Dr. Kathryn McGarry:

All of the street-based women I spoke with executed a range of different risk management strategies, one of which was working in pairs in order to try to deter violence. There is a strategy of taking down car registration numbers and "spotting" for an individual, which has also been noted in other research in Ireland. It is a means of having some sort of control over the working environment and limiting some of the risks. As far as possible, the women work in pairs or groups, although it was not always possible. Some of the women spoke about experiences of violence when they had to work on their own and being exposed to danger when they had to go to locations with which they were not familiar, etc. For the most part, they felt that working in pairs allowed them to feel safe in some way.

Current legislation around prostitution in Ireland criminalises somebody profiting or living from the earnings of prostitution. Where women work in pairs as a strategy to minimise risk, they would also help each other financially, so there is an ambiguous area that cannot always be very readily defined. Under legislation it would be regarded as pimping if somebody took money from another person when acting as a "look-out" on the streets.