#decrimnow — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #decrimnow, aggregated by home.social.
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CW: UKpol; extreme police negligence; mentions serial sexual harassment, assault, rape and murder; some linked articles get explicit on those; some ranting of my own afterwards.
«Statement: Justice for the victims of Simon Levy means more than a conviction. It must mean change»
> Sheryl Wilkins was murdered by Simon Levy—a man who had previously attacked women, had been convicted of violence against women, had been investigated in connection with the murder of Carmen Valencia Trujillo, and was nevertheless released on bail. Just four months later, he murdered Ms Wilkins.
> Women in our network who worked in the same area as Ms Wilkins say her death could have been prevented if the police had prioritised sex workers’ safety over the criminalisation and persecution of sex workers. Instead, police operations like Clear, Hold, Build, led to women being harassed, arrested, displaced from familiar areas, subjected to ASBOs and closure orders, and treated as criminals rather than protected from violent men.
> ECP’s Niki Adams said:
> “This case must lead to real change. Sex workers’ safety must be prioritised. Violent men target sex workers because they think they will get away with it because our lives and our safety aren’t a priority. We face saturation policing and no protection. We demand a change in the law so that sex workers, most of whom are mothers, are no longer criminalised for working to make a living. The laws give the police justification for treating us like criminals. One woman was violently raped by Levy and when she reported it, she herself was prosecuted. What will happen to those police officers? Will they be prosecuted for treating her like that? A violent sexual predator and attacker like Simon Levy was freed again and again after attacking women because women’s lives and safety aren’t seen as a priority. The laws have to be changed so that sex workers are no longer criminalised and we can report violence without fear of arrest or fear of deportation for those of us who are migrant women.”
> Criminalisation of sex work pushes women into greater danger, forces us into unfamiliar places, and makes it easier for violent offenders to prey on us. We demand decriminalisation. We demand that sex workers lives are valued. We demand that no more lives are lost because women’s safety is treated as less important than enforcing unjust laws.
— English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) 🇬🇧
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More of the coverage linked below. Some are explicit, discretion is advised.
«The Guardian: What the Simon Levy case tells us about the women the justice system keeps failing»
https://prostitutescollective.net/the-guardian-what-the-simon-levy-case-tells-us-about-the-women-the-justice-system-keeps-failing/«BBC News: Police failings revealed as sex offender left free to murder and attack women»
https://prostitutescollective.net/bbc-news-police-failings-revealed-as-sex-offender-left-free-to-murder-and-attack-women/«Video: ITV News – The full timeline: How double murderer Simon Levy was caught after years of crimes»
https://prostitutescollective.net/video-itv-news-the-full-timeline-how-double-murderer-simon-levy-was-caught-after-years-of-crimes/«Video BBC News: How one of the most “dangerous and predatory” men was left free to kill»
https://prostitutescollective.net/video-bbc-news-how-one-of-the-most-dangerous-and-predatory-men-was-left-free-to-kill/-
Summary of the situation: sexual predator keeps being bailed out of any charges because police pays no mind to the women denouncing him, keeps upping the harassment, eventually turns to physical assault and rape choosing sex workers as victims under an assumption that no one would care* [he actually admitted to this], then an actual murder (of a sex worker), gets found but is bailed anyway because police is [beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep], then murders another sex worker.
* Which is proven right when police arrests a VICTIM while she tried to go to a hospital after being raped. For real. The rapist? Didn't even get a spank on the wrist for this one.
Y'know, maybe if police were less busy “““cleaning the streets””” and incarcerating sex workers for things like working together or just being there, actual murderers and rapists would have less room to operate… 😮💨
[For the record, this doesn't even require police to develop some minimal competency on their alleged jobs, just to stop making it harder on others. Police simply getting the hell away would overall be a net gain considering its actual effects on cases like this. This very one being an excellent example. :/
“But they eventually imprisoned him for life!” — yeah, after being complicit for years of negligence and the enforcement of harmful policies that made the worst scenarios possible in the first place. Hard pass.
There's a reason marginalized folk want as little to do with police as possible. These things are it.
