ABSTRACT
This chapter will illustrate the practical problems in contemporary policy on prostitution by exploring the difficulties and complexities involved for those policing and enforcing the law as it is presently drafted. An understanding of policing responses will be presented through the use of a case study of the vice unit response in a large metropolitan city. The chapter will examine the competing demands and pressures on police officers, which include the demands made by residents to rid their neighbourhoods of ‘vice’, the vulnerability of street prostitutes and juveniles at risk (JARS). Police views on clients and sex workers will provide insight into the perceived legitimacy of the law as it is currently framed and interpreted and will illuminate how policy is enacted on the ground. The chapter will also explore contemporary police responses to violence against women using data from the case study, the actions of voyeurs who circle the district, and how the police deal with the competing accounts that male sex clients provide when questioned by the police. This interaction will be explored in depth to show specific behavioural patterns and develop a unique theoretical model of the interaction, which also aids understanding of the motivations to buy sex and also has implications for the practice of policing street sex offences.
