Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Globally, the most important human rights and public health issue that sex workers face is their experience of high levels of violence Kinnell, , Kinnell, , Alexander, This international, robust mixed methods study will explore the frequency of sexual violence against sex workers, barriers in criminal justice and the legal consciousness of sex workers regarding their rights and consent.
The hypothesis to be tested is that the safety of sex workers from sexual violence is mediated by the differing legal contexts of sex work environments. These data will be supplemented with comparative legislative, policy and case analysis. Research study data will be used to compare the social factors and legal norms shaping sex workers experiences of sexual violence, justice and support interventions. Given the sensitive nature of the research, robust ethical and data protection mechanisms are in place.
The research has ethical approval from each research site, an Advisory Board and trained, paid peer researchers to assist with data gathering, analysis and dissemination.
Whilst there are variances between markets and with more online harms occurring, the marginalisation of sex workers can leave them vulnerable to victimisation and with restricted access to the criminal justice system [ 7 ]. Repeat victimisation is common, as is significant under-reporting of crimes to the police [ 8 โ 11 ].
Even when cases do get reported, sex workers often experience discrimination [ 12 , 13 ] and mixed responses from police officers [ 14 ]. This has led to increased evidence-based calls to make violence against sex workers a public health and human rights priority on national and international policy agendas [ 15 โ 17 ].
