The British Journal of Sociology 2019 Volume 70 Issue 4

BJS
Risking safety and rights: online sex work, crimes
and ‘blended safety repertoires’

Rosie Campbell, Teela Sanders , Jane Scoular, Jane Pitcher and Stewart
Cunningham

Abstract
It has been well established that those working in the sex industry are at various
risks of violence and crime depending on where they sell sex and the environments
in which they work. What sociological research has failed to address is how crime
and safety have been affected by the dynamic changing nature of sex work given
the dominance of the internet and digital technologies, including the development
of new markets such as webcamming. This paper reports the most comprehensive
findings on the internet-based sex market in the UK demonstrating types of crimes
experienced by internet-based sex workers and the strategies of risk management
that sex workers adopt, building on our article in the British Journal of Sociology
in 2007. We present the concept of ‘blended safety repertoires’ to explain how sex
workers, particularly independent escorts, are using a range of traditional tech-
niques alongside digitally enabled strategies to keep themselves safe. We contrib-
ute a deeper understanding of why sex workers who work indoors rarely report
crimes to the police, reflecting the dilemmas experienced. Our findings highlight
how legal and policy changes which seek to ban online adult services advertising
and sex work related content within online spaces would have direct impact on the
safety strategies online sex workers employ and would further undermine their
safety. These findings occur in a context where aspects of sex work are quasi-crim-
inalized through the brothel keeping legislation. We conclude that the legal and
policy failure to recognize sex work as a form of employment, contributes to the
stigmatization of sex work and prevents individuals working together. Current UK
policy disallows a framework for employment laws and health and safety standards
to regulate sex work, leaving sex workers in the shadow economy, their safety at
risk in a quasi-legal system. In light of the strong evidence that the internet makes
sex work safer, we argue that decriminalisation as a rights based model of regula-
tion is most appropriate.
Keywords: Sex work; crime; safety; violence; digital technology; reporting crime;
decriminalisation

Campbell, Sanders, Scoular, Pitcher and Cunningham (University of Leicester) (Corresponding author email: [email protected])
© London School of Economics and Political Science 2018 ISSN 0007-1315 print/1468-4446 online.
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 101 Station Landing, Suite 300,
Medford, MA 02155, USA on behalf of the LSE. DOI: 10.1111//1468-4446.12493
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1540 Rosie Campbell et al.

Introduction

In 2007 Sanders and Campbell published an article in the British Journal of

Sociology which considered how differing organizational and regulatory fea-
tures of street and indoor-managed brothel-based sex work shaped sex work-
ers’ experiences of crime, particularly violent crime. Identifying differential
experiences across those sectors, with higher levels of violent crime committed
against street sex workers, we proposed some lessons for UK policy develop-
ment in order to ‘design out violence’ and challenge stigmatizing discourses.
Ten years on, the UK sex industry has undergone significant changes brought
about by structural, technological and cultural developments with increasing
economic and social acceptance of the sex industry. Key changes can be noted
around the diversity of the sex industry (Pitcher 2015), with male and trans
gender sex work markets growing (Laing, Pilcher and Smith 2015) and groups
such as students becoming more evident as sex workers (Roberts, Jones and
Sanders 2013; Sagar et al. 2016. An important change has been the levels of
migrant sex work dominating indoor markets in London and other major cit-
ies (Mai 2009) bringing particular vulnerabilities and risks (Platt et al. 2011),
and at the same time a shrinking of the street sex market (Feis-Bryce 2018).
However, the most notable change has been how online and digital technology
has had a game-changing impact, reshaping how commercial sexual services
are marketed and experienced, with available data showing that the online
sector now constitutes the largest sector of sex work and that most commercial
sex is facilitated online (Cunningham and Kendall 2011; Jones 2015; Sanders
et al. 2018).
Yet relatively little is known specifically about internet-based sex workers’
experiences of violence and crime during their work and how they manage
risk (cf. Moorman and Harrison 2016; Sanders, Connelly and Jarvis King 2016)
which were some of the core questions of this research. In this article, we draw
on the largest study of UK internet-based sex work to date (Sanders et al.
2018), which focuses on independent sex workers (that is individuals who are
not working with a third party, manager or agency). We examine online sex
workers’ experiences of crime, locating these within the wider literature on sex
work and trends in other sex markets. We reflect on the organization of online
sex work and safety strategies utilized by workers in the online sector and
argue that digital and online technology has created new ways of working and
new safety strategies, yet at the same time has made possible new crimes and
threats for sex workers, specifically digitally facilitated crime.
This paper first introduces the methodology that underpins the research,
then maps the existing literature on crimes and risk management strategies,
noting a shifting trend in recent years as sectors and workers move into dif-
ferent spaces. The third section focuses specifically on our findings around
digital crimes online, using qualitative and quantitative data to explore sex
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Risking safety and rights 1541

workers’ experiences including why under-reporting to the police occurs. The

fourth section takes the reader into further understandings about the types of
risk management strategies that are employed by internet-based sex workers,
which is where we introduce the concept of ‘blended safety repertoires’.

