Citation

Lowman J. Br. J. Criminol. 1992; 32(1): 1-17.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In Canada over the past ten years there has been extensive debate about street prostitution. Despite a variety of legal and other attempts to suppress it (including extensive enforcement of a new law making it an offence to communicate' in a public place for the purpose of buying or selling sexual services) the street trade persists. In several cities--this paper focuses on Vancouver--a mood of pessimism prevails. In stark contrast to this experience, Roger Matthews has claimed that, during the early 1980s, a multi-agency approach' successfully rid London's Finsbury Park of prostitution--and without displacing it to other areas. On the basis of this finding he concludes that prostitution is much more opportunistic than has often been supposed. But can this optimistic conclusion be drawn from the information that he presents to support it? And how should one interpret the very different experience in Vancouver, where there have been fourteen different prostitution strolls in the past ten years, and where the changing geography of street prostitution has been intimately related to law enforcement efforts? This paper sets out to answer such questions.