Dr. Teresa Whitaker:

It has been shown in England that funding is now going to anti-trafficking organisations away from harm reduction services. The philosophy of harm reduction is that we realise prostitution exists. It is not a good thing nor is it a bad thing but it exists. We have harm reduction services in Dublin and elsewhere in the country to help reduce the harms, which includes the spread of infections. That is a public good. We must tackle violence against sex workers and women. We must tackle such issues. The Association of Chief Police Officers has tackled violence in Merseyside in Liverpool by having crimes against sex workers designated as hate crimes in exactly the same way as the beating up of a gay man or a black person is considered a hate crime. A scheme called The Ugly Mugs has been devised whereby if a woman is attacked and she reports the case to the police, they immediately text all the sex workers they know to warn them to avoid such and such a person.

As a result of that practice in England, the number of attacks on women sex workers has been reduced.