The study

This article draws on empirical research findings from the Beyond the Gaze
research project – a study of the working practices, regulation and safety of
internet-based sex work in the UK, carried out by a research team based at
the Universities of Leicester and Strathclyde. Ethical approval was given
from the former. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council this
is the largest UK study of the internet-based sex work sector carried out to
date. It adopted a participatory action research (PAR) approach and had a
multi-method research design. The PAR method was crucial to ensure we had
experts from the sex work community guiding the study from the outset. We
employed six community co-researchers who formed an advisory group and
took part in all aspects of design, administration and delivery of the fieldwork,
as well as analysis, dissemination and writing up of the findings. In addition,
we had many supporters from the sex work community and key web platforms
in the industry which enabled the study to gain credibility and access to many
avenues to recruit for the interviews and survey.
Methods adopted included semi-structured interviews with online sex
workers, police officers and other stakeholders (e.g., managers/ moderators/
marketing/IT and online advertising platforms/forums/safety schemes for sex
workers), an online survey of projects providing support to sex workers, desk-
based research to map online spaces where sex workers market and/or provide
services, the largest online survey to date of internet-based sex workers in the
UK and similarly one of customers of sex workers using the internet. This arti-
cle draws predominantly on qualitative data collected in interviews with sex
workers (n = 62) all of which worked by advertising online. The interviews
were carried out between November 2015 to October 2016 and quantitative
data from the online sex worker survey carried out from November 2016 to
January 2017 producing 641 valid responses. The survey asked broader ques-
tions around working practices, relationships with customers, web platforms,
job satisfaction, working conditions, experiences of crimes, safety, police rela-
tionships and attitudes to the law.
Interviews were carried out through a range of mediums with the majority
via telephone, Skype or WhatsApp plus 14 face-to-face interviews, enabling
participants to choose their preferred communication medium. Participants
were recompensed £20 for their time. Interviews lasted between 40 and 200
minutes and were recorded on a digital recorder, under strict data management

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1542 Rosie Campbell et al.

procedures due to the sensitive nature of the data and the need for high levels
of security around identity of the participants. The transcribed interviews were
entered into Nvivo and a detailed coding process enabled the dataset of over 2
million words to be organized, digested and linked across nodes. Our working
main nodes were around 100, each with between 6 and 15 subnodes, to enable
the detailed information from the interviews to be compared and contrasted.
The analysis of the interviews informed the survey, as did our advisory group
of community co-researchers who gave detailed feedback and assisted in the
piloting of the survey.
Of the interview participants 68 per cent (n = 42) were CIS female, 26 per
cent (n = 16) CIS male and 6 per cent (n = 4) transgender women. In relation
to sexuality, 61 per cent identified as straight, 18 per cent as gay or lesbian and
21 per cent as bisexual/bi-curious. Age distribution of the sample was spread
fairly evenly, with 12 interviewees aged 18-25; 11 aged 26-30; 17 aged 31–40; 12
aged 41–50 and 10 respondents aged over 50.
Amongst survey respondents nearly three-quarters, that is, 73 per cent (n =
469) were women, 19 per cent (n = 124) male, 3 per cent (n = 19) transgender
and a further 3 per cent (n = 18) non-binary or intersex. The age distributions
were largely in the 20s and 30s: 20 per cent (n = 131) were 18–24, 37 per cent
(n = 236) 25–34, 27 per cent (n = 170) 35–44, 11 per cent (n = 71) 45–55, 5 per
cent (n = 30) 55 or over. The majority (95.9 per cent; n = 615) worked in inde-
pendent indoor sectors, as independent escorts, webcam workers, providers of
sexual massage or BDSM services. Respondents were based across the UK,
with the highest proportions in London, the south-east and the north-west.

Shifting trends: crime against sex workers and risk management

A considerable body of both UK and international research examines sex

workers’ experiences of crime, particularly violent crime, exposing high levels
of violence compared to the general population. Deering et al. (2014) in a sys-
tematic review of global studies of sex work and violence reported that work-
place violence over a lifetime was recorded by 45 to 75 per cent of sex workers,
with 32 per cent to 55 per cent experiencing violence in the last year. They
described the burden of violence and called for violence against sex work-
ers to be made a public health priority, nationally and internationally. Recent
research examining UK data on sex work related homicides which compared
prevalence to available data for other professions found ‘sex work is the job in
the UK with the absolute greatest risk of occupational homicide for women’
(Cunningham et al. 2018) but that indeed the trend had changed from risk
being highest in the street market to now being highest for indoor workers.
Within the academic literature, differential experiences of crime across sec-
tors of the sex industry have been explored, but primarily comparing street

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Risking safety and rights 1543

and indoor-managed brothel sex work, overall finding higher levels of victim-
ization in the street-based sector (Deering et al. 2014; Lowman 2000; Shannon
et al. 2008, 2009 ). The overall trend from research findings has suggested that
street sex workers experience higher levels of crime and harassment than
indoor sex workers (Kinnell 2008) and that the indoor sector is safer (Church,
Henderson, Barnard and Hart 2001; Jeal and Salisbury 2007; O’Doherty 2011).
Research has illustrated how the structure and organization of indoor sex
work can reduce risk relative to street sex work (Kinnell 2008; Lowman 2000;
O’Doherty 2011; Sanders and Campbell 2007; Scott et al. 2005). But much
of the research which has included indoor sectors has focused on massage
parlour/sauna/brothel-based sex work and such establishment-based or ‘man-
aged’ forms of sex work are generally organized differently to agency or inde-
pendent escorting and BDSM work. Sanders and Campbell (2007) argued that
the indoor setting can provide opportunities to introduce a range of measures
to try and reduce and ‘design out violence’. For example, the presence and role
of others (including other sex workers, receptionists and security staff), who
can intervene plus in-house security like CCTV systems can act as protective
measures. Yet the variability of these strategies must be noted: Pitcher (2014)
in her study of female, male and transgender sex workers in indoor UK set-
tings, found that participants reported variable management practices; some
which created ‘a safe and supportive working environment’ whereas others
had ‘less favourable working conditions or, in some instances, exploitative
practices’ which they had encountered.
Research is still building a picture of the nature and levels of crime expe-
rienced by male online sex workers (Ashford 2009; Scott et al. 2005) and the
specific experiences of transgender sex workers (Laing, Campbell, Jones and
Strohmayer 2018) who experience transphobic violence, as well as violence
because of their sex work. Gaffney and Jamell (2010) found in a survey of 107
UK-based male and transgender sex workers, the majority of whom were CIS
male (97 per cent) who contacted customers via online methods, that 25 per
cent had ever experienced physical violence from a ‘client’ and 14 per cent in
the last year, and that 20 per cent had ever been ‘forced to have anal or oral
sex without consent’ by a client and 12 per cent had been during the last year.
Only 6 per cent who had experienced any crime reported it to the police. In
an online survey of escorts, Jenkins (2009) found that 15.7 per cent of women
and only 6.7 per cent of men had experienced violence or dangerous inci-
dents, indicating lower levels of violence against escorts; yet, in comparison,
40.9 per cent of transgendered escorts had experienced violence or danger-
ous incidents. In the largest survey of online sex workers in the UK prior to
Beyond the Gaze, a survey of 240 internet-based sex workers (Sanders et al.
2016) found that 47 per cent had experienced crime in their sex work. While
online sex workers reported crimes similar to sex workers in other sectors,
this research found new forms of targeted crime were evident with the most
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1544 Rosie Campbell et al.