No, I'm not going too hard on police here. If anything I'm going way too soft. There were freaking YEARS of evidence, it required TWO BLOODY MURDERS for them to START doing shit besides practically encouraging this. The very, very least would be to own their own shit.]-
PS: a few days ago I've been ranting about the new zonification policies in Adelaide (SA, AU)¹ and the calls for overpolicing sex workers in the Netherlands².
This? This is one (ONE!) of the reasons those are terrible measures.
When the attention is on sex workers' behavior, 1) it's not on real issues, and 2) sex workers end up having to work in more dangerous conditions in order to avoid it, so 3) you end up with a mix ripe for abuses like this.
Same with the “Nordic Model” shitbag or the “end demand” nonsense (which is the same bag with "baked by econmics, very siencific!" hastily scribbled somewhere) — there has yet any proposal from those whose implementation didn't begin with “get police on sex workers' asses”, and the next step usually boils down to “and hope it magically does something”. That "something" only ever materializes as "harasses sex workers further"… 😮💨
#DecrimNow, dangit!
¹ On Adelaide's zonification proposal: https://kolektiva.social/@yenndc/117148955523663368
² On moral panics in the Netherlands: https://kolektiva.social/@yenndc/117140698028564710
#EnglishCollectiveOfProstitutes #GenderViolence #PoliceNegligence #UK #GBV #Criminalization #SexWork #EndGBV #AbolishPolice #August2026
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RE: https://kolektiva.social/@yenndc/117131968640614439
In case one wants something more official-sounding than [the quoted minirant] — here's SIN's* statement.
* SIN is South Australia's peer-led sex worker network.
#SexWork #SINSA #Adelaide #Australia #SouthAustralia #Zonification #Discrimination #DecrimNow
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«Not Your Mama's Feminism: The Policy in Practice - The Softer Side of Criminalization»
> What was once openly punitive is now framed as diversion, exit, or support. People are told they aren’t being punished - they’re being helped. But the help comes with conditions, and those conditions begin with arrest.
> The police still initiate the process. The courts still control the outcome.
> The assumption driving these systems is not subtle. It is the belief that people in the sex trade cannot be trusted to define their own needs, that safety must be coerced, and support only works when backed by punishment. Once this assumption is embedded in policy, autonomy is no longer possible.
> What disappears in these systems is not just flexibility, but real choice. Services are not offered freely. Under arrest-based “support” models, assistance is no longer something a person can opt into or out of; it becomes something they must earn through compliance.
> Genuine equality would treat sex work like every other form of labor affected by risk, stigma, and exploitation. It would mean access to services without arrest, healthcare without surveillance, job training without coercion, and the right to stay, leave, or transition on one’s own terms.
> Buyer criminalization and mandated exit programs do not offer equality. They offer control with better branding.
— SWOP Behind Bars 🇺🇸
💯
#SexWork #SWOPBehindBars #Criminalization #Decrim #DecrimNow
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National Ugly Mugs is looking for sex worker artists and writers~
Interested? Contact:
📧 [email protected]👠📝🎨🇬🇧🇮🇪
> Are you a writer or visual artist with lived experience of the adult industry? Do you have a piece you want to submit to Under the Red Umbrella zine?
> Please get in touch with us and tell us a bit about your work, we would love to feature (and pay!) you. All are welcome! 🌟
#NUM #SexWork #ArtistCallOut #DecrimNow #UK #Ireland #NationalUglyMugs
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> SWAN's office is temporarily closed during the FIFA World Cup due to a heavy police presence and surveillance in the downtown core, and the increased risk of arrest, detention and deportation of im/migrant sex workers.
🇨🇦👠📰 https://swanvancouver.ca/office-closed/
Sigh. When the “““safety””” measures to “““combat trafficking””” and “““protect women””” lead to organizations ACTUALLY providing safe and effective support to precarious, marginalized (and even up to actually trafficked) women HAVING TO CLOSE… 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Clearly something ain't working right.
Sure isn't for the lack of warnings however. “Maybe” it's actually working just as intended after all… 😮💨Does anyone seriously believe half a word of the official pitches, anyway..? They keep getting more and more shameful by the day.
