I've been telling people on my blog that the last time a sex worker was murdered in Soho was in 1947. I thought it was important to point that out because people say that sex work is the most dangerous form of work. My response was not in Soho. No sex worker is alone in the flat with a man so it is much safer.
It seems that I wasn't quite right about that. There was another one in 1948 and then a double murder in 1975. I had got my original information from the Murdered sex workers in the United Kingdom site. It mentions Camille Gordon who was murdered in Soho in 2004, but she wasn't a sex worker, she worked in a clip joint.
So my original point is still true, murders are rare in the Soho walk ups, for reasons that are not difficult to understand. It shouldn't be difficult to decide who is in the category 'sex worker murdered in a Soho walk-up'. Rachel Annie Fennick counts because she was murdered in 1948 in Broadwick Street Soho. Helen Freedman doesn't count because she was murdered in 1948 in Covent Garden.
It's worth pointing out that Elizabeth Valad had worked in a Soho walk-up. Westminster Council evicted her from her Soho flat as part of a crackdown on the sex trade in the district. She then worked in the King's Cross/Camden area where she was murdered with another sex worker in 2002. Their murderer had previously that year murdered another sex worker in that area.
The murders that occurred in Soho in 1975 were of Jeanne Odette Western, a 63 year old French woman, and her maid Rena Conzimu. They were murdered in the walk-up at 2-3 Peter Street. Someone set fire to the building. It is thought to be gang related, and that the real target was the sex worker in the other flat at 2-3 Peter Street, Margaret Vassallo.
There were 3 cases of murders of sex workers in Marylebone, in 1994, 1997 and 2012. There were 3 cases of murders of sex workers in Fulham, in 1922, 1991 and 2015. There were no walk-ups in Marylebone or Fulham, although there were a few in the Shepherd Market/Mayfair area. So I still maintain that it is wrong for people to generalise about sex workers and say they are always at high risk of murder. Sex work doesn't have to be dangerous. It is not inherently dangerous and can be made safe. Or as safe as other ways of earning money.
When I see statistics relating to murder and violence in prostitution I know that most of it is to do with the minority of sex workers who are drug addicts. That doesn't mean we can ignore what happens to them: the Nordic Model won't help them but spending more money on rehab and other social measures will. It is common for some people to use statistics related to drug addicts and claim that they relate to all sex workers: for example Ruhama claimed that 38% of Irish prostitutes had attempted suicide. This research was of a group of 77 drug addicted street based sex workers in Dublin.
Sex workers in Soho walk-ups aren't drug addicts. Sex workers who aren't drug addicts don't have as high a risk as for sex workers in total and women who work with other women are even less at risk. That's what I think about when I hear people saying that it's so dangerous it should be banned.
