Legal News

LA to Sex Perps: ?Welcome to John School?

By Ashby Jones

After a few youthful traffic transgressions back in the 1980s, we endured a couple rounds of southern California traffic school. For eight hours on two different Saturdays, we listened to Orange County’s finest read us accident statistics, watched traffic-collision films with names like “Red Asphalt,” and bit our lip to keep from falling asleep. It was tear-inducingly awful, but it did serve its purpose: our driving record’s been clean ever since.

The city of Los Angeles is taking the concept to a different brand of, ummm, criminal: those who pay for sex. That’s, right — it’s john school, a new effort by LA officials to stem prostitution. According to this LA Times story, it’s the latest example of how prosecutors and police around the country are rethinking their strategies in the age-old battle against prostitution.

Much like the LB’s old traffic school, the class offers first-time offenders leniency in exchange for a promise that they will change their ways.

The LAT article has some great details.

Last month’s class of johns was a bland bunch. Most appeared to be in their 20s or 30s, with a few others approaching middle age. They wore jeans and inexpensive watches. A few wore wedding bands. A young, heavy-set man with sad eyes and a meek voice slumped in a folding chair, seemingly plucked from an office cubicle. Behind him, two others in baseball caps sat silently with their arms crossed and lips pursed. Sitting alone in the front row, another earnestly took notes in a leather-bound binder.

But does it work? It’s too soon to tell with the LA program, but California prostitution arrest records show that recidivism rates among San Francisco men dropped 30% in the decade following the launch of their john school. A newer program in San Diego posted similar results.

Before they are released, the johns are asked whether the class has had any impact.

“It helped me to think on other people that I might be herting for my actions,” one wrote on an evaluation form.

Wrote another: “Scared me to death.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 26, 2009 (boomark / email).