#DecrimNow, dangit!
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Report launch: «Sex Workers Navigating Gendered Poverty»
🗓 Monday 30th March
💻 Online 🕓 13:00–14:30 UTC
✍️ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/decrim-now-report-launch-sex-workers-navigating-gendered-poverty-tickets-1983265489467> Next Monday 30th March, 2-3.30pm, we’ll be hosting an online event to discuss the findings of our autumn 2025 research report on why people go into sex work and remain in it, and what they’d like the government to do to support them.
> We’ll be joined for a panel discussion by colleagues from the English Collective of Prostitutes, National Ugly Mugs, BASIS Yorkshire and Amnesty International UK. We’re looking forward to discussing the current situation for sex workers’ rights in the UK, as well as how the cost of living crisis could be contributing to driving more people, especially women, into sex work.
— 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/decrimnow.bsky.social/post/3mhsr5uoqfk2h
❤️🔥🤩❤️🔥
#SexWork #DecrimNow #UK #Precarity #Poverty #ECP #NUM #BASIS #AmnestyInternational #Online #2026W14
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«Decriminalise Our Lives!»
International Women's Day: Shared Vision for Feminism.
Statement by ESWA, EuroNPUD, S.A.F.E. and Equinox Initiative.
[I cannot agree more with it. ❤️🔥😍 💯]
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‣ Criminalisation should NEVER be the first response to social and healthcare issues!
3 years ago, the 8 March Principles were launched - to provide a new model on how we see justice.
This International Women's Day, we're calling for care over carceralism, on issues including sex work, abortion, harm reduction, racial justice and poverty.
We advocate for a feminism that is rights-based, not punitive.
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‣ Rights not rescue: sex work is work!
Criminalisation, including the criminalisation of clients, is a massive driver of violence against sex workers.
It drives sex work underground, into more danger and stigma, creates barriers to healthcare, housing, and justice.
The 8 March Principles emphasise that consensual sexual activity between adults should never be a matter for the criminal legal system.
Decriminalisation of sex work prioritises the safety, human and labour rights of sex workers.
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‣ Criminalisation has never stopped abortions from happening. It only makes them less safe.
Under the 8 March Principles, reproductive and bodily autonomy are recognised as fundamental human rights.
We demand the removal of all punitive barriers to healthcare. When we treat abortion as a crime, we violate the right to health, privacy, and bodily autonomy. It is time for a legal system that trusts individuals to make decisions about their own bodies without the threat of a prison cell.
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‣ Support, don't punish! Harm reduction saves lives. Criminalisation destroys them.
The “War on Drugs” is a war on all humans. In practice, it disproportionately impacts women, caregivers and communities already marginalised.
The 8 March Principles advocate for a shift from criminalisation to harm reduction. Drug use is a public health issue, not a criminal one. By redirecting resources from policing to community-supported healthcare and safe consumption services, we can transform our societies for the better.
Lived experience is knowledge.
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‣ Carceralism vs. Racial Justice.
The legal system isn't “neutral”.
It disproportionately targets and penalises Black, Brown and racialised communities.The 8 March Principles remind us that justice cannot be achieved through a system built on systemic bias. We must dismantle the structures of over-policing and invest in safety measures that are led by and for the communities most affected by state violence.
Anti-carceral feminism is essential to realising racial justice.
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‣ The Shared Vision - Our Demands:
• Decriminalise abortion, sex work, drug use, and activities associated with poverty.
• Redirect resources from the carceral state to community-led safety, health, and housing.
• Adopt the 8 March Principles globally to ensure that human rights, not moral policing, guide our legal systems.
• Center lived experience as expertise: policies are stronger when shaped by the people most affected. Amplify community voices, recognise peer support, and treat people with dignity and autonomy.
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‣ Poverty is not a crime!
In many places, being poor or homeless is effectively treated as a criminal offense.
Laws targeting activities like loitering or sleeping in public punish people for simply existing.The 8 March Principles state that the criminal law should never be used to address social and economic exclusion.
We cannot jail our way out of poverty, and should never criminalise the means by which the poorest survive.Resources belong in housing and healthcare, not policing and prisons.
