文章基本信息

标题：Prostitution study looks beyond arrests - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included
作者：Sarah Karp
期刊名称：The Chicago Reporter
印刷版ISSN：0300-6921
出版年度：2001
卷号：Sept-Oct 2001
出版社：Community Renewal Society

Prostitution study looks beyond arrests - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Sarah Karp

Black women are more likely than other women to be arrested and charged on prostitution-related offenses by Chicago police, according to a recent report by the Center for Impact Research, a local nonprofit that studies poverty issues.

Nearly 75 percent of the 5,651 women picked up on prostitution-related offenses in 1999 were black, according to information the Chicago Police Department provided to the center. Most prostitution arrests involve women who walk the streets, and in Chicago most such women are African American, the study found.

But most of the city's estimated 16,000 women who engage in prostitution are much less visible, said Jo Ann Raphael, director of research for the center. "A significant number" of women involved in prostitution at massage services are Asian, while those who work for escort services are usually white, police and social service providers told the report's authors. Women who work out of bars and social clubs are most often Latina.

The center touts the report as the first to count the number of girls and women involved in prostitution in the Chicago metropolitan area. The study included arrest and court data, interviews with law enforcement, and statistics and reports from social service providers.

Raphael said interviews with the women revealed that many were homeless, drug addicts and victims of violence and abuse.

Because few agencies offer social services for women in prostitution, police usually can't connect them with services after they're arrested, Raphael said. And agencies need to figure out how to reach less visible prostitutes, she said.

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless sponsored an Aug. 13 roundtable at which social service providers discussed how to help women in prostitution, said Samir Goswami, policy specialist for the coalition. The group will meet again in October to address the lack of services for such women, Goswami said.