Sex Workers Experience both Systematic and Private Violence
Hey, Judge Teresa Carr Deni, It is rape not theft of services.
On October 4th of 2007 Philadelphia Judge, Teresa Carr Deni, dropped the rape and sexual assault charges against Dominique Grindaw. Grindaw had been taken to court for allegations of perpetrating a gang rape of a sex worker at gunpoint. Grindaw had arranged for a meeting with her, later they agreed on one of Grindaw’s friend participating. When the victim arrived at the set location she found it was an abandoned building and Grindaw’s friend had brought two other men, one with a gun. Deni dropped the charges against Grindaw because she found it was theft of services and not rape. The woman that was assaulted had been sexually assaulted in a private setting and was then disregarded in the court’s public sphere. Deni’s decision was very likely a result of the underlying bias she had towards the victims profession.
Side note: Rape can not be dismissed because of the job someone performs. Deni obviously does not know consent can be retracted at any point in time. She may not also have figured out that the arrangement did not welcome a gun and only welcomed Grindaw and his one friend. An example of theft of service would be a plumber fixing the pipes of a sink and the recipient of this service refusing to pay for the services they had agreed on.
Victims of sexual assault do not always choose to press chargers against their attacker. Many people fear of reporting crimes committed against them, because other than feeling shame for being victimized, they are considered to be on the “wrong side of the law”. Sex workers are often thought of as criminals so reporting an assault could wind up being an incriminating act for themselves. They could then be arrested and would be subject to the further systematic and private violence.
In Are Prisons Obsolete, Angela Davis addresses the way jails’ privacy allows for violence against those imprisoned. In this book, Davis states that women in jail are often defending themselves against violence from the outside world and find similar violence waiting for them behind bars. One type of violence imprisoned women experience is sexual violence. This ranges from non physical violence like watching the women change and bathe; to the actual force/coercion/manipulation of performing or receiving sexual acts. There is even the systematic legal violent act of cavity searches, the inmate has no choice but to comply with this invasive practice. Davis also recites a finding of a California women’s state prison. The chief medical officer, that was sexually abusive, said the women had few instances where they encounter male contact and were open to the unnecessary pelvic exams.
“The criminalization of black and Latina women includes
persisting images of hypersexuality that serve to justify sexual assaults against them both in and outside of prison”(73).
Sex workers face a similar image of hypersexuality that serves to justify sexual assaults. Imprisoned Sex workers, among other inmates, are not able to escape the abuse. If the victim of Deni and Grindaw were imprisoned she would have faced the sexual assault and the court humiliation just to be trapped in an enclosed space where humility is not a priority. Who can sex workers turn to when the people in power are the same people perpetrating these crimes? How can sex workers trust the system that has humiliated and disregard them? Judge Deni said calling the “theft of service” a rape “minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped.” Deni should have done the right thing and made sure justice was served. Sex work is widely not recognized as a legitimate job and the violence sex workers go through is pegged as something that comes with the job.It is in no way a condition of the job, it is assault and should be treated accordingly. Sex workers have the choice in the types of services they provide and have the right to refuse service(retract consent) to anyone at any moment in time. Sex workers are not available at any moment other than the the moment they say so, it is just like any other business with hours of operation. The way they use their bodies for labor is not understood and this leads to the inappropriate treatment of sex workers.
Davis had seen the effects of prison first hand and had friends that shared their personal experiences with her. Davis knew prisons were in need of serious reform, and they still are. There still seems to be similar issues present in the prison system, sexual assault being one of them. When the way jailed persons are being treated has not been improved, but technology is rapidly improving then there is a major issue;especially when there is no crime committed. Sex work is one of the oldest professions and some branches of it are still criminalized in America. Studies have shown places where sex work is legalized violence against sex workers lessens. Reconsidering what is considered “deviant” and “criminal” could actually save lives and lessen abuse perpetrated the public sphere and by prison officials.