common crimes experienced (86 out of 240) being digitally facilitated, which
included threatening and harassing texts, calls, emails and verbal abuse. When
attempting to identify the motivations for violence, recent work on hate crime
experienced by sex workers, show that perpetrators with ‘whorephobic’ atti-
tudes directly target sex workers, and even seek them out because of their
‘perceived vulnerability’ (Campbell 2014, 2016).
While the concerns around the implications of the move online to safety,
risk and crimes experienced by sex workers has begun to emerge (Argento
et al. 2016), the connections between crimes, under-reporting and safety strat-
egies are questions that our research has addressed, filling the gaps noted by
other scholars (Jones 2015).

Digital world, digital crime: online sex workers’ experience of crime

Interview data illustrated that for a section of internet-based sex workers inci-
dents of violence were low (compared to studies for street sex work) and sev-
eral described not experiencing any crime. In the Beyond the Gaze survey
reports of sexual assault (including rape or removal of condom without con-
sent) were low with 7.6 per cent (n = 49) having experienced this in the last year
and 19.5 per cent (n = 125) in the last five years, 77.7 per cent had not experi-
enced this in the last five years. Physical assault was reported at a lower level: 5
per cent (n = 32) had experienced this in the last year and 12.9 per cent (n = 83)
in the last five years. Significantly, 84.4 per cent (n = 541) had not experienced
assault in the last five years. These low levels of serious crimes are relevant as
it provides evidence that working through online methods can be safer. Yet at
the time there are four key points of caution to be considered when thinking
about the decreased risks for sex workers.
1. Comparing these levels of workplace violence experienced in our
sample to data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales
(Office for National Statistics 2016) suggests online sex workers
experience higher levels of work-related violence, with 1.3 per cent
of women and 1.5 per cent of men having been victims of violence
at work during the previous year (ibid.). From our survey, threats
of violence had been experienced by 12.6 per cent (n = 81) of
respondents in the last year and 25 per cent of workers during the
last five years (n = 160), while 72.9 per cent (n = 467) had not
experienced this.
2. Sex workers are amongst the most likely group of workers to be
murdered. Analysis from Sanders et al. (2018) of the UK sex worker
homicide database demonstrates that there have been some dramatic
changes in the composition of murders against sex workers in the past
twenty years, with the trend changing from greater risk being on the
street, to now more murders happening in indoor premises (see

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Risking safety and rights 1545

Cunningham et al. 2018). Another alarming and notable trend is the

high vulnerability of migrant sex workers, with more non-British
nationals murdered in the past decade.
3. The most significant finding of our research was the high levels of
digitally facilitated crime experienced by people in this online sector.
The most commonly identified crime type in the Beyond the Gaze
survey was persistent or repeated/unwanted contact or attempts to
contact through email, text or social media (see Table I): 45.12 per cent
had experienced this in the last year, 65.1 per cent (n = 417) in the last
five, while just under one third, that is, 34.2 per cent (n = 219) had not
experienced this over five years. This was followed by threatening or
harassing texts, calls or emails with 36.3 per cent (n = 233) experiencing
this in the last year, 56.2 per cent (n = 360) in the last five years, and 42.7
(n = 274) per cent not experiencing this in the last five years. Both these
crime types can form part of harassment and stalking. In our survey in
most crime categories there were no major gender differences but more
females than males had received threatening texts in the past 5 years
(58.4 per cent, n = 274, and 46.8 per cent, n = 58) and repeated unwanted
email contacts in the past 5 years (66.1 per cent, n = 310, and 55.6 per
cent, n = 69). While the numbers are relatively small, a higher proportion
of female than male respondents had experienced physical assault over
the past five years (14.5 per cent, n = 68, compared with 8.1 per cent, n
= 10) and also sexual assault (20 per cent, n = 94 compared with 12.9 per
cent, n = 16).
4. It is important to dissect the differences between independent sex
workers who provide in-person services such as escorts and BDSM
workers with those of technology-mediated indirect sex workers (such
as webcammers and phone sex providers) who engage in no in-person
contact, reducing the opportunity for certain crime types. While the
numbers of TMI workers in our survey sample was relatively small, our
data does show differences in relation to the types of crime experienced.
For example, while 60.2 per cent (n = 118) of those who worked
exclusively as independent sex workers/escorts had encountered
threatening texts, calls or emails in the past five years, only 55.1 per cent
(n = 27) of TMI-only workers had experienced this.

Table I: Top five crime types experienced in last 5 years

Rank Crime type Per cent Number

1 Persistent or repeated unwanted contact or attempts to contact 65.1 417

through email, text or social media
2 Non-payment or attempting to underpay for services 53.8 345
3 Threatening or harassing texts, calls or emails 56.2 360
4 Verbal abuse 49.1 315
5 Repeated unwanted contacts or attempts to contact in person, or 29 186
persistent following or being watched

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1546 Rosie Campbell et al.

