Dr. Kathryn McGarry:

I noticed an explicit pattern of accumulated disadvantage. Some people speak about the Matthew effect, which refers to a verse from the Bible. He who has will always have and he who is without will always accumulate disadvantage. There was a pattern among some of the street workers who were problematic drug users. They were on a pathway of risk which meant they had very weak starting points in prostitution and accumulated risk throughout their experience of prostitution. It meant they were in a weaker negotiating position with men who were seeking to purchase services. There may have been violence within the home. International evidence supports the claims that some sex workers, particularly the most vulnerable who are involved in street prostitution and some indoor workers, particularly if they have been exploited and coerced and are enslaved within the sex industry, can share a number of early life experiences, such as family dysfunction, periods of time in care, early exposure to criminality in the family, exposure to violence within the home, early exposure to and initiation in drug use and early initiation into the sex industry. That is evident and is the experience of some sex workers.