Abstract:
Background: Violence against female sex workers (FSWs) is a widespread phenomenon induced primarily by the pervasive worldview that sex work is a contravention of morality. It is however necessary to dismantle the barrier posed by violence against FSWs in order to reach them with HIV services due to the pivotal role they, their clients and partners of their clients play in reinforcing the HIV epidemic. Objective: This study sought to assess the risk factors for violence against FSWs in Ghana. Method: The study used secondary data from the 2015 IBBSS among FSWs (n=4,279) and their non-paying partners conducted by Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC). Bivariate, and multiple logistic regression analyses were done to establish factors associated with violence against FSWs. Statistical significance was set at a pvalue<0.05. Results: The study established the prevalence of physical and sexual violence as 10.12% and 24.75% respectively. Physical violence was perpetrated mainly by onetime paying clients (50.58%) and regular paying clients (30.95%). A similar trend was reported for sexual violence. As established by the study, the predictors of physical violence are type of FSW (p-value<0.01), current age of FSW (p-value=0.02), region (p-value<0.01), whether FSW has ever used drugs (<0.01) and whether FSW had ever used alcohol before sex in the past six months preceding the survey (p-value<0.01). Sexual violence on the other hand was predicted by current age of FSW (p-value=0.02), marital status (p-value<0.01), number of living children (p-value=0.04), where FSWs take clients for sex (p-value <0.01), region (p-value<0.01), whether FSW has a history of drug use (p-value <0.01), and whether FSW has ever used alcohol before sex in the past six months (p-value<0.01). Both physical and sexual violence had negative consequences on consistency of condom use and condom failure among FSWs. Conclusion: Violence against FSWs is pervasive in Ghana and it is influenced by a myriad of factors. There is the need for tailored interventions to address the menace in order to reach FSWs effectively with HIV services.