The everyday nature of harassment

Verbal abuse and repeated unwanted contact, or attempts to contact in per-
son were also concerns that sex workers shared (see Table I). Below are three
snapshots of these crimes from our interviewees which put these statistics into
the context of individuals’ everyday lives:
One customer he called last night ten times and today he’ll call fourteen,
fifteen times. But I just put the phone on silent … I’ve had people scream-
ing down the phone at me, ‘Bitch, I’m gonna get you,’... I have felt frightened
before where I’m thinking, I wonder if he really does know where I am and,
you know, if he has really searched my IP address from that email. (Helen,
26, independent escort)
There have been times where people have threatened me, going through
texts and ringing me on private numbers to say they would, like, rape my
mum or something. Yeah, people who’ve threatened to tell my family about
what I do because they were people from the area I used to live and they
knew about it. (Victoria, 19, trans woman independent escort)
A male migrant escort describes one of several incidents of online abuse
and threats he had experienced:
They asked for extra pictures, so I sent them… then the person didn’t show
up for the appointment and I messaged him again asking like, ‘What’s hap-
pening?’ and the guy said like, ‘Oh, I know your address, I have your phone
number anyway and I have your, pictures and I know your profile’s online,
so I’m gonna like talk to the police and, and also a journalist’…and I got
really scared. (Ruz, 27 male independent escort)
In our survey, in most crime categories there were no major gender differ-
ences but more females than males had received threatening texts in the past 5
years (58.4 per cent, n = 274, and 46.8 per cent, n = 58) and repeated unwanted
email contacts in the past 5 years (66.1 per cent, n = 310, and 55.6 per cent, n
= 69).
An important aspect to consider are the differences between independent
sex workers who provide in-person services such as escorts and BDSM work-
ers with that of technology-mediated indirect sex workers (TMIs such as web-
cammers and phone sex providers). While the numbers of TMI workers in our
survey sample was relatively small our data does show slight differences in
relation to the types of crime experienced. For example, while 60.2 per cent
(n = 118) of those who worked exclusively as independent sex workers/escorts
had encountered threatening texts, calls or emails in the past five years, 55.1
per cent (n = 27) of TMI-only workers had experienced this. But clearly TMIs
still do face such crime and this was demonstrated in interviews: ‘I’ve had mes-
sages that were telling me to go kill myself and stuff – but they were anony-
mous and it comes back to having a thick skin’ (Jane, 29, webcam worker).

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Risking safety and rights 1547

Percentages were not dissimilar for verbal abuse, and relatively high pro-
portions of both direct and indirect workers had experienced non-payment or
attempts to underpay (55.6 per cent; n = 109 of independent sex workers 53.3
per cent; n = 40 of TMI-only workers). TMI workers appeared less likely to
have experienced any form of violence in their work, most likely because they
had sex work jobs with no in-person contact.

Under-reporting to the police

Our research shows that the high level of under-reporting of crime to the
police by sex workers in other sectors in the UK (Klambauer 2017; Krüsi et
al. 2012) is replicated amongst workers in the online sector. Only 114 (23 per
cent) out of 496 respondents who had experienced a crime stated that they
had ever reported incidents to the police, proportionately more female than
male respondents (25.4 per cent, n = 93, compared with 16.5 per cent, n = 15).
More female than male respondents said they would be likely to report – 37.1
per cent, n = 172 compared with 28.1 per cent (n = 34). Feis-Bryce et al. (2015)
have described a range of specific factors that deter male sex workers from
reporting crimes.
A range of factors shaped under-reporting in our study: fears that they and/
or their sex work location would become identified by the police; fears that
the police may take action against them or others they worked with; fears that
criminal justice investigations would jeopardize their anonymity leading to
identification of their sex work to family, friends, employers, acquaintances
and the wider public; previous experience of unsatisfactory response from
the police; fears about perpetrator reprisals; for some victims their own per-
ceptions of the ‘severity’ of the incident and how they would be treated in
the criminal justice system. Several described having low confidence in police
responses and feeling alienated from the police:
I’ve been threatened, and it’s not very pleasant and all I’ve had to do is just
ignore … I feel if the police over here were a little more accommodating, I
would be more inclined to open up to them and report threats, and report
any concerns I …But because the police alienate you over here (Alex, 53,
female independent escort)
Fear that the police will be alerted to their involvement in sex work and
this would be detrimental in some way leading to; ‘complications’, ‘exposure’,
‘public identification’ arrest or disruption of their business were all reasons for
not reporting: Fears of exposure are highlighted by Cheryl:
I have to be honest and say probably not… because for the fact wouldn’t
be taken seriously and then there’s always that risk that’s somehow going
to alert people what you are and who you are, my family for example. I
think the fear of, like the police coming to my door and then people saying

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1548 Rosie Campbell et al.

to my children, oh your mam had the police at her door and then I think I
can honestly say, probably not, which I know is wrong. (Cheryl, 38, female
independent escort)
Hannah felt that although she had the right to report, she was prevented
because she feared the consequences:
I think about something happening to me and my instinct would be, to defi-
nitely report it to the police and I’d expect to be treated with respect and
have it taken seriously. That would be my expectation and I’d advocate for
myself if it wasn’t. But on the other hand, it would bring things out into the
open for me and I’d get into trouble. Because I probably would, you know,
I’d ultimately be found out … even as a victim, you know, my employer
would probably become alerted. So that’s why I know I can’t. (Hannah, 34,
dominatrix and webcam worker)
In interview narratives we found a degree of confusion about the legalities
around selling sex which undermined the desire of some participants to report
incidents to the police:
It’s something I would want to do, but I’m not sure how it works…, but if
something more serious than that had happened, I would definitely consider
going to the police, even though I’m not sure what they would do because
I’ve read that it’s illegal. But at the same time, I read it’s legal, so I’m not
really sure how things really are. (Victoria, 19, trans woman independent)

