Harm reduction, or harm minimization, refers to a range of intentional practices and public health policies designed to lessen the negative social and/or physical consequences associated with various human behaviors, both legal and illegal. Harm reduction is used to decrease negative consequences of recreational drug use and sexual activity without requiring abstinence, recognizing that those unable or unwilling to stop can still make positive change to protect themselves and others.
Vera Christiane Felscherinow is a German actress and musician who is best known for her contribution to the 1978 autobiographical book Christiane F., and the film and television miniseries based on the book, in which her teenage drug use is documented.
Drugs and prostitution have been documented to have a direct correlation.
In Great Britain, the act of engaging in sex as part of an exchange of various sexual services for money is legal, but a number of related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, and pimping, are illegal. In Northern Ireland, which previously had similar laws, paying for sex became illegal from 1 June 2015.
Donna Ludlow is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Matilda Ziegler. She appears between episodes 265 and 437 of EastEnders, originally appearing on screen from 27 August 1987 to 13 April 1989. Donna was scripted as a troubled individual, desperate for attention, but shunned by almost all who encountered her. In her storyline, after finding out she was conceived from rape and then rejected by her mother, Donna sets herself on a path of self-destruction. She turns to manipulation, blackmail and prostitution to fund her drug-habit, before choking to death on her own vomit in 1989.
Holbeck is an inner city area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It begins on the southern edge of Leeds city centre and mainly lies in the LS11 postcode district. The M1 and M621 motorways used to end/begin in Holbeck. Now the M621 is the only motorway that passes through the area since the end of the M1 moved to Hook Moor near Aberford. Since large parts of Holbeck have been vacated in preparation for the regeneration of the area, the district has in large parts suffered from a population exodus. Holbeck had a population of 5,505 in 2011. The district currently falls within the Beeston and Holbeck ward of Leeds City Council.
The Ipswich serial murders, commonly known as the work of the Suffolk Strangler, took place between 30 October and 10 December 2006, during which time the bodies of five murdered sex workers were discovered at different locations near Ipswich, Suffolk, England. Their bodies were discovered naked but there were no signs of sexual assault. Two of the victims, Anneli Alderton and Paula Clennell, were confirmed to have been killed by asphyxiation. A cause of death for the other victims, Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls, was not established.
Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction (1997) is a novel by Luke Davies.
Christiane F. is a 1981 German biographical drama film directed by Uli Edel. It depicts the descent of Christiane Felscherinow, a bored and depressed 13-year-old coming of age in mid-1970s West Berlin, to a 14-year-old heroin addict. Based on the 1978 non-fiction book Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, transcribed and edited from tape recordings by Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck, the film immediately acquired cult status and features David Bowie as both composer and as himself. In 2013, Felscherinow published her autobiography Christiane F. – My Second Life.
Zona Norte is an official neighborhood, as well as a red light district located in Tijuana, Mexico. It is among the largest red light districts in North America known for its brothels, which present themselves in public as strip clubs and bars, similar to gentlemen's clubs in the United States.
Sex Addicts Anonymous (SAA) is a twelve-step program founded in 1977 for people who want to stop their addictive sexual behavior. There also exists a group known as COSA, for those who have been impacted by others' sexual addiction.
The People's Republic of China's first reported AIDS case was identified in 1985 in a dying tourist. In 1989, the first indigenous cases were reported as an outbreak in 146 infected heroin users in Yunnan province, near China's southwest border.
Prostitution in Pakistan is a taboo culture of sex-trade that exists as an open secret but illegal. Prostitution is largely based in organisational setups like brothels or furthered by individual call girls.
Domenica Anita Niehoff, also known as Domenica, was a German prostitute and activist. She appeared in television shows in the 1990s, where she campaigned for the legalization and regulation of the profession.
Sexe de rue is a 2003 Canadian documentary film about the history and current conditions of street prostitutes in the Centre-Sud of Montreal, written, directed and co-produced by Richard Boutet, who died of a heart attack on 29 August 2003, a few days before the film's premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival. The largely first person documentary gives a voice to street workers, allowing them to tell their own stories in their own words. Prostitution is discussed as labour and in the context of local history and relevant sociological factors, including dangers.
The murder of Sheila Anderson was the 1983 murder of a sex worker in Edinburgh which has been described as "one of Scotland's most notorious unsolved murders". 27-year-old mother Anderson was found run over, possibly repeatedly, on the promenade at Gypsy Brae after she had sex with a client there. Anderson was known to have been confrontational with clients and for having stood in front of their cars if they refused to pay, leading investigators to conclude that she may have been run over after such a disagreement.
The Main South Woodsman is an unidentified serial killer who murdered between three and five prostitutes in Worcester, Massachusetts from 2002 to 2007. His nickname derives from the Main South neighborhood, where he picked up most of his victims.
Emma Caldwell was murdered in April 2005 by serial rapist and sex offender, Iain Packer. The investigation of her murder was one of Scotland's longest-running cases, with nineteen years between her death and Packer's imprisonment in 2024 for a minimum term of 36 years. Angela Constance MSP, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, announced that there would be an independent public inquiry into the police handling of the investigation.
Sinéad Kelly was an Irish prostitute who was murdered in an alleged contract killing in Dublin city on 22 June 1998. As of 2024, her murder remains unsolved.
