Qualitative analysis reveals stigma and systemic violence in women involved in sex work in East London, suggesting urgent need for supportive interventions.
This study draws on theories of systemic violence (Ruggiero 2020; Žižek 2008), social harms (Canning and Tombs 2021; Hall et al. 2020; Pemberton 2016) and Mbembe’s (2019; 2003) necropolitics to highlight social harms experienced by women ‘on road’. Data originally generated for a consultation funded by Doctors of the World UK (Henceforth DOTW UK) to examine the self-perceptions of health needs by women engaged in street level sex work was reanalysed to tease out a panoramic view of the social harms and systemic violence experienced by the women interviewed. The reanalysis highlighted how the early life systemic violence experienced by many of the women interviewed exacerbated acute marginalization, resulting in spiralling levels of systemic and personal violence, stigma and social harm.
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Stuart et al. (2025) studied this question.
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