Criminalisation is a multi-pronged trap. Convictions, ASBOs, and prostitute cautions hinder sex workers’ ability to secure other jobs and lead to accumulating debts for fines, pushing them into continuing to sell sex. These fines are huge financial millstones, sometimes totalling hundreds of pounds. Prison sentences for breaches of ASBOs or pile-ups of fines mean that women lose custody of their children, that upon release they are made homeless, and that they lose any other job they may have had – again, all pushing them back into street-based sex work, where avoiding police makes them more
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