Hello Hana, thanks for sitting down with us! Could you first tell us a bit about your organization, Rozkos bes Rizika? Our mission is to improve the position and situation of sex workers in the Czech Republic and to provide social and healthcare services to prevent and lower the risks related to providing paid sexual services. We also provide, through our R-R centers in Prague, Brno, Ostrava and Ceske Budejovice, professional social counselling nation-wide, as well as legal support and counselling in the 12 regions covered by our field programs.
Do we know how many prostitutes there are? According to the estimates, it is presumed that, in , there were between 12, and 13, sexual workers offering paid services in the Czech Republic. Our organisation is in active and regular contact with about 2, women. For these people, prostitution is a very flexible way to make a living. How about the clients? Is there a stereotypical profile of customers seeking the services of prostitutes in the Czech Republic?
Apart from this, their profile β as well as the type of women or sexual services they are looking for β can be very different from one customer to the next. Customers often have a very hard time communicating to the women what they really want, an awkwardness which might lead to situations where they demand something that has not been agreed upon, paving the way for conflict and sometimes physical violence.
Another quite logical common feature is that customers value and demand privacy, which is partly why the sexual business is increasingly occurring in private flats, out of the public space. What are the biggest risks for prostitutes in the Czech Republic? Sex workers very often become the target of insults, humiliation, as well as physical violence and unprotected sex.
Prostitutes, who often use nicknames to protect their privacy, are often reluctant to contact law enforcement authorities, where they face strong negative stigma. Admitting to being the victim of violence remains a very big problem. In many cases, women actually spend more time and energy keeping their identity secret than on their personal and physical safety.
