Violence against sex workers during their work and whatthey do as a result

Abstract

This is a descriptive and exploratory study with the objective of identifying the kind of violence that sex workers suffer at work, describe their social and economic profile and attitudes of the women after the violence. The data was collected from January to June 2003, involving 40 female sex workers from the town of Sobral, State of Ceará, Brazil. Twenty-five percent (10) are aged between 14 and 19 old; 25% (10) have fixed boyfriends; 82.5% (33) know how to read and write; 42.5% (17) earn between 1 and 3 minimum salaries; 12.5% (5) were domestic workers; 30% (12) have suffered physical violence; 12.5% (5) sexual violence; 10% (4) psychological violence and 47.5% (19) said they had not suffered any type of violence. Of the 21 who suffered violence, 33% (7) said that when they were raped, they reacted with physical violence; 19% (4) ran away and 48% (10) did not react.