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Cities turn to humiliation to
fight prostitution
By Amanda Paulson
Christian Science Monitor
21 July 2005
Cities turn to humiliation to fight prostitution; Police are posting
photos of 'Johns' on websites or billboards, but critics say the
tactic ignores causes
Anyone who's ever wondered just who the men are who cruise this
city's seedier strips looking for sex can now satisfy their
curiosity.
Starting last month, the Chicago Police Department has been posting
the names of "johns" arrested for engaging or soliciting prostitutes
- along with their photo, address, age, and place of arrest. A
recent sample included men from low-income Chicago neighborhoods and
relatively well-to-do suburbs, of all ages and ethnicities.
It's part of a tactic more and more cities are using, cracking down
on prostitution by focusing on demand, often using tactics of
humiliation - like Chicago's website or billboards in Oakland,
Calif. - to try and convince potential customers to stay home.
It's a trend that some applaud, saying the men who drive the trade
have been overlooked too often while prostitutes get arrested.
Others question its effectiveness, suggesting that websites and
"john schools" that educate customers about the realities of
prostitution accomplish little.
"The first thing you have to ask is why are people involved in
prostitution - overwhelmingly it's related to economic issues," says
Juhu Thukral, director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban
Justice Center in New York. Focusing on demand, Thukral says, won't
reduce the amount of prostitution; rather, more resources should go
toward supportive housing, job training, and legal services -
"programs that teach people how to get mainstream jobs that will
provide a living wage."
Still, others involved in the issue say that efforts like Chicago's
are an encouraging sign that cities are both waking up to the
problems around prostitution and are recognizing that customers play
as important a role as the prostitutes.
In Chicago, the website has been up for only a month, but has gotten
some 4,000 hits, says David Bayless, a spokesperson for the Chicago
Police Department.
"If we can get them to think twice about coming here, if they think
they're at risk of being arrested and having their picture online,
then the website's done its job," he says. "It's an acknowledgment
that customers are contributors to the problem."
In addition to getting their photo online and having their vehicle
impounded, arrested men have to attend a local "john school" run by
Genesis House, an organization that helps Chicago sex workers.
The men pay $500 to attend the eight-hour class, and the money goes
to support Genesis House's programs. During the day, they learn
about the law, the health risks of patronizing prostitutes, and the
reality of what life is like for prostitutes.
"This is not a victimless crime," says Patti Buffington, director of
Genesis House. "There is a victim here, and it's the women
performing this. About 95 percent of these women were abused."
For the men who attend john school, the biggest impact often comes
when they learn more about the women themselves, says Norma Hotaling,
a former prostitute who founded The Sage Project in San Francisco
and started the nation's first john school about 10 years ago.
Midway through the class, she often reveals her own background. "You
see them turn to Jell-O," Ms. Hotaling says with a laugh. "They say,
'You're smart, and you have power here, but you're' " a prostitute.
She's helped numerous cities around the US, including Chicago,
launch their own john schools, and says the programs are remarkably
successful; in San Francisco, she only sees about two percent of the
men a second time.
Hotaling also has sympathy for the men who come through her classes;
most, she says, simply don't have all the facts to make good
decisions. As a result, she's not a fan of humiliation tactics.
"You don't tear down their support system and humiliate them," she
says. "Do you want them to be total outcasts?"
Advocates at the Sex Workers Outreach Project, a San Francisco
organization that favors legalizing prostitution, have also been
outspoken against the humiliation efforts, such as the new campaign
in Oakland that has billboards springing up with customers' faces -
blurred in early versions - saying "Don't John in Oakland." "It's
not going to stop the problem," says Robyn Few, director of the Sex
Workers Outreach Project. "It's just going to move the problem from
one place to another."
Still, many advocates of the efforts say the crackdown on customers
is just one piece of an overall effort to reduce street prostitution
and help sex workers move on to other jobs. In Chicago, where police
estimate the number of prostitutes at anywhere between 16,000 and
25,000, Mayor Richard Daley has jumped with vigor on the new
initiative. He cites not just the harm prostitution wreaks on
neighborhoods and their quality of life, but also the harm done to
the prostitutes themselves - a sign that politicians are starting to
look at sex workers as victims rather than simply criminals.
"Once they become prostitutes, they're subject to even more
violence, abuse, and possible death from their pimps and their
customers," Daley said at a press conference to announce the new
Internet site. "It's a terrible life, and a caring society has a
responsibility to help these women turn their lives around, and to
keep other young women from entering the profession."
(c) Copyright 2005. The Christian Science Monitor
Source: Christian Science Monitor. Boston, Mass.: Jul 21, 2005. pg.
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