they were women, weren't they?

Prostitute is a noun and a useful descriptive term, but is it the right word to use in a headline reporting the death of a woman? “Another prostitute murdered” — yes, she was murdered and she was a prostitute, but she was a woman first, a woman of whom you could have said so many things if you had known her, only one of which was that she worked as a prostitute....We ignore our common humanity when in the very naming of a person we launch straight into a descriptive term drawing attention to difference and inviting shame.

Well said. Good man

Someone else who feels the same....

"I am having a real problem with the media at the moment....The fact that the victims are prostitutes has to be reported, but it is not the main story. The main story is that there is a serial killer on the loose. The continual emphasis on the life style of the victims is demeaning but, more worryingly, is seen by some as mitigating the offence"