The Plight of China’s Xiaojies (Sex Workers)
Crossroads (A Review of Corporate Social Responsibility in China)
China, March 4, 2009 – English translation of China Newsweek Magazine interview with Professor Zhao Jun about the abuse and homicide of Chinese sex workers.
The Plight of China’s Xiaojies (Sex Workers)
Crossroads (A Review of Corporate Social Responsibility in China)
China, March 4, 2009 – English translation of China Newsweek Magazine interview with Professor Zhao Jun about the abuse and homicide of Chinese sex workers.
Professor Zhao Jun: the right to life is undoubtedly higher than the “social morals”
“China Newsweek magazine” Reporter / Journalist: Chen Shu intern journalist: Hu Su Min (from Beijing)
Having 12 years experience as a policeman, the People’s University sociology postdoctoral, Zhao Jun selected “the murder of female sex workers” as his subject for study.
Although the murder of female sex workers (in Chinese, xiaojie is the euphemism for female sex workers) appears in the news frequently, little concern has been given to this problem at present. Even in the public security organs, they do not have a special case category involving female sex workers.
During the past 10 years, Zhao Jun engaged himself in collecting related cases. The 38-year-old scholar was able to find insiders by chitchatting with the workers in a friendly way either in restaurants, foot massage parlors, KTV or football fields. Thus, he gained first hand knowledge about a social issue that has been ignored for a long time.
Zhao Jun’s selected case samples are mainly from medium-sized cities and coastal cities with a relatively higher degree of development. The conclusion of his study is that the murder of xiaojies is a problem threatening the whole group rather than a single problem among a few individuals.” In fact, Xiaojies’ rights have been severely marginalized and their legal rights should also be protected.” Zhao said.
Zhao received an interview on the issue of female sex workers with “China Newsweek” reporters early April, 2008.
THE MURDER OF “XIAOJIES” HAS BECOME A COMMON PROBLEM
China Newsweek: Why are xiaojies more likely to become the target group of violence and crimes?
Zhao Jun: First of all, women are physically disadvantaged and are less capable of protecting themselves; secondly, their nature of work makes them more easily approachable while their customer group is highly mobile and unspecific; thirdly, sex workers or their bosses, compared to common migrant workers, earn more financial resources; fourthly, sex workers never work in groups; fifthly, they won’t call the police after being assaulted.
China Newsweek: What are the criminal’s motives?
For the cases of robbery and kidnapping, the criminal is after money of course. However, judging from the uncovered murder cases, the criminals bear different motives. For instance, some customers kill xiaojies because of being turned down when they ask for specifics while the more common problem has to do with money. Xiaojies are sensitive to how much they can earn per time and once they quarrel over the price, customers have been known to smother them because they are afraid to let people know what they have been doing. Most of the time, the murderer does not plan the murder beforehand.
How Xiaojies View the Police
CN: Who will xiaojies turn to help after being assaulted?
Most of them will turn to their bosses, family or friends for help. 110* does not work for them.
*China’s emergency dialing phone number
According to our investigation, there once existed a criminal group who abducted xiaojies. However, the victims never called the police; instead, they would tell their family and leave the decision to them. In short, xiaojies would rather not call the police after they are robbed or kidnapped.
CN: Why not?
Because under the current legal system, “xiaojies” regard the police as their opposition. According to related laws, prostitutes will be fined 5000 RMB and can be incarcerated for 10 to 15 days. Worst of all, they might face reeducation through labor for at least half a year, two years tops.
Their bosses also do not want the police to intervene. Article 359 in “Penal Code” provides that people who commit enticement, hosting or introduction of prostitution to others, will be sentenced to at least 5 years imprisonment, criminal detention or control; if under serious circumstances, they may be sentenced for more than 5 years. The most serious organized prostitution may even be punishable by death penalty. Therefore, if the victim makes a report, the boss is likely to face even greater risk.
China Newsweek: Are these types of cases likely to be detected?
Zhao: There is no specific xiaojie victim case category or statistics in the public security organs. But one thing is for sure: the murder of xiaojies has become one of the most difficult types of criminal cases for the police. Compared with ordinary cases, this type is different in terms of its lack of “causal linkage.” Plus xiaojies’ contact with unspecific and highly mobile customers makes it even more difficult to determine the target suspect. Even though it is fairly easy to detect robbery and kidnapping, xiaojies won’t report to the police because of their identity, thus leaving the crime in a grey area.
Marginalized groups should be protected
China Newsweek: Why aren’t xiaojie’s personal rights protected?
I mentioned the problem in my book . The rights of xiaojies are what I consider to be “marginalized rights.” The failure in protecting xiaojies’ legal rights reflects mainstream discrimination and ignorance towards marginalized groups.
WN: What leads to the marginalization of their rights?
Zhao Jun: Because their work is marginalized and underground, so too are their rights. For example, once the police launched the anti-porn campaigns, xiaojies dare not to work in the salon. Instead, they would switch to relatively hidden locations like the “gun room” to earn their living. This made it more difficult to receive protection from their boss and made it easier to be killed.
The intention of the anti-porn campaign was to protect xiaojies through ending the practice of pornography. However, it cannot prohibit sex trades to happen.
China Newsweek: Can we find an effective way to help them?
Actually, if some xiaojies fall victim to crime, the police are less likely to fine them. It is the same with their bosses. Yet the police do not publicize the information that they give to case reporters.
At the same time, society should also consider adopting some technical measures. For example, based upon their working experience, the police have publicized material for xiaojies on protecting their rights and preventing themselves from being harmed. In this way, detection can be improved and, moreover, the poker-face stereotype of the police can be diminished.
The right to live is undoubtedly higher than social morals, no matter whose right it is. In this light, it is totally legal for the police to educate the xiaojies on how to protect their life and property.
Zhao Jun (1969—)Doctor of Laws. People’s University Institute of Social and population (Institute of Sex-Sociology) post-doctoral researcher. Minister of China Association of Crime, Lawyer of Hubei Xiling Law Firm
Field of interest: The Criminal Law, Criminology, and Sex-Sociology.
Source: Crossroads