Re: Anyone want to get in on this?
Date: September 05, 2007 03:04PM
You can find lots and lots of things for sale on Craigslist.org -- everything from electronics to used mattresses. You can also find people offering sex for money, a form of digitally arranged prostitution that police are just now beginning to crack down on. Officers around the country are not only pursuing the people that are offering sex services, they're also taking a page from Dateline's 'To Catch a Predator' series and setting up fake Craigslist ads to catch the guys who solicit sex workers.
And just as Craigslist makes it easy to find nearly anything you could ever want, it's also made it easier for police to catch these "Johns." Police statistics are showing that they're now arresting more prostitutes and would-be Johns via Craigslist than they are through traditional stings. For example, Cook County, Illinois, sheriffs department raids this past July nabbed 43 streetwalkers and 60 Craigslist posters. A single ad in Jacksonville, Florida, netted 33 Johns while another in Seattle grabbed 71.
For his part, Craigslist president Jim Buckmaster says there's not much the company's staff of 20 can do to police these ads, while Craigslist founder Craig Newmark did not comment. So, for now it seems the sex industry will continue to flourish in the land of Craig, arrests and all.
From New York Times