects 13 7 Declaration I declare that this is my own work and has not been submitted for the award of a higher degree anywhere else. Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Acknowledgements Whilst doing this PhD I have been struck again how the story of addressing violence against sex workers in Liverpool, like the story of my PhD research is the story of many individuals. The actions and experiences of many have taken Liverpool to where it was when I carried out my PhD, the first city in the UK and indeed the world to treat crimes against sex workers as hate crime. Carrying out my fieldwork for this PhD I was again totally moved and inspired by the lives and actions of many women working as sex workers, former