Condoms Should Not Be Used as Evidence Against Sex Workers, Researcher Writes

July 17, 2012 — "While public health departments spend millions of dollars promoting and distributing condoms, police departments are harassing sex workers for carrying them and using them as evidence to support arrests," Megan McLemore, a senior health researcher for Human Rights Watch, writes in a New York Times piece describing the findings of an investigation by the organization. The investigation included eight months of interviews with more than 200 current and former sex workers in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., to identify barriers to HIV prevention among sex workers, McLemore explains.

She notes that although some women said they carried condoms despite the risk of prosecution, "[f]or others, fear of arrest trumped fears of sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy." Most women said "they were afraid to carry the number of condoms they needed," and about 5% reported having "unprotected sex with clients as a result," McLemore adds.

It is not official policy for police officers to confiscate condoms or for prosecutors to enter them as evidence, McLemore writes. "An act of the legislature (like one bill pending in the New York State Assembly) or even a directive from a police chief or district attorney could end the practice immediately," she argues, adding, "Law enforcement efforts should not interfere with the right of anyone, including sex workers, to protect his or her own health" (McLemore, New York Times, 7/15).