Craigslist Is the Newest Target in the War on Prostitution

Forget Larry Craig.

It might have taken one foot-tapping senator in an airport bathroom stall to make it fresh news, but the undercover sex sting has been a media favorite long before anyone outside Idaho heard the name of the ruined senator. With phenomena like "To Catch a Predator" and the steady outing of high-profile pastors and politicians keeping it in the public consciousness, sordid sex is big news these days.

Now law enforcement is increasingly focused on the Internet in going after sex crimes; with parents nationwide convinced their child will be the next to be sexually predatored, perhaps it was only a matter of time before their target would become ... Craigslist.

On Sept. 5, the New York Times ran a front-page story: "As Prostitutes Turn to Craigslist, Law Takes Notice." According to the piece, the Nassau County Police Department has been trolling Craigslist's Erotic Services section -- labeled "the high-tech 42nd St." by one police chief -- since last year, responding to ads and even posting false ads to lure unsuspecting clients. It's a low-energy, higher-tech sex sting, and the result has been over 70 arrests, and counting.

The Times story came at the heels of a story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which reported on local mayor Shirley Franklin's attempt to hold Craigslist responsible for promoting child prostitution. "Children are being marketed through Craigslist," the mayor announced, calling on the site to remove its sexually suggestive material. Adding that Craigslist is a "place where men meet men to arrange sexual encounters in the bathrooms at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport," the story elicited predictable outrage and denunciations.

One blogger lambasted the story. "By blaming Craigslist, demanding that it take down these ads and making a big public stink about this, all the mayor's office is doing is pushing those who are really doing illegal activities to move elsewhere where they're less easily tracked and caught," said a contributor for TechDirt.com. "But, apparently going after those who are actually doing illegal activities doesn't get you as much press as blaming some website."

Craigslist is getting press all right. One Arizona radio personality has labeled it "a clearinghouse for gay sex" and police nationwide have complained that Craigslist is facilitating prostitution ("It's a pretty fine line between promoting prostitution and allowing advertising," says the commander of the Nassau County Narcotics and Vice Squad).

But the Times piece wasn't about a site in peril. In fact, Craigslist is pretty solidly protected by law. (The Communications Decency Act of 1996 dictates that owners of websites cannot be held responsible for user-generated content -- the very definition of Craigslist.) Instead, as the cheap, easy, and anonymous alternative to street corners nationwide, Craigslist has proven not just irresistible for hookers: it's proving irresistible to police.

Across the country, police departments are logging on to Craigslist in search of potential sex criminals and the resulting numbers look pretty good at first glance. This past July, for example, Chicago police arrested more prostitutes via Craigslist than they did on the streets: 60 versus 43. An ad placed on Craigslist Seattle caught 71 customers this past November, "including a bank officer, a construction worker and a surgeon," according to the Times. In Jacksonville, Florida, " a single ad the police posted for three days in August netted 33 men, among them a teacher and a firefighter." And an arrest this summer in Sandpoint, Idaho ("population 8,105"), the local police chief reported, "was probably our first prostitution case since World War II."

So this is ... progress?

Depends. In an era when Congress is passing laws to allow warrantless wiretapping, it would seem pretty naïve to be surprised -- or outraged -- at the idea that the police may be monitoring people's internet use. But are the ends really justifying the means? Are we really safer after the arrest of that surgeon or firefighter? And what exactly do these arrests amount to? As with sex sting operations of yesteryear, it would seem the answer is: not much.