The adverts will feature on local radio stations and carry warnings that
kerb-crawlers could face arrest, a court appearance, warning letters to their
home, a £1000 fine and a driving ban, as well as bringing shame to family,
friends and employers.
The six week campaign is launched this week in London, Middlesbrough,
Peterborough, Southampton, Bristol, Bournemouth and Leeds. But the adverts face
criticism from those who would like to see prostitution legalised and think
such "draconian crackdowns" will drive sex workers underground.
The Government hopes that clamping down on the demand for street prostitution
will challenge the existence of street sex markets.
Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: "Local communities are fed-up with
street prostitution - the sexual activity taking place in their parks and
playgrounds, condoms and discarded needles littering the streets and innocent
women mistakenly targeted and abused by men on the prowl. For the residents it
is intimidating, unpleasant and unsafe."
Chief Superintendent Ian Dyson, in charge of the Clubs and Vice Unit at the
Metropolitan Police, said: "Kerb crawling causes misery to many. From the local
communities that are blighted by the crime and detritus associated with the on
street sex markets, the chaotic and often vulnerable women who are forced by
their circumstances to work the Capital's streets, to the families and friends
of the men who are caught."
A spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes, which calls for the
decriminalisation of prostitution, said: "We have seen the impact of draconian
crackdowns like this in Ipswich, where women have been driven further
underground into unfamiliar, less well-lit areas where they are more vulnerable
to attack."
"How can the police justify a policy on prostitution which says nothing about
women's safety, which is what public opinion has said time and time again
should be the absolute priority, and a policy which says nothing about the
homelessness, poverty and debt that even the government has acknowledged are
the fundamental issues that drive women into prostitution."
A Home Office spokesman defended the campaign