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‣ Further reading:
🌐 S.A.F.E. https://supportingabortions.eu
🌐 EuroNPUD: https://euronpud.net
➕ SisterWUD: https://euronpud.net/project/mobilising-women-who-use-drugs-and-combating-gender-based-violence-gbv/🌐 European Sex Workers' Rights Alliance: https://www.eswalliance.org
🌐 Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice: https://equinox-eu.com
🗄📄 8 March Principles: https://web.archive.org/web/20230311063011/https://icj2.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/8-MARCH-Principles-FINAL-printer-version-1-MARCH-2023.pdf
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A safer world is possible when we stop using the law to punish and start using it to protect.
When we remove the threat of criminalisation, we create space for autonomy, safety, and dignity for all.
It also makes space for well-being and pleasure: safer choices, informed decisions, and self-determination.‣ LET'S BUILD A FEMINISM THAT LIBERATES EVERYONE, SPECIALLY THE MOST MARGINALISED.
#8M #M8 #IWD #InternationalWomensDay #Europe #ESWA #SAFE #EuroNPUD #EquinoxInitiative #SexWork #HarmReduction #SRHR #Abortion #DrugUse #Decrim #DecrimNow #Decriminalization #Feminisms
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Sex worker organizations are advocating for decriminalisation, the chief regulatory demand. Even if Bertin doesn't endorse it, let's ensure the Review notes its importance. 🌟 #DecrimNow #Whorephobia
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A huge chance to advance #HumanRights: Oct 3rd, @councilofeurope will vote on a resolution to protect sx workers’ rights and affirm their #BodilyAutonomy. Let's show our support! ✊☂️👠 #DecrimNow
✅Leading Human Rights NGOs call to vote IN FAVOUR
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Wenn Sie sich in die deutsche Politik einmischen können, fordern Sie bitte Ihre Politiker auf, das "Nordische Modell" NICHT zu übernehmen.
Dieses Konzept, den Kauf von Sexarbeit zu verbieten, setzt SexarbeiterInnen einem viel größeren Risiko aus und verhindert keinen Schaden.
Das Nordische Modell wird von Amnesty und dem Deutsche Institut für Menschenrechte angeprangert.
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important webinar on the need to decriminalise sex work in the UK (indoor independent sex work here is legal only if sex workers work alone which endangers them and leads to prosecution, solicitation isnt legal, criminalising street sw and many of the most vulnerable) https://www.publicpolicyexchange.co.uk/event.php?eventUID=NE04-PPE&ss=em&tg=1a #sexwork #DecrimNow
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17 Dicembre: giornata internazionale per porre fine alla violenza sullɜ sex worker.
Ho deciso di pubblicare oggi "Prostitute in rivolta" - capire il lavoro sessuale perché non credo che in Italia, attualmente, ci sia un libro che ti metta di fronte al fatto che quando si parla di violenza, quella dell'assassino è l'ultimo anello di una catena più lunga di violenza sistemica, istituzionalizzata e trasversale.
Io poi ci ho trovato dentro tantissime altre cose, volevo parlarvene un po'.
https://lacameradivalentina.it/prostitute-in-rivolta/
#decrimnow #decriminalizesexwork #sexworkiswork #sexworkerrightsarehumanrights #mastopost #endstigma
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1866 - Rev R.Knox - "This weary round of sin and punishment hardens the heart, and rarely if ever, leads to reformation of life and character" An argument FOR #prohibition.
2022 - @Ginosocialist- "Criminalising people for drug use doesn't work" An argument AGAINST
In the 19th c it was believed that destruction of drink trade would be silver bullet to stop substance use & criminalisation. In the 21st century we now know it is not. Prohibition has been tried & tested. It has failed. #DecrimNow
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In den USA ist Sexarbeit vollständig verboten. Sexarbeiter*innen begehen eine Straftat, wenn sie Geld für Sex verlangen. In Washington findet heute eine historische Anhörung zur Entkriminalisierung von Sexarbeit statt. Wir drücken die Daumen. Mehr unter #DecrimNow