Brockton, MA
Categories:
Tactics Used |
|
---|---|
Reverse stings | ✓ |
Shaming | ✓ |
Auto seizure | ✓ |
Community service | ✓ |
Public education | ✓ |
Neighborhood action | ✓ |
SOAP orders | ✓ |
John school | ✓ |
Letters | ✓ |
Cameras | ✓ |
Web stings | ✓ |
License suspension | ✓ |
Brockton is a city of approximately 100,000 residents, located about one half hour southeast of Boston near East and West Bridgewater in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Prostitution and sex trafficking are longstanding, well-documented problems in the city. Among the problems associated with city’s local commercial sex market are a serial rapist targeting Brockton’s prostituted women in the early 2000s and multiple cases of homicide of prostituted women. Young teenagers from Brockton have also been found to be victims of child sex trafficking in Boston and Providence.
Residents and business frequently complain to police about the negative effects of prostitution on the community and on them and their businesses. Referring to efforts to control prostitution by arrested women who sell sex as a “revolving door” that produces no lasting results, the city has recently attempted to combat demand. Neighborhood watch programs formed in 1994 that focused, in part, on deterring men from buying sex. Recent reverse stings have been driven by high-profile complaints to police by individual residents, businesses, and business organizations (Montello Business Association). A reverse sting in July 2013, for example, resulted in the arrest of nine sex buyers.
Brockton Police have conducted street-level reverse stings since at least 1986, if not earlier. That year, the department reported to the Bangor Daily News that, although they “did not have undercover female agents to go after male customers in 1984-1985”, they had recently hired female officers and arrested 27 johns in a one-month period. While the BPD releases the identities of arrestees, not all news outlets carry them routinely. In the early 1990s, however, several media outlets cited the Brockton Enterprise’s use of shaming after an arrested john committed suicide following the publicity. This may in part account for the Brockton Enterprise‘s current position. Following an August 2012 operation, the paper noted that posting the identities and photos of arrestees was an exception to their normal practice:
Key Partners
- Brockton Police Department
- Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department
- Plymouth County District Attorney
Key Sources
- National Assessment Survey
- Street-Level Reverse Stings:
- “Brockton Police Guilty of Sex Discrimination; Court Find Lawmen Ignore Male Patrons of Women Charged with Prostitution”, Bangor Daily News, May 22 1986.
- “Prostitution Sting Nets 16”, Brockton Enterprise, October 7 2000.
- “Bridgewater Woman Among 21 Busted for Prostitution in Brockton”, Brockton Enterprise, August 10 2012.
- “Hookers, Johns Busted; Boston Police Hope Crackdown Serves as Deterrent”, Brockton Enterprise, August 11 2012.
- “Brockton Police Continue to Crackdown on North Main Street”, Brockton Enterprise, August 24 2012.
- “More Johns Arrested in Ongoing Brockton Crackdown”, Brockton Enterprise, September 21 2012.
- “Business Owners in Brockton Push for Crackdown on Sex Trade”, Brockton Enterprise, July 3 2013.
- “Brockton Police Say Prostitution Crackdown Will Continue”, Brockton Enterprise, July 7 2013.
- Web-Based Reverse Stings:
- Shaming:
- “Suicide Tied to Newspaper Policy”, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, August 23 1990.
- “Customer Kills Self after Paper Prints Name”, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, August 24 1990.
- “Paper Reveals Names of Prostitute Customers”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24 1990.
- “Paper Prints Names of Prostitutes’ Johns”, Daytona Beach News-Journal, December 5 1992.
- Neighborhood Action:
- https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1992-04-07-0000203568-story.html (2012)
- “Brockton Merchant Fed up with Hookers”, Brockton Enterprise, April 23 2006.
- “Brockton Women Protest Prostitution in Neighborhood”, Brockton Enterprise, August 2 2012.
- “Women Confront Prostitutes Working Steps from Their Homes”, ABC/WCVB-TV 5, August 2 2012.
- Sex Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation in the Area:
- “5 Charged in Brockton Abduction and Rape”, Brockton Enterprise, August 14 2001.
- “Sex Ring Has Boston Ties”, Brockton Enterprise, May 18 2007.
- Documented Violence against Individuals Engaged in Prostitution in the Area:
- “Officials Probe Ties to 2 Brockton Murders”, Boston Herald, August 10 1993.
- “Slain Prostitute Had Fear of Strangers”, Boston Herald, August 11 1993.
- “Slayings Add New Risk to Life on the Street”, Boston Herald, August 22 1993.
- “5 Charged in Brockton Abduction and Rape”, Brockton Enterprise, August 14 2001.
- “Serial Rape Suspect Caught after Three-Year Hunt”, Brockton Enterprise, June 12 2008.
- “Serial Rape Suspect Faces Charges in New Bedford Attack” Quincy Patriot Ledger, June 17 2008.
- “Suspected Serial Rapist Is Held without Bail; Man Who Is Charged in Attack on Five Prostitutes Worked in Waltham”, Waltham Daily News Tribune, June 18 2008.
- “Serial Rapist Pleads Guilty in Brockton Attacks”, Brockton Enterprise, January 4 2010.
- “Victims Face Rapist; Admitted Rapist Brian Knippers Sentenced to 25-30 Years”, Brockton Enterprise, January 7 2010.
- “New Hampshire Man Serving Prison Sentence Pleads Guilty to Raping New Bedford Prostitute”, New Bedford Standard-Times, January 30 2010.
- Background on Prostitution in the Area:
- “Unemployed Man Is Prostituting”, Lodi News-Sentinel, May 29 1975.
- “Judge: Man Can’t Be a Prostitute”, St. Petersburg Evening Independent, July 17 1975.
- “Man Acquitted of Prostitution”, Lakeland Ledger, July 17 1975.
- “Brockton Police Try to Drive Hookers off Streets”, Brockton Enterprise, April 18 2007.
- “Some Shocked, Others Not Surprised by Allegations of Prostitution at Brockton Spa”, Taunton Daily Gazette, October 25 2011.
- “Brockton Police Make Prostitution Arrests”, Brockton Enterprise, March 16 2012.
State | Massachusetts |
Type | City |
Population | 93810 |
Location |
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