Johns No More: UB Helps Combat Street Prostitution
By KENO MCLEOD | Mar. 22, 2002A unique, cross-disciplinary research project involving UB and the Buffalo Police Department aimed at reducing street prostitution has received recognition from a national police group.The University Community Initiative's Regional Community Policing Center, the Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), the UB School of Social Work and the Buffalo Police Department worked collaboratively on the project, which earned the Herman Goldstein Award for excellence in problem-oriented policing at a December ceremony in San Diego.The fundamental goal for the project "is to deter street-prostitution while also providing rehabilitation for offenders," said Pamela Beal, director of the Regional Community Policing Center.The project was one of only six in the country earning recognition from the Police Execution Research Forum."The project presented evidence that street-level prostitution was connected to other problems - drugs, assaults and neighborhood decay," said Beal.Beal said the problem analysis was multi-faceted, as researchers and participating students from the school of social work collected data from resident surveys and interviewed subjects, including both prostitutes and customers, called "johns."The project came as a response to the high concentration of calls and arrests made for prostitution in Buffalo, generally in the Allentown area.
