Cases in which women or children have been forced into prostitution under the violent control of a third party are often described as the tip of a very large iceberg.
This finding, which has gone so far as to be submitted in memos to parliamentary committees, was set among anecdotal evidence from sexual health outreach projects and examples of individual cases of forced prostitution. Our added questions included asking about the services offered in each establishment whether workers were willing to provide anal sex, oral sex without a condom and whether they were willing to kiss clients and the prices charged for both vaginal and anal sex.
Using the methods the original authors described, we were only able to contact establishments in London, whereas they reported contacting However, less than a third of establishments reported that workers would provide anal sex; in only a quarter of cases was our researcher told that anal sex and oral sex without a condom and kissing would be available to him. There was also a significant difference between prices quoted for vaginal and anal sex. As evidenced in documented cases of forced prostitution, some of which are cited in the Poppy Report, women and girls who are locked into buildings and violently coerced into sex with clients are not normally given a choice as to which sexual services they provide.
Why would such an individual instruct receptionists to tell prospective clients that anal sex is available, but not oral sex without a condom, or that workers are willing to provide oral sex without a condom but not to kiss? This suggests that more sex workers in indoor prostitution in London exercise rather more control over the details of their working practices than many commentators believe.
Meanwhile, receptionists in three-quarters of the establishments surveyed told our researcher that he would be refused at least one of the three services he named. All in all, our telephone survey alongside other research suggests that only a minority of sex workers are subject to the violent control of a third party.
