WITH statistics showing that one in seven adult men buy sex, and with the lucrative profits to be gained by the multi-million dollar industry, more young women and men are offering their bodies for sale, but at great expense of physical and sexual harm.

For many, these acts usually go unreported as sex workers shun the police.

Inspector Duetress Foster-Gardener, sub-officer in charge of the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) says only the occasional female prostitute will report having been raped.

“…If a prostitute comes to the centre to report a rape then we would have to go through the same process as we would other persons,” Foster-Gardener notes, hoping to encourage more reports.

Not much could be done if the cases were not reported, she advises prostitutes, adding that her unit is aware that sex workers are being raped in greater numbers than that reported.

She tells the Sunday Observer that while she has not had any male sex worker coming in to report sexual violence against them, other males had come in to report buggery, usually committed by adult men.

“We usually go through the same channels, where we would have them medically examined, we would have statements collected and we would also arrest in these cases just as well,” she says.

But the sex workers with whom this reporter spoke made it clear they were not prepared to give up the trade, even given the level of violence faced, because of the lucrative nature of the industry.

Boris Bloomfield of the health ministry’s National HIV/STI Control Programme, points out that there is big demand for the service sex workers provide.

“A survey done shows that one in seven adult men in Jamaica buy sex, so there is a demand for the service, so people supply that demand and it is people who have the disposable income to buy sex who do that,” he said in a speech at a recent workshop hosted by Panos Caribbean in Ocho Rios.

In Jamaica alone, he said, the sex industry is worth millions of dollars “if you take into consideration the street worker, the club and bar workers, the massage parlour workers, the pornography industry, and the person who has his or her business cards”.

Mark is a 24-year-old male sex worker who got involved in the business at age 17, because he could not afford to buy himself a pair of sneakers one Christmas. A friend took him to the New Kingston area and introduced him to the world of prostitution, he discloses.

“The night when him carry me there, this guy give me one big stone in a me forehead and say me must find a different spot. Me haffi lick him back and run,” Mark recalls.

After finding himself a spot, he says he got his first customer, a lawyer, whom he told a sad tale of being locked out of the house by his mother. The man offered to take him to his house and he ended up leaving the next day,” Mark recounts.

“The man give mi the money and mi taxi fare to come home, which mi get more than the crepe (sneakers) money because I was able to pay mi light bill and buy the crepe,” he adds.

When business is good, Mark says he gets paid up to $7,000 a night by his clients. “Sometimes we give them a charge like $2,500 and they have to pay $50 extra fi di condom,” he explains, adding that the cost is increased based on the type of condom being used.

His clients vary from the professional to those with the bad man image. “Some times you deh pon the spot a New Kingston and you see some bad man who you woulda fraid fi look pon and dem will pass and say B..bway fi dead and then you see them pass back again and say the same thing and that time you have to have you stone well pack up and your chopper well inna you waist just in case,” he relates.

Mark claims that sex workers suffer physical abuse at the hands of the police, some of whom later become their clients.

He recounts being badly beaten by a group of police officers who found him loitering on a corner.

“The police ask me is where me work and me say ‘that is why them kill unoo because unoo no mind unoo own business. Anyway, me start run from them and run inna one tree and one hold me by mi foot and draw me out and them give me some kick,” he remembers.

After they left him, he changed clothing and stood again on the corner. A police jeep drove up with one of the policemen who had beaten him.

“Him ask if is me them lick a while ago and me say ‘no’ but the earring in me nose give me way. So him say me fi come to the station come give a report,” Marks says.

Although fearful, he got into the van with the cop who, instead of going to the police station, made a detour for Stony Hill where they ended up having sex in the bushes.

“Me know say a month-end and police get pay so me never mind,” Mark adds.

But despite the quick money, Mark says he is one of those who would give it up in a heart-beat if he could better provide for himself.

“I would give it up because I have various trades and various subjects and in my early childhood I always tell myself that I either want to become a pilot or a criminal lawyer,” he says.

The story was somewhat similar for Lloyd, a 22-year-old male sex worker who says he does it to help himself and his mother. He first started in the trade after his father chased him out of the home, saying he was homosexual.

He said a friend introduced him to an area in Bull Bay where homosexuals were known to frequent.

Drug abuse also plays a huge factor in the sex industry, both Mark and Lloyd agree. Drugs like ecstasy and high energy drinks are used regularly as stimulants.

“When you tek the ecstasy it make you get freaky and lively and you do all sort of things weh you no know wey you a do,” Lloyd explains.

Female sex workers are not alien to physical violence and always have to be aware of the constant dangers they face.

Lucy, a 26-year-old dancer and sex worker, admits she has been exposed to great dangers in her line of work.

“Mi woulda come een like a hit man because when me go in a room me a look for the nearest exit if something shoulda go wrong,” she remarks.

She recalls one occasion where – had it not been for quick thinking – she would have been raped or worse yet killed by a client.

“When a go in him house me notice that him locking up everywhere so when him go in the bathroom me tek up the key and go pull back the grill and just set back the lock and push up the door and then lie down.”

She says the man got physically abusive and insisted that he would not use a condom.

“Mi haffi start form like me have asthma and me tell him say me a go dweet, but if you gwaan rough, me ago sick pon you,” she recalls.

She managed to escape through the door and jumped over a wall, wearing only her undergarments.

Because of situations like this, Lucy says, she would stop this line of work immediately if a better opportunity presented itself.

“If tomorrow morning I see better at my door I would give it up with a smile because it no nice, and as a dancer most people no respect you,” she complains.

Two months before the interview she had traded in that line of work for a life as a housewife to take care of her 12-year-old son and boyfriend. However, when he was shot and killed by the police she was left with no choice but to return to the club, she claims.

“Mi work in a store ah help people find clothes and shoes and sometimes people facety [rude] with you, almost the same like dancing, and the pay is less,” she argues.

Today, she says, she has gained a level of independence as she has been able to build not one but two houses, as well as take care of her son and mother.