In January, the Pennsylvania State police began to crackdown on prostitution along the East Ohio Business corridor of Allegheny County, and, according to news reports, two women and one man were recently arrested on charges of promoting prostitution, loitering for the purposes of prostitution, and a host of other prostitution-related charges. Local business owners, who were already aware of prostitution taking place in their vicinity, started complaining daily to law enforcement as the exploitation began occurring out in the open, interfering with customers and business as usual. To make matters worse, business owners reported observing at least one prostituted person who appeared to be around age 13. In response to the complaints, the local office of the FBI became involved and thereafter staged a sting that resulted in the arrests.
A former city councilwoman-turned-business owner, Barbara Burns, commented that seeing the prostituted women being bought and sold near her business was “sad and tragic,” but went on to declare she would not tolerate prostitution “in front of my store, not in my neighborhood, not by my home.” If only we all could make such strong declarations — not just because prostitution negatively impacts business– but because we as a society believe no person should ever be exploited, during and outside of regular business hours.
The reality is, commercial sexual exploitation is not confined to any particular areas of our Commonwealth, nor is it limited to one race or socioeconomic class. In this instance, unfortunately, law enforcement reverted to the traditional policing method of targeting the prostituted persons instead of going after those actually buying sex from them. Arresting prostituted persons does not stop the demand for commercial sex and absurdly fails to recognize that many prostituted people are forced into commercial sex, whereas buyers are not forced at all, but rather are willing, strategic consumers of exploitation.
The CSE Institute encourages law enforcement to adopt the Nordic Model approach to policing prostitution, which focuses on prosecuting the demand. By adopting a victim-centered approach in the future, Allegheny County law enforcement can help build and maintain the trust of all of its citizens, especially that of the exploited people who need some of their resources and protections the most.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.