Frequent and Recent Media Demonstrations

¶ … Frequent and recent media demonstrations of the impact of crime on community and a shifting emphasis on police prevention rather than control of crime has developed into a system that demonstrates the need for police response to non-crime situations. Though many would say that calling the police in a situation where no crime is being committed or has been committed is socially irresponsible the reality is that community-based policing requires such a call and such a response from the police force, if prevention is a substantial goal. Four reasons why the public might call the police in a situation where there is no crime being committed include, traffic control, neighborhood disputes, as security consultants and lastly for outreach in communities to help educate young people and the community about crime prevention. Vice crime such as prostitution is also often a source of non-crime calls as suspicious behavior is often noted by community members when no crimes are actually being committed, again this is a result of the public and police commitment to prevention.

The discussion of vice crime, is often associated with prevention, either in a sense that the community and police have a desire to control such activity from the bottom up, by reducing the opportunity, often by changing the environment that has historically bee utilized by such purveyors. Prostitution, is clearly a vice crime, that many argue hurts no one or at least hurts only those who participate in it, and yet there is also ample evidence that many are hurt by such crime. There are two different common forms of prostitution, streetwalking and call girls, both of which have particular functional and crime potential aspects. Streetwalking is the public display of prostitution, where the prostitute and/or Johns (the customers) are present on the streets or in public places to meet one another and exchange services. While a call system demonstrates a situation where prostitutes are on call either at home or in a centralized location to meet the needs of customers at a later date. The two different types of prostitution have different impacts on the community. Obviously streetwalking would have a greater public impact on the community as it is the utilization of public space, often even to perform sex acts (such as in alleys, often in the John's vehicle or a hotel near the scene where the solicitation initially took place. (Connelly, 1980, p. 6) the two are often strangers, as in a standard retail situation, where the sex acts and the prostitute are the goods and the John seeks them out. While in most places call systems allow for more repeat solicitations as the prostitute may be reachable at the same location repeatedly over long periods of time. (Connelly, 1980, p. 26) Though both have strong potential issues with regard to crime, streetwalking tends to be a more public issue, with greater public exposure, and also tends to attract other types of crime, such as frequent violence and drug trafficking in public. The presence of streetwalkers can call to a drug dealers attention the idea that the area where such activities are present are good places to establish themselves to sell their wares. Also the relative lack of protection afforded the streetwalker leaves them and many others in a stark position of vulnerability, as the acts are illegal in most places the acts of violence are easier to get away with, and not likely to be reported, not that either is better or worse for the individual as ramifications of both types of prostitution are severe in many cases and often result in violence and secondary or even tertiary vice crime, including human trafficking, which has become an increasingly desperate social situation, that can be likened to the modern expression of slavery. (Katyal, 1993, p. 791)

Each type of prostitution comes with a differing set of difficulties for crime prevention and enforcement. The public would likely be more concerned about the nature of streetwalking as it is public evidence of vice crime, which does not meet the desires and/or needs of everyone and intones a seedy side of the public arena, including the possibility of other street crime taking place in such locations. Public expectations, would then be great to stop such behavior and for the police to increase presence to do so. The streetwalker might be easier to find, as their work leaves them in a publicly vulnerable situation, call systems of prostitution are much harder to prevent and create effective enforcement around.

The validity of street crime being increased by streetwalking is well documented, as when an individual seeks out such a service they are often delving into a situation where much more is readily available and other crime often proliferates such areas, while call girls (or boys) would have to be associated with other crime and make it available to a John through other means or vice versa.