ABSTRACT
Successful prosecutions against those who have attacked or killed sex workers bring relief that dangerous predators are no longer menacing the vulnerable, and they also appear to vindicate the criminal justice system, demonstrating society's competence to deal with malefactors. Nonetheless, not all prosecutions have satisfactory outcomes. Although the overall rate of acquittal in sex worker homicide cases is no different to those where the victim is not a sex worker, and proportionately fewer cases result in a manslaughter conviction, 1 there are sometimes aspects of the judicial process, even in successful prosecutions, which appear to exemplify institutional prejudice against sex workers, from milder charges being brought against perpetrators than might be thought warranted, to reduced Criminal Injuries Compensation payments to victims or their families. There are also numerous cases which demonstrate the ineffectiveness and incompetence of the criminal justice system in restraining those known to be dangerous. Previous chapters have shown that at least 25 per cent of those charged with non-fatal attacks on sex workers and 45 per cent of those charged with homicide, had previous convictions for violence, including homicide, for whom such monitoring systems as we have, proved entirely inadequate. Conviction and incarceration of the violent, except in those extremely rare cases where a whole-life sentence is imposed, is not the end of the matter. Many of those convicted since 1990 will have been released by now, into a society where sex workers are at least as vulnerable as when they were convicted. These institutional failings are not addressed in the prosecution of individual offenders: one horse may be rounded up, but the stable door is still open.