I was actually sexually assaulted, I never reported it to the police because I

thought it was illegal what I was doing, I didn’t know the legalities, I didn’t
really have anyone to turn to (Emma, 37, female independent escort)
Some respondents highlighted anxieties about repercussions from the per-
petrator, also decisions not to report were based on an assessment about how
the crime would be perceived by practitioners in the criminal justice system
and whether it would be taken seriously:
The first crime was like an instance of like sexual assault, which I didn’t
report to the police at the time because it was an in-call location where I
was working by myself, where…The kind of perpetrator knew where I was.
He would have known it was me… then another instance of assault was this
summer, which was a sexual assault, which would probably not be perceived
as such, I think, by like legal standards, but I would very much classify it as
assault myself… being forced to perform a service that you wouldn’t… co-
erced into a sexual activity because of the threat of violence… to me that’s
definitely assault but you know, it’s probably not worth reporting. (Amber,
25, independent and dominatrix)
Several people described a ‘threshold of seriousness’ above which they
would report ‘If it was like a serious crime, obviously I’d go to the police’

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Risking safety and rights 1549

(Lexie, 42, trans female independent) ‘It depends how bad it got. I think I’d try
and deal with it on my own initially’ (Alex, 53, female independent escort). The
extent of this threshold varied:
I would have to be very seriously injured… if somebody punched me in the
face I wouldn’t go to the police. If somebody robbed me I wouldn’t go to the
police. Recently someone tried to break into my house, now I don’t think
it was connected to my work, it might have been but it’s probably not, it’s
probably just an attempted burglary. I just didn’t want them coming round.
But if I wasn’t doing what I was doing—I probably would, it makes me very,
very shy of the police’. (Kate, 43, female independent escort)
Reporting anonymously to a third party was an option preferred or identi-
fied as more likely:
But I’d be reluctant to contact the police or have anything to do with the
police. I think I’d be much more likely to want to report it anonymously. It
would depend what it was and how serious it was. (Heather, 31, independent
female escort)
I’ve had an incident where there was a problem at an in-call location where
I was with another worker. And we reported it to the National Ugly Mugs
scheme… I mean there is no way that we would have done that otherwise.
(Amber, 25, independent and dominatrix)
Amongst the narratives of interview participants who said they would
report a crime the key factors shaping this decision included: a sense of their
right to justice and equal treatment, an understanding or belief that as they
were working in a way that broke no laws the police could not take action
against them, to prevent the offender repeating the crime, a belief that police
responses to sex workers’ as victims of crime had improved and they would
receive a satisfactory response:
I would definitely report it to the police because that guy could not just at-
tack an escort, he could attack anybody. If he’s capable of doing that to, you
know, an escort, he could do it to anyone really. So it’s a bit, I know a lot of
girls feel a bit uneasy about doing that, or they think they’re not gonna be
taken seriously, but I think things are a lot better now than they used to be.
(Linda, 38, independent and webcam worker)
Interestingly in the survey of those who had ever reported incidents, 46.5
per cent (n = 53) were quite or very satisfied with how the complaint had been
handled by the police, with a smaller percentage (39.5 per cent; n = 45) quite
or very dissatisfied and a further 14 per cent (n = 16) neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied. Interviewees who had reported work-related crime to the police
described a range of experiences and levels of satisfaction. The two following
participants had very different experiences of the police in cases of harass-
ment, ‘doxing’ and outing:
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1550 Rosie Campbell et al.

He posted my pictures all over the internet, making Facebook pages in my

real name…to try and control me…I went to the police. In the end the po-
lice raided his house and took all his computer system away and destroyed
it…they were very good. (Alex, 53, independent escort)
There was a terrible situation that my crazy neighbour found me on cam, he
reported me to my landlord for what I did, he contacted a journalist about
what I did and I had a reporter outside the house for two days that chased
me down the street…he put a letter through one of my other neighbour’s
doors complaining about me. Passed that onto the police and they were like,
yeah, it’s not a criminal matter. I was furious. (Jane, 29, webcam model)
Overall, amongst internet sex workers there were mixed responses about
involving the police in any crimes committed against them. Even amongst
some of those who were very clear that they had a right to access justice and
public protection, there were doubts about reporting work-related crime, as
this would mean drawing attention to themselves as sex workers in a context
of stigmatization and an ambiguous legal framework. These structural factors
undermine sex workers’ legal consciousness and entitlement to protection and
justice.

Safety strategies, screening and risk reduction

It has been established that sex workers develop a range of protective strate-
gies (Harris, Nilan and Kirby 2011; Sanders 2001, 2005 ) and skills to manage
and negotiate the risks involved in selling sexual services are part of the occu-
pational culture (O’Neill 1994; Pitcher 2014). Beyond the Gaze research has
found that at all stages of commercial sexual encounters negotiated or deliv-
ered online, particularly early interactions with clients, it is important that sex
workers are enabled to put in place protective strategies (Ray 2007; Argento et
al., 2016; Cunningham 2011). In our study, we asked sex workers if the internet
was important for their safety and about the safety methods they employed.
For three quarters of survey respondents the internet was very (47.1 per cent,
n = 302) or quite important (28.1 per cent, n = 180), with only 6.5 per cent (n =
42) identifying the internet as not very or not at all important. The main ben-
efits to safety of the internet identified in the survey were screening, accessing
information about safety, being anonymous, being able to advertise on website
platforms with safety features, enabling networking with other sex workers.
Survey respondents explain:
The anonymity and independence allows me to take my time to judge/
screen a client. There is safety information available and certain resources
are useful, on Platform 16 you can report timewasters/scams/abusive clients
and the website then may issue a warning to other escorts. (Male, 25–34,
escort/webcammer/sexual massage/BDSM)

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Risking safety and rights 1551

I can often use it to screen potential phone and cam clients. Obviously, it’s
not as useful as for escorting, but I do get long emails from potential clients
and can search their username to see if they’re a timewaster, genuine, dan-
gerous, etc. There are blacklists of phone and cam clients (Female, 35–44,
webcammer/phone sex).
The overall scope that the internet provided was considered a key resource
for keeping safe, putting distance between the worker and the client and ensur-
ing checking processes could be conducted before services were agreed.

