For most sex workers, law enforcement isn’t a source of protection – it’s a source of harm. I’ve lived that truth. The man who assaulted me wasn’t some anonymous predator – he was a cop. And the client who stalked me? He was a bondsman who bailed me out of jail in exchange for a blowjob.
That wasn’t protection. That was coercion dressed up as a favour. He knew he had power over me, just as he knew that when he threatened me at work, I wouldn’t go to the police. Not because I didn’t want justice, but because of how the system would treat me if I did. I’d be the one interrogated, blamed, criminalised. I was a sex worker. He knew I had no credibility.
At SWOP Behind Bars in the US, I hear stories like mine every single day. Letters from jail, quiet calls from motel rooms, survivor voices all repeating the same hard truth: “He hurt me, but if I go to the cops, they’ll arrest me instead.” This isn’t paranoia. It’s a pattern. It’s how we survive, passed down like scripture in our community: Don’t call them. They won’t help you.
