Women's Groups Say Police Response to Violence Against Women and Girls in Prostitution is Sorely Lacking
June 21, 2001

Women's groups say police are in denial about their inadequate response to violence against women and girls in prostitution. Groups say, furthermore, that police violence and harassment of women and girls in prostitution is a well-known fact but rarely addressed because of the virtual impossibility of seeing justice done and fear of police retaliation.

Feminist anti-violence groups have long criticized inadequate police response to violence against women and girls in general. For those who are marginalized because they are on the street, Aboriginal, poor, young, or of Colour, not only is the police response to violence sorely lacking, but police are sometimes the perpetrators of violence.

Women and girls on the street complain of a broad spectrum of violence by police including: verbal abuse such as name calling, sexual propositioning such as no criminal charge in exchange for sexual acts, sexual threats, physical assaults, public strip searches by male police officers, and rape. Is it any wonder girls and women in prostitution have little faith in the police.

In 1995 Lowman and Fraser, in a comprehensive report to the federal Justice Department, reported 4 convictions of police officers in the lower mainland in a period of 6 years. These police officers were convicted for extreme acts of violence against women in prostitution. Women's groups are well aware that conviction rates in crimes of violence against women and girls greatly underestimate the reality of women's day to day experiences of violence. Given that criminal convictions of police officers, for any criminal act, are rare, we can only assume that the 4 police officers convicted in the 1995 study represent the tip of the iceberg. The recently released PACE report on violence against women in prostitution confirms, and likely underestimates, police harassment and violence against women and girls in prostitution. In light of their position of authority, any violence or harassment by police is worthy of serious attention.

Carman Benoit, co-founder of Justice for Girls, states "You can't tell me that police violence against women and girls on the street doesn't happen. In my experience as a teenage girl on the street in Vancouver, I dealt with police harassment and assault, including sexual violence." Benoit, frustrated by police denial, goes on to say " This abuse of power by police hasn't stopped. Working in this community, I have heard many accounts of police violence and harassment against teenage girls. The PACE report just documents what is already common knowledge amongst girls and women on the street."