Screening strategies
Table II illustrates the methods survey respondents used to enhance their
safety from a list of 14 potential strategies. Choosing from these options identi-
fied a combination of online and offline methods forming multi-layered safety
strategies. This highlights the blended nature of safety repertoires adopted by
online sex workers, with new online techniques combined with established
methods associated previously with risk reduction in both street and brothel
settings (Moorman and Harrison 2016).
There were two dominant offline strategies which came up as important fac-
tors in safety management for most sex workers. The first was ‘avoiding drugs
or alcohol at work’ (64.2 per cent, n = 357) and the third most common was
seeing only or mostly regular clients (41.7 per cent, n = 246). The second most
utilized safety method was screening online: 44.2 per cent (n = 246) identified

Table II: Methods used to enhance safety at work

Number Per cent of cases

Safety procedures Buddy system 170 30.6

Having someone present in working location 129 23.2
Door security 61 11.0
Driver 58 10.4
CCTV 93 16.7
Panic button/alarm 45 8.1
NUM alerts 184 33.1
Sex worker forums 189 34.0
Ugly Mugs Ireland alerts 9 1.6
Phone number checker 144 25.9
Screening potential clients 246 44.2
Seeing only/mostly regular clients 232 41.7
Sharing safety information informally 223 40.1
Avoiding drugs or alcohol at work 357 64.2
Other safety methods 51 9.2
Total 2191 394.1

N = 641.

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1552 Rosie Campbell et al.

that they carried out screening, which has been described as: ‘a conscious and
proactive strategy employed prior to meeting clients’ (O’Doherty 2011: 11).
Cunningham and De Angelo (2017) have identified the increased screening
carried out by online sex workers as one of the factors making this method
of work safer compared to street sex work. Argento et al. (2016: 1) found that
male online sex workers had more opportunity to screen potential customers
compared to their street working counterparts, and they could use technol-
ogy to better negotiate the terms of commercial sex transactions, which they
argued ‘reduced risks of violence, stigma’.
For many sex workers in the Beyond the Gaze study who provided in-per-
son services the online pre-booking interface with potential customers was
very much linked to safety and considered an integral part of the screening
process. They described how they used several online spaces, be that their pro-
files on advertising platforms, their own websites, email communication when
discussing a booking, blogs and Twitter to reinforce messages about services,
etiquette and expected client behaviour. These were all part of establishing
boundaries and seen by sex workers as important in signalling the sorts of cus-
tomers they wanted, avoiding misunderstanding, unrealistic or unreasonable
customer expectations and shaping customer behaviour.
Free text responses in the survey enabled sex workers to compare their
experiences of pre- and post-online sex work to highlight such advantages:
With the internet, you can have photographs so people can have some idea
of who they’re going to see when the door opens, they know what’s going
to happen because you can advertise what services you do and what you
don’t...There’s far fewer nasty surprises than there was years ago with the
newspapers…people can inform themselves now which makes everybody
safer… people used to say ‘it was this much on the phone and you’d say well
not actually, you can’t do that now because you say well look there’s the site.
(Female, 34–44, independent escort)
I feel safer meeting a client who has booked me than I do if I was to meet
someone off a dating site such as Grindr or Gaydar. This is because there
is a lot more communication between myself and a client before we meet
– and the communication is a way of negotiating (what activity is engaged
with, timings etc.) which reassures me. If a client requested to do something
that I didn’t want to do, I would turn them down. (Male, 35–44, escort/
sexual massage)
Researching ‘erotic entrepreneurs’ in the USA, Hausbeck Korgan et al.
(2017) also found the independent escorts in their study use a range of screen-
ing techniques including apps and tools from the ID verification industry. Such
verification services were not identified by the UK-based sex workers in our
study, yet online sex workers as part of screening were using various online

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Risking safety and rights 1553

