Violence by clients towards female prostitutes in different work settings: questionnaire survey

Abstract

During 1999 three female researchers (SC, MB, and Catherine Benso) contacted 240 female prostitutes; 115 worked outdoors (40 in Leeds, 75 in Glasgow) and 125 worked indoors in saunas or flats (50 in Leeds, 75 in Edinburgh). We designed a structured questionnaire using previously validated measures to record personal characteristics, working patterns, drug and alcohol use (in the past six months), type and frequency of violence by clients (ever or in the past six months), and levels of attack reported to police. We contacted 156 (65%) prostitutes in their place of work and 84 (35%) through drop-in centres. We used SPSS to test for significance, and multivariate binary logistic regression analysis to identify variables most strongly associated with violence experienced ever or in the past six months.