If we can distinguish between women and girls who are coerced into prostitution and those who choose to work in the sex industry, yes I agree. I used to get support from the English Prostitutes' Collective, who would come along and offer help to female offenders who used prostitution to pay their pimps for drugs - the same pimps who had given them the drugs for 'free' in the first place. I found their support invaluable and it was easy to work out which women were working in the sex industry by choice and which were not.
Prostitutes are vulnerable whether they choose that life or not, and the Collective had a 'dodgy punters' list with descriptions that they would update and circulate as a way of keeping each other safe. They would distribute condoms and health advice leaflets, too. The police were happy to keep their distance if the Collective were on board, otherwise they often made arrests for loitering, reasoning that this was the least worst way of keeping vulnerable girls safe. It never worked - if they were brought into court, their parting shot after being fined was 'I'll just have to work overtime now!'
