Violence Against Prostitutes and Non-prostitutes: An Analysis of Frequency, Variety and Severity

Abstract

Violence against women is a form of gender violence, and the lethal aspect of it, defined as femicide, is a global health and human rights problem. This study looked at 330 cases of femicide that occurred in North West Italy, between 1970 and 2020, committed by 303 male perpetrators. The victims included women who were prostitutes and those who were not. Findings show that only a small proportion of femicide occurs within an anonymous setting: Victims were mostly killed by a man they knew. The type and intensity of the relationship was likely to affect how the violence occurred. In those cases in which victims and perpetrators had an intimate relationship, the risk of overkill, that is, an excessive use of violence that goes further than what is necessary to cause death, was four times higher in comparison with the murder of unknown victims. As with non-prostitutes, the risk of overkill was almost fourfold for those prostitutes who knew their perpetrators. Furthermore, when comparing prostitutes with any unknown victims, the risk of being overkilled was almost five times higher for the former, suggesting that prostitutes are more at risk of being murdered with excessive violence. In addition, prostitutes were more likely to be victims of sexual murder, postmortem mutilation, and being killed by men who had previous criminal records. Women who are victims of violence are not a homogeneous group, although some of the psychosocial correlates are the same and relevance should be given to the features behind the type, intensity, and nature of the relationship between prostitutes and non-prostitutes and their perpetrators. These variables are what make violence against women a preventable problem.

Sexual femicide, non-sexual femicide and rape: Where do the differences lie? A continuum in a pattern of violence against women

“…The use, consume and dispose script is mostly featured in these types of sexual femicide because “what rape is to others is normal to prostitutes ” ( Farley et al, 2005 , p. 254, italics added, as cited in Zara et al, 2021 , p. 20). The fact that a significant proportion of victims of sexual femicides in this study were prostitutes is supported in the literature (e.g., Salfati, 2000 ; Salfati et al, 2008 ).…”

“…As emerged in other international studies (Regoeczi and Miethe, 2003;Zara et al, 2021), knowing or not knowing the perpetrator could make a difference in the way the woman was killed. These findings are consistent with statements in the literature (Meloy, 2000) that sexual femicides tend to be characterized by further exploitation of the victim's body and mutilation: an ultimate expression of control, deviant sexuality, and anger toward women are seen as the main incentives for this form of lethal violence.…”

“…Violence against prostitutes reifies a justification for violence against women and conveys the idea that prostitutes are at their client's disposal (Salfati et al, 2008;Zara et al, 2021), making them more at risk of violence and femicide (Sorochinski and Salfati, 2019).…”

“…VaW takes different forms (emotional, sexual, psychological, physical, economic, and cultural) that vary in frequency, intensity, and severity ( Marks et al, 2020 ). It also differs according to types (known or strangers) and number (single or multiple) of victims involved ( Zara et al, 2019 , 2021 ) and the nature of the relationships (intimate, familiar, acquaintance or superficial vs. no relationship) between victims and perpetrators ( Gino et al, 2019 ). It is not uncommon for victims to be in serious danger of losing their lives ( Matias et al, 2020 ) i.e., femicide.…”

Profiling Players Involved in Overkill: An Analysis of 71 Cases in Central Italy

“…According to Zara et al [ 37 ], another category at risk for violent murder is represented by prostitutes, especially when the connection with the murderer was not limited to the sole relationship of customer/service provider but was of a more intimate nature. In our records, as well, there were three cases with prostitutes among the victims.…”