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The government published A Co‐ordinated Street Prostitution Strategy and Response to ‘Paying the Price’ in January 2006. In this article the proposals are critically assessed. It is argued that whilst there are some beneficial aspects, there is little new in the proposals that are based upon a long‐standing paradigm.

This article considers the recommendations to the government's public consultation exercise for drug‐using sex workers (Home Office, 2004). It argues that the ‘problem’ of drug use by sex workers cannot be separated from wider social problems experienced by this group, especially the problem of poverty. It suggests that the new prostitution strategy conflates drug use and sex work, reducing involvement in the latter to a problem of the former. Thus, other social problems experienced by these women, particularly the problems of poverty and social exclusion, are side‐stepped. By so doing, the government absolves itself of responsibility to tackle the underlying conditions that drive women and young people into prostitution and problematic drug use, leading me to argue that the new strategy offers a ‘cheap fix’ for drug‐using sex workers.

This article considers the issues of ‘street prostitution’ and ‘community safety’ in terms of the discursive construction of each. It argues that in the late‐modern age, concepts such as ‘community’ and ‘safety’ are problematic and their meaning cannot be taken for granted. The discussion then probes discursive constructions of ‘the prostitute’ and explores the causes of prostitution, its legal regulation and the apparent resilience of street sex markets to various forms of intervention in different places and at different times. The article concludes by considering prostitute women as members of the community and reflects on what this might mean in terms of community safety strategies.

This article is based on a study of 100 young people who were regular marijuana users, which aimed to discover the impact of their drug use on key life transitions. The article identifies the implications for practitioners who work with these young people.

This article describes the conclusions from interviews with drug users who had been referred to treatment services through an arrest referral scheme. It describes the lifestyles, drug use and offending behaviour of the subject group and their reactions to the scheme. It is asserted that the inflexibility of the treatment services prevented success. It is argued that drug treatment services require flexibility, toleration and early intervention in order to be effective.

Once established, street sex markets tend to be very resilient. This article describes the factors that generated an initiative to tackle street prostitution in an inner city area, and the tactics employed. Some of the measures were successful to a degree and improved public perceptions of the area but the overall model needs further development to be sustained.