Bad Dates and Street Hassles: Violence in the Winnipeg Street Sex Trade

Abstract

Violence has become an all too regular feature of the street sex trade, yet we know very little about the nature of this violence and even less about its perpetrators. In order to map out the social characteristics of the perpetrators, the location where these events are most likely to occur, the forms of the violence that take place, and the presence of weapons, this study draws on data gleaned from reports of “bad dates” and “street hassles” published in two newsletters distributed by inner-city agencies in Winnipeg. The findings support the view that working in the street sex trade is a job that carries considerable risk. While violence against street sex trade workers is part of the continuum of violence against women, the social circumstances in which they work and the “discourse of disposal” that prevails combine to make street sex trade workers even more susceptible to this violence.