Sex workers are not disproportionately murdered as a matter of coincidence. As Ellen Killoran points out in her 2016 Rolling Stone article, prostitutes are targeted “because they don’t leave as much of a trace.” To add insult to injury, families of the deceased feel police see their loved ones as second class citizens. “They just think they’re dirty, scummy people,” was one mother’s take on the reception she received from her local police department.
Even Wikipedia, seen as a neutral source of information, has an entry that cedes that “Violence against prostitutes has been reported worldwide, both on a physical and psychological level. The victims are predominantly women, including in extreme cases murder.”
The press has gotten quotes from law enforcement that refers to murdered sex workers as more or less asking for it. When they are murdered according to Mother Jones, “their deaths may be dismissed as more occupational hazard than crime. “
It’s past time when law enforcement should treat crimes against sex workers like they would crimes against the rest of the citizenry. Amensty International has brought the issue of equal rights for prostitutes to the fore, recently, preparing “a United Nations report vying for sex worker rights in the United States.”