methods to verify customer’s identity or piece together information about

them to inform decision making about customer bookings:
Every single time I do an out call the first thing I will do...I will look at
WhatsApp, see if they’ve got a presence on WhatsApp, see what they look
like from their photograph. That way I know they can send me a photo-
graph of their address via WhatsApp. … then Google the phone number,
looking to see if there’s any presence which indicates that they are where
they say they are, which is quite rare. But you do see things like someone
who’s involved in local football team or running, that sometimes happens.
Or people who are self employed, their details come up…. I’m also looking
to see if there’s anything untoward. (Trans female, 35–44, escort, domina-
tion, BDSM).
If it’s an outcall I require a utility bill, no exceptions, I require the booking
reference from the hotel, no exceptions, real name … but for an in-call, es-
sentially it just comes down to how they sound on the phone and then I put
their number through Ugly Mugs and SAAFE and a client list that we have
on Facebook… we have an anonymous Facebook account that we all have
the login to … I use X (number checker application) as well… (Female, 20,
escort)
Argento et al. (2016) stressed the greater opportunities and increased
capacity which the internet gave male sex workers for screening and violence
prevention. Screening practices using online technology in the Beyond the
Gaze study were diverse and included: not taking a booking without having
spoken to the customer over the phone or if a withheld number is used, or if
it is a number they had previously blocked, using number check applications
linked to sex industry warning schemes and generic online and phone number
ID and blocking applications.
Another core method of safety strategies was arming oneself with infor-
mation by sharing details on potential clients. Just over 40 per cent (40.01
per cent; n = 223) shared information informally with colleagues for safety
enhancement. Interview findings illustrated that such informal sharing could
include a number of digital and online forms: for example, sharing via SMS
or other messenger apps and through closed WhatsApp, Facebook and other
social media groups.
I go on to various different forums and Ugly Mugs and I stick their number
in every single one ... And I do use things like Google and social media to
see if you can get any clues about the person, without being intrusive to
them. So that I can get an idea of what’s going on behind that anonymous
phone number… there’s my advertising, there’s my screening. SAAFE. I
use local forums, cos they have ladies sections and I can search in there …I
like to have as much information as I can. I’ve sometimes Googled them
and found out things in newspaper stories … Such as somebody … but I
found out that he’d had a conviction for harassing his former partner … so
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1554 Rosie Campbell et al.

that’s immediately flagged something up. Which is very useful. And I can
pop things into like Facebook and stuff like that. (Maggie, 41, independent
escort)
Formalized information sharing systems were noted as an important source
of keeping safe. National Ugly Mugs (NUM) are a third-party report and alert
service for sex workers and support projects. Individuals can alert NUM to
an incident and then through legally compliant sanitized reporting alert the
membership (of more than 4,000 sex workers) to details that may prevent
further crimes. NUM alerts were the sixth most indicated method for safety
enhancement from our sample, showing that they do form part of the range of
risk reduction strategies. The centrality of the internet to inform and develop
safety strategies is clear through this wealth of data and in-depth analysis of
how sex workers, operating online, take care of themselves. Yet, it is not simply
the case that online technologies have over-ruled all previous methods. Indeed
the combination of online and offline traditional methods is the most likely
approach – what we have termed ‘blended safety repertoires’.

Blended safety repertoires

Online and digital technologies play an important role within internet-based
sex workers safety practices, yet online tools are combined with non-digital
safety methods, most of which are ‘old school’ strategies pre-dating the dig-
ital and online sex work revolution (Sanders 2005). Among the Beyond the
Gaze survey respondents who felt the internet did not help with safety, one of
the main points made in their additional comments were that although some
information could be collected online, it was not sufficient to screen poten-
tial clients and that the worker’s skills and other safety precautions were also
important. One female worker aged over 55 working across sectors stated:
‘The internet brings in clients but does not screen them. I rely on phone chat
and gut instinct’; whilst a male working across indoor sectors aged between
25–34 commented: ‘Most clients contact you by phone number. Phone number
checkers and forums rarely bring up results. Assessing a person is ultimately
up to you’.
A clear example of where old and new strategies were used are the bud-
dying systems where arrangements are put in place for a sex worker to notify
another person when they are embarking on a booking, usually letting them
know when, where and how long the booking will take place and agreeing a
time they will notify the buddy when they are due to finish. Historically these
were by landline phones, then mobiles and now through SMS and various mes-
saging applications:

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Risking safety and rights 1555

I always message my friend where I’m going and who I’m meeting. This
friend is the only other person who knows what I do. (Female, 25–34, inde-
pendent escort)
Giving a friend or partner the client and location details, and checking in.
If I fail to check in, we have a procedure in place. (Non-binary, 25–34, in-
dependent escort/BDSM)
The majority of other safety strategies identified were some type of action
or measure involving physical target hardening measures, such as the deploy-
ment of CCTV, webcam or alarms or the management of and decisions about
the physical and environmental spaces in which sex work took place. Working
in specific sex work jobs, with no in-person contact was identified as a safety
strategy, considered to reduce the possibility of certain crimes for both survey
and interview participants. This was identified particularly by those who web-
cammed or did online chat only: ‘Keeping all my work/interactions online and
only working with recommended studios’ (Transgender male to female, 18–24,
webcamming); ‘I only webcam therefore I don’t personally interact’ (Female,
18–24, webcamming/phone sex). Indeed for respondents who only worked as
webcammers, the internet enabled them to sell sexual services without meet-
ing clients in person. In interviews some described how this had been a specific
consideration in their decision to webcam as opposed to escort or other forms
of in-person sex work.
Blended safety repertoires, which combine the use of online and digital
technology for a safety purpose, are now standard professional practice for the
majority of internet-based sex workers. Whilst ‘old school’ offline methods are
still popular and seen as effective, online methods are now also central in sex
workers’ repertoires and are perceived to have increased options for work-re-
lated risk reduction and whilst many online sex workers recognize the limits
to these methods, overall for the majority online methods are central for the
safety of internet-based sex workers.

Conclusion

Straightforward claims that indoor or online sex work is safe, or safer than
street sex work need to be revisited in favour of analysis which captures and
reflects the varied intersectional experiences and realities amongst online
commercial sex workers. Sex workers’ experiences of crime vary across sectors
and socio-demographics. Screening methods existed prior to the internet (Ray
2007) but our research further adds to the evidence that the organization of
online sex work and technology that shapes it has widened screening options
for workers in the online sector, increasing risk assessment and reduction prac-
tices. Interview data showed the screening of potential clients was employed
by the large majority of sex workers, particularly those offering in-person
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1556 Rosie Campbell et al.

services, many of whom described adopting multi-layered screening strategies.

