California may take at least a small step toward decriminalization of sex work when Governor Gavin Newsom signs a bill passed by the legislature last month that protects the safety of sex workers when they report violent crimes, either because they were the victims of those crimes, or as witnesses, according to a report by the site Refinery 29.
Newsom released a statement Saturday saying that he intends to sign the bill.
“No one is safer when sex workers are afraid to report crimes and acts of violence. Silence only helps the perpetrators of those crimes,” Newsom said in the statement, as reported by Yahoo! News. “This legislation will help ensure serious and violent crimes are reported to law enforcement, and I thank the legislature for sending it to my desk.”
The bill also protects sex workers from arrest for simply possessing condoms, as AVN.com reported earlier. In several major American cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, police can claim that condoms found during a street search are evidence of prostitution, and place sex workers who possess them under arrest.
“Carrying condoms to protect one’s health should never be criminalized,” said state senator Scott Wiener, the author of the bill now awaiting Newsom’s signature.
In addition to protecting sex workers from arrest on prostitution charges when they report violent crimes, “at or around the time when they were a victim of or witness to the crime they are reporting,” the bill also gives sex workers and others protection from arrest on misdemeanor drug offenses when reporting serious crimes, according to the Refinery 29 report.
Statistics reveal that 60 percent of sex workers have been victims of violence, with 32 percent—nearly one of every three—saying they have been physically attacked while doing their jobs, while 29 percent reported that they have been sexually assaulted while working.
At the same time, sex workers report that 40 percent of the time, their interactions with law enforcement after suffering violent attacks were bad experiences.
The California bill, SB 233, passed the state’s senate in May by a 28-10 vote, and in June, also succeeded in the assembly by a vote of 30-9.
Photo By Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons
