Romina Kalachi, a year-old woman, was stabbed to death in her own home on May 29, She was killed in her flat in Kilburn, London and is the latest known sex worker to be murdered in the UK. In , Hilary Kinnell wrote a book chapter, Murder Made Easy, followed by her important book Violence and Sex Work in Britain , an accumulation of research and practice-based knowledge about the extent of violent crimes and homicides against sex workers in the UK.
She reported comprehensively the nature of violence against sex workers, who the perpetrators were and heavily criticised the legal context in which sex workers worked. A decade on, the reality is that those working in the commercial sex industry likely remain the most at risk of violent crime.
The data are curated by National Ugly Mugs , a reporting mechanism for crimes against sex workers. In the absence of a comprehensive police database, we believe that it may be the most accurate existing resource for understanding these extreme crimes.
Of the victims in the database, we classified as known occupational homicide cases — that is to say, they were murdered while engaging in sex work. We found that women accounted for the clear majority of victims , with only two male and three trans victims. Overall, the vast majority of victims 85 were also street-based sex workers. This trend remained consistent during the decades and even when total number of reported homicides nearly doubled from 28 between to 50 in , reflecting the increased vulnerability of street-based sex workers.
This is likely to be because most sex work now happens indoors as street markets have declined and the internet has become the preferred place for advertising and marketing. It may also be the case that working alone indoors presents greater risks. Overall, the numbers killed whilst working in the current decade is suggesting a decreasing trend with 18 homicides 16 of them cisgender women victims compared to other decades.
