Posted on August 4, 2012
Criminalizing Condoms: How Policing Practices Put Sex Workers and HIV Services at Risk in Kenya, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, the United States, and Zimbabwe
Connections - Criminalizing Condoms: How Policing Practices Put Sex Workers and HIV Services at Risk in Kenya, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, the United States, and Zimbabwe
Sex workers who have their condoms confiscated or opt not to carry condoms for fear of police harassment or detention have an increased risk of HIV exposure, undermining HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, a report from the Open Society Foundations finds. Based on surveys of sex and outreach workers, Criminalizing Condoms: How Policing Practices Put Sex Workers and HIV Services at Risk in Kenya, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, the United States, and Zimbabwe (36 pages, PDF) found that more than 40 percent of the sex workers surveyed — and 80 percent in Russia, 70 percent in Namibia, and 48 percent in the United States — had had condoms confiscated by the police in the previous twelve months. Survey respondents also reported that police routinely use possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution and justification for detention or arrest, while outreach workers who distribute condoms frequently are subjected to police harassment and/or surveillance. Promoting condom use and access is essential to HIV/AIDS prevention, the report notes, and the design, evaluation, and funding of prevention programs should take the negative impact of policing practices into account.
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