Pittsburgh, PA
Categories:
Tactics Used |
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---|---|
Reverse stings | ✓ |
Shaming | ✓ |
Auto seizure | ✓ |
Community service | ✓ |
Public education | ✓ |
Neighborhood action | ✓ |
SOAP orders | ✓ |
John school | ✓ |
Letters | ✓ |
Cameras | ✓ |
Web stings | ✓ |
License suspension | ✓ |
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in Pennsylvania, with approximately 306,000 residents. It is the county seat of Allegheny County. The city has experienced a wide array of problems associated with commercial sex, including the homicides of sex sellers (including 12 of which may have been serial homicides in the 1980s) and child sex trafficking.
To curtail commercial sex sales in the city, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police has conducted period street-level reverse stings since 1981. Operations typically utilize several undercover female officers, who pose as decoys along thoroughfares identified by residents as “hotbeds” of prostitution activity. As johns attempt to solicit sex from the women, they are apprehended by a backup team. If the man was attempting to solicit sex from a vehicle, he may have his car seized and impounded by police. As a warning to other would-be sex buyers, Pittsburgh police release arrestees’ names and other identifying information to local media outlets. In August 2015, for example, as part of the National Day of John Arrests, Pittsburgh police intercepted 61 sex buyers during a two-week anti-prostitution detail. At least one of the men solicited the police decoy with a child in his car.
Following a discussion with residents of the city’s Bluff neighborhood, wherein community members complained that johns’ punishments paled in comparison to those given to individuals selling sex, Pittsburgh police created a johns school in 1999. The six-hour course has offered first-time offenders the program to arrested sex buyers, and through 2005 a total of 418 johns had successfully completed the course. The program has changed configuration and requirements several times in its 14 year history, and as of September 2013 was being redesigned. Updated details about the program will be provided when they are made available to us.
Key Partners
- City of Pittsburgh Bureau of Police
- Pittsburgh Action Against Rape
- Community Resources of Fayette County
Key Sources
National Assessment Survey and Interviews
John School:
- “New Court Will Target Prostitution”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 19 1999.
- “Pittsburgh Police Crack Down on ‘Johns'”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 14 2005.
- “Pittsburgh Police Arrest Dozens of Suspected Customers of Prostitutes”, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 31 2013.
Reverse Stings, Shaming:
- “Police Arrest ‘Johns'”, Reading Eagle, April 20 1981.
- “Letters: How to Curb Prostitution in Pittsburgh”, Pittsburgh Press, April 26 1981.
- “‘Dear John’ Letter: Pittsburgh Police Force Is Looking for You”, Beaver County Times, May 16 1982.
- “24 Arrested in City as Police Conduct Prostitution Sweep”, Pittsburgh Press, April 29 1986.
- “Better Tasks for Police”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 23 1996.
- “City Police Crack down on ‘Johns,’ Reverse Prostitution Sting Uses Undercover Officers”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 14 2005.
- “‘Operation Sweatpants’ Bags More than 24 Johns”, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, August 5 2006.
- “Pittsburgh Police Arrest Dozens of Suspected Customers of Prostitutes”, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 31 2013.
- “Pittsburgh Police Target Sex Trade; Dozens Arrested in Crackdown,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 3 2015.
- “Super Bowl Sex Trafficking Sting Nets over 500 Sex Buyers, 30 Pimps,” Press Release, Cook County Sheriff’s Office, February 9 2016.
- http://www.butlereagle.com/article/20180722/NEWS12/180729977 (2018)
- https://cseinstitute.org/man-charged-with-promoting-prostitution-in-allegheny-county/ (2018)
- https://archive.triblive.com/pittsburgh-allegheny/27-johns-12-prostitutes-busted-during-weeks-long-sex-trafficking-sting/ (2018)
Sex Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation in the Area:
- “Woman Claims Forced Prostitution”, Pittsburgh Press, January 30 1979.
- “3 District Men Face White Slavery Charges”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 22 1979.
- “2 Sent to Prison for Luring Girls into Prostitution”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 26 1980.
- “Akron Man Charged in Girl’s Prostitution”, Pittsburgh Press, July 18 1985.
- “2 Held in Prostitution of 2 Kidnapped Girls”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 22 1986.
- “Ohio Pair Jailed on Prostitution; Teen Girls Were Offered Drugs, Cash”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 23 2005.
- “Jury Gets Prostitution Case”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 8 2006.
- “Jury Deliberates Federal Prostitution Case”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 9 2006.
- “Pittsburgh Detectives Arrest Missing 14-Year-Old Girl in Prostitution Sting”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 11 2012.
- “Human Trafficking: Modern-Day Slavery”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 8 2014.
- “Ex-Guard Pleads to Sex Trafficking with Inmate”, New Jersey Herald, October 15 2014.
- “Man Charged with Human Trafficking after Stop in Lower Paxton Township,” Carlisle Sentinel, February 20 2015.
- “Homestead Man Wanted on Child Sex Trafficking Charges Nabbed in Mississippi,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 7 2015.
Background on Prostitution in the Area:
- “Pittsburgh Underworld Figure Faces Sentence of 52 Years”, Pittsburgh Press, April 8 1936.
- “Pittsburgh Warned on Prostitution”, Reading Eagle, November 23 1942.
- “Police Stage Vice Raids in Pittsburgh”, Gettysburg Times, October 25 1963.
- “Police Raids in Pittsburgh Stir Rumpus”, Gettysburg Times, October 26 1963.
- “Vice Cop Details City Prostitution in Trial to Overturn State Statute”, Pittsburgh Press, August 2 1978.
- “Exotic Dancer Faces Prostitution Trial”, Pittsburgh Press, May 15 1981.
- “AIDS Fear Isn’t Cutting Prostitution Cases Here”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 28 1987.
- “Four Face Sex Charges Involving Escort Services”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 11 1993.
- “City Sacks Officer Charged with Prostitution”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 17 1998.
- “STREETWISE: Pittsburgh Experiments with a More Humanitarian Approach to Curtailing Prostitution”, Pittsburgh City Paper, January 11 2006.
- “Prostitution Court: A Struggle for a New Life”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 30 2006.
- “Pittsburgh Prostitution Sting Raises Concerns among Anti-Trafficking Advocates”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 27 2014.
- https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2018/08/31/Prostitution-johns-human-trafficking-pittsburgh (2018)
Child Endangerment:
- “Police Raid Suspected Brothel, Drug Lab; Eight Arrested on Mount Washington”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 17 2002.
- “Police: Man with Child, Drugs in Car Tried to Pick up Prostitute in Knoxville,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, August 9 2015.
- “Pittsburgh Police Target Sex Trade; Dozens Arrested in Crackdown,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 3 2015.
Documented Violence against Individuals Engaged in Prostitution in the Area:
- “Slay Suspect Held in 2nd City Attack,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 31 1984.
- “2 Deaths Scare Pittsburgh Prostitutes”, Washington Observer-Reporter, February 27 1987.
- “Two Men Arrested in Death of Prostitute”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 28 1987.
- “Looking for Links in a Dozen Deaths”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 24 1999.
- Newton, M. (2006). Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, 2nd Edition.
State | Pennsylvania |
Type | City |
Population | 311218 |
Location |
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