Environmental–Structural Supports in Unsanctioned Indoor Sex Work Environments

Bad-date reports

“They [staff] really pay attention: we get all the lists of all the offenders and stuff, and they’re put up [by the door] and staff study them. One of the staff caught one [a violent client]. He was a visitor in the house, and he came in as a date, and they called the police, and he got arrested.” (Participant 1)

Camera surveillance

“I prefer the date in my place for safety reasons, you know. ‘Cause there’s cameras on each floor, they’re not allowed in unless they have ID, their name is written down, and, people have seen you with the guy, so he knows that he can’t go and try to do something to me and get away with it.” (Participant 29)

“In the back alley or out in the industrial area, the guy could slice my throat open or something and just leave me there for dead. Nobody would ever know, but at [my place of residence] they have surveillance cameras, right? So if anything ever did happen to me that bad, God forbid, then they could look on the camera and say, ‘Hey, that’s the guy that murdered S., or the guy that beat the shit out of her,’ and then they could print it out and warn other girls too, right?” (Participant 16)

Call staff or police

“It’s safer. I can just yell for help, and, you know, in the alley you can’t really yell, you know? It’s hard to run away, and … you don’t know whether they’re going to get violent or something. There’s a lot more chance of that outside than at my place. [If it happened in my room] I’d run for the door. It’s happened before, and the staff have come, and they’ve told him to leave, or they even got the police to get him to leave. They do that right away. It took 4 cops to get this guy to leave. Then they barred him [from the place].” (Participant 30)

“So I told the staff that he’s yelling and cursing, and I haven’t got the money yet, and he’s kind of a bastard. And, I didn’t know what to do. They told him that he has to go, and he wouldn’t go until the police got there. Oh my God, he could have beat me up and everything… . So when police came, they asked him some questions, and it turned out that he had a warrant out for his arrest. So I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’” (Participant 2)