Blended safety repertoires integrated traditional methods of screening with
technologically enabled and enhanced modes of checking, verifying, commu-
nicating and assessing individuals before bookings are agreed.
Yet whilst safety is enhanced by technology, with lower levels of reported
serious physical and sexual assaults experienced by both our survey sample
and 62 interviewees, there are other forms of crimes which produced adverse
effects which are prevalent because of technology. Crime online through the
forms of harassment, stalking, threats to expose and ‘out’ sex workers, other
threats to privacy and anonymity and the misuse of information are everyday
worries and likely experiences for sex workers. In the decade that has passed
since we wrote about designing out danger and enhancing safety through
changes to the law, those arguments still stand, with no legal changes occurring
during that time that improve the safety of sex workers.
In the UK, debates about sex work and development of governance frame-
works to regulate prostitution continue to lie at the level of street sex work
(through soliciting, kerb crawling and civil justice measures), modern slavery
and legislation relating to brothels (Feis-Bryce 2018; Graham 2017). What
remains a particularly disempowering element of the prostitution law is the
fact that two people cannot legally work together (a law dating back to the
Sexual Offences Act 1956), preventing crime reporting, disenfranchising
workers from legally co-working, prohibiting legitimate organizing together
and preventing workers running their own business as any other. The conse-
quences of this law are that the majority of sex workers in our survey (n = 465)
said that the single most positive change that would enhance safety would be a
law reform to enable sex workers to work legally together without fear of pros-
ecution or disruption. Our study supports Graham’s analysis of the socio-legal
framework as ‘governing through crime’ (2017: 216) where she argues that ‘In
off-street sex work, sex workers often choose to work alone and increase their
vulnerability to violence, or work within potentially economically exploitative
conditions to gain protection from a third party. Therefore, while governing
for the fear of crime, criminal law actually might increase the reality of crime
for sex workers’. Without a legal context for collective working the status of
sex work is not given legitimacy but left open to vulnerabilities, placing sex
workers at risk.
In the extensive policy, legal and policing attention given to prostitution in
the UK over the past 20 years (Graham 2017; Sanders and Laing 2018; Scoular
and O’Neill 2007) a very significant ‘game changer’ in terms of the organi-
sation of the sex industry, has not been seriously considered. Only recently
have the police recognised the enormity of the online sex industry (NPCC
2015) leading to a slow introduction of online sex work into police strategies
and operational investigations (Sanders et al., 2018). Yet our findings suggest
those strategies have tended in many force areas to have focused primarily
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Risking safety and rights 1557

on modern slavery rather than also addressing other crimes experienced by

online sex workers who are not working under duress.
With this new awareness of the online sector, the lower levels of violent
crimes, the emergence of digitally facilitated crimes and the use sex workers
make of online platforms for safety the case for legal reform in the UK with
safety at the epicentre is overwhelmingly evident. Law and policy need to rec-
ognize the option for independent working which the internet has provided
(Sanders et al. 2017) and how digital technology plays a crucial role for safety.
Our findings highlight how legal and policy changes which seek to ban online
adult services advertising and sex work related content within online spaces
will have direct impact on the safety strategies online sex workers employ, pre-
venting or making them more difficult to employ and undermining safety. The
detrimental consequences of such laws are being lived out in the USA where
in March 2018 amendments to law were passed. ‘Fight Online Sex Trafficking
Act’ (FOSTA) and the ‘Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act’ (SESTA), have led
to sex worker campaigns #letussurvive. These laws make online platforms lia-
ble for content generated by a third party, that is, what their users say and do
on their platforms. Under the laws it becomes a crime to operate ‘an interac-
tive computer service’ with ‘the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution
of another person’. These pieces of legislation are already having huge ramifi-
cations for US sex workers (and others on platforms with US jurisdiction) in
terms of livelihood and safety as platforms assess their risk for liability and
some make changes in relation to adult commercial sex content prior to the
law being enacted in 2019. These changes will prohibit or limit the networking,
peer support and information sharing which online spaces have enabled which
are vital for screening and wider safety. Sex workers’ safety strategies will be
disrupted or removed and workers may move to less safe forms of working. An
initial impact survey of n = 260 sex workers who had worked online, was carried
out by a sex worker rights organization in the USA (COYORE-RI 2018) and
found 30 per cent (n = 78) of participants reported having stopped screening
clients, or having lowered their safety standards, 60 per cent (n = 156) reported
having taken sessions with less safe clients, out of financial desperation.
The UK can learn from the drastic consequences of internet regulation wit-
nessed in the USA. Reform is required which enables sex workers to work
together, which provides a framework within which sex work is recognized as
labour, so employment, health and safety protections available to other work-
ers are open to sex workers (Vanwesenbeeck 2017). Rather than a legalized
system where premises are licensed by the state, we argue decriminalization
offers the best framework to tackle the issues of sex worker safety and rights,
including access to protection from violence and other crimes (Armstrong
2017) to provide a base from which to challenge stigma and discrimination and
to begin to address labour rights (Abel 2014). Under a decriminalized frame-
work, police would be directed to work in the areas of greatest need, rather
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1558 Rosie Campbell et al.

than implementing laws from the 1950s which are not fit for purpose in the
modern day commercial sex era. One step in this direction would be reform
of current brothel laws to allow people to work together. This would be a sig-
nificant move forward to reducing crime, but should not be an end point. We
conclude that current law and policy which creates a quasi-legal/criminal sys-
tem, perpetuates rather than challenges discrimination and the stigmatization
of sex work. Critically the current law prevents individuals working together
legally, mitigates against the legitimate status of independent self-employed
sex workers and prevents existing employment law, health, safety and other
regulatory frameworks being applied and further developed as protective
measures for sex work. This is an adverse regulatory framework and is jeopar-
dizing the safety of sex workers, despite the clear advances to safety provided
through digital technologies.
(Date accepted: March 2018)

Acknowledgment
This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/
M007324/2).

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