Between the years of 1982 and 2001, Washington state resident Gary Ridgway murdered dozens upon dozens of sex workers without detection. When Ridgway, known as the "The Green River Killer," was ultimately convicted of 48 of the killings, he said that he chose sex workers as victims because "I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught."

In 2010, at least 60 sex workers died as a result of violence against them. Tomorrow, they'll be remembered at the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. To commemorate the event, local sex work advocacy organization Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS) is sharing information about violence committed against sex workers in the D.C. area. "Each night in our city, hundreds of women, men and transgender individuals trade sex to pay bills, support a partner or children, for drugs, or survival," HIPS executive director Cyndee Clay said in a statement. "Regardless of the reason they do sex work, one thing is clear: sex workers experience astounding rates of violence."

From Clay:

Every year HIPS receives nearly 100 reports of abuse or assault from the sex workers we work with and answers over 75 hotline calls from sex workers seeking assistance after being the victim of a violent crime. Many of these crimes are not reported due to fear of law enforcement. In 2003, our community was devastated when Bella Evangelista was shot to death by a man who had paid her for a sex act and later found out she was transgender. Two separate women reported this year they had been kidnapped by a man and held in a basement overnight. One caller to the HIPS hotline said “Because of what I do, no one would believe that I have been raped.”

HIPS will commemorate the day tomorrow by "creating an art piece with the names of sex workers who were victims of violence." Tomorrow evening, "HIPS volunteers will offer red candy canes to sex workers we meet during our evening outreach activities as a reminder of those friends and loved ones we’ve lost, and asked to share their stories." The organization will also "be distributing copies of our 'Bad Date Sheet' which provides a way for sex workers to share information about violence against them."