Policing prostitution: Ten years on

During the 1970s and 1980s, a number of vice squads emerged in different locations in England and Wales to respond to the growing public concern about street prostitution. They adopted an essentially enforcement approach which was aimed predominantly at female prostitutes. During the 1990s, however, the nature of police intervention has changed, as they have become increasingly involved in developing multi-agency responses to prostitution. There has also been a significant growth in the last decade of specialist agencies designed to support street prostitutes. This development has produced a changing regulatory framework in which the nature of prostitution and the conception of the female prostitute have been subject to re-examination. In this article, developments in the policing of prostitution over the last decade are reviewed and emerging trends in the regulation of prostitution are identified.