Using behavioural insights to reduce demand for prostitution in Redbridge

Prostitution taking place on Ilford Lane in London Borough of Redbridge has been perceived as having negative effects on the local community. Redbridge Council and residents are concerned about prostitution-related littering, drug use, and criminal activity, as well as the safety of women working in the industry and the impact on family life in the area. While the Council and its partners have previously run initiatives to tackle prostitution, the changing and complex nature of the issue have meant that no sustained reduction could be achieved. The Council was therefore keen to shift its focus and address gaps in knowledge about what motivates or deters men who buy sex and develop behaviourally-informed interventions to reduce demand for prostitution in the borough based on these insights.

We used several evidence gathering methods to gain a deep understanding of prostitution as a phenomenon, and its nature in the context of Redbridge. This included a desk-based evidence review, stakeholder interviews and two surveys, one targeted at residents and one to be taken by men who buy sex. The latter survey was followed up by interviews with a small sample of men who have previously bought sex.

From the evidence gathered, we were able to develop some initial hypotheses that informed our intervention design. We recognised that part of the challenge around prostitution in Ilford relates to community perceptions and behaviours, and that potential solutions are, at least in part, about community actions and harnessing the strengths within the local community.

Our hypotheses were therefore:

• Strengthening community visibility will increase perpetrators’ perceptions of the costs and risks of being caught.
• Small but visible improvements to the local area will reduce tolerance of anti-social behaviour such as prostitution.

Our interventions

Drawing on our insights we created a framework called “Ilford Lane Lives” which comprised a number of interventions.

1. Faces of our Community

We wanted to remove opportunities for anonymity by reflecting faces of local people (including children) on closed shop shutters, to reinforce familiarity and connection, and bring some of the vibrancy of the daytime to the night.

2. Audio disruption

We designed an approach to enable CCTV operators to activate a voice message when they observed men apparently propositioning a woman for sex. The approach aims to take away the feeling of anonymity and create cognitive dissonance. The messages were designed as direct and challenging but not specifically referencing sex to avoid potential harm and unintended offense to passers-by.

3. Large format TV screens

The aim of oversized screens (placed in Ilford Lane) was to provide a salient and location-specific message to people in the area. By day, they were intended to convey messages supporting community cohesion and by night to alert would-be perpetrators that the area was under surveillance.

During the period of the project beginning with extensive evidence and insight gathering, and the design and planned delivery of our interventions, the context for the project shifted dramatically. The COVID-19 lockdowns led to a significant decline in fines to men seeking to buy sex being issued, and although numbers have risen again since, residents perceive there has been significant progress in tackling prostitution. At the same time, community priorities have shifted towards tackling the related issue of Violence Against Women and Girls. 

Despite these changes to the operational context, shop front shutters and TV screens were still put in place as the intention behind them – to reinforce the positive image of Ilford Lane as vibrant, positive place – remained appropriate regardless of the apparent shift in perceptions surrounding prostitution. The Audio Disruption intervention was not implemented. While suitable evaluation metrics were identified during intervention design, no formal impact evaluation of these interventions has been carried out due to the council’s changed priorities. They all remain viable options should the context change again and the issue of street prostitution arise again as a priority in the future.

There is a close alignment too between the council’s wider goals around VAWG and our intervention approach and underlying rationale – that community visibility and improvements to the local area would reduce incidences of violence and anti-social behaviour. The insights gained through the research carried out during this project continue to inform the Council’s community safety work. In addition, the partnerships formed with local stakeholders and businesses will be highly valuable for the Council when targeting other priority areas as many have increased their engagement as a result of the project, and are more aware of the Council’s commitment to area improvement.

1. Given the quickly changing context of this project, it highlighted the importance of maintaining flexibility in approach and being able to adapt to changing circumstances – simply, there is no point carrying on with something which is no longer relevant.
2. Our evidence revealed that one of the most effective approaches in tackling prostitution is not actually targeting the sex workers or ‘punters’ directly but in environmental and community influences. This illustrates the benefit of locating the project within a longer-term process of regeneration and community-building and the way in which routes to long term change need to focus on wider or underlying issues (e.g. community feeling pride, safe and empowered creating environmental changes that impede undesirable behaviour).
3. This project provided lessons on community stakeholder engagement. In undertaking this work, Redbridge consciously sought to view the outreach within the lens of ‘what’s in it for me?’ This ‘exchange’ is a key part of effective behaviour change work, but easily overlooked in the rush to ‘do something’. It is also worth noting that developing a more ‘relational’ engagement, as opposed to the ‘transactional’ is a worthwhile step in creating effective partnerships. The demonstration of genuine commitment to the area by the council works here as a key building block for long-term partnership and change.

Contact: John Richards, Head of Community Safety. 

[email protected]