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Chicago has had its loitering law against streetwalkers declared unconstitutional. Now police there, as is often the case in other cities, are forced to bring in prostitutes by charging them with disorderly conduct or traffic violations. Last week a lower court Detroit judge, William C. Hague, dismissed 84 prostitution cases. All over the country the struggle ebbs and flows: streetwalkers become brazen, the public complains, the city responds with tougher laws and arrests. The prostitutes move off the streets. The police start worrying more about muggers and murderers. The constitutionality of the law is challenged. The hookers return, like the tide. Police chiefs tend to sound like a gloomy Greek chorus about this endless cycle. The revolving door of the court system is expensive and fruitless. Prostitutes plead guilty; the judge slaps down a fine and lets them go. To pay the fine, they have to turn more tricks and soon wind up back in court.
Faced with the intractability of crime and street prostitution that the proliferation of pornography brings with it, Boston tried at least to keep it all in one place. The "combat zone," a two-block downtown area full of strip joints, peep shows and streetwalkers, was designated an Adult Entertainment District, and police tended to ignore "victimless crime." But in a few months the rate of street solicitation and crime, along with police corruption, rose alarmingly. After a Harvard football player was stabbed to death, the authorities had to crack down again.
Illicit and anonymous, afraid of the law, prostitutes are constantly driven into the underworld both as criminals and victims. Some civil libertarians believe that simply eliminating criminal sanctions against them would break the connection between prostitutes and crime. The view seems unrealistic, if only because street prostitutes, legal or illegal, acquire large amounts of tempting cash and need outside help in defending themselves as they ply their trade. A more practical solution is the one proposed by Chicago American Civil Liberties Union Attorney David Goldberger: "Prostitution is the world's oldest profession for a reason. It can't be stamped out. It at least ought to be legalized and regulated." That may be a long time coming, though not for reasons of law and law enforcement. Although he notes that legalized prostitution seems to work well in Amsterdam, Florida Prosecutor Leonard Glick warns that legalization along with necessary police protection is "not politically feasible in this country. The puritanic heritage of Americans just won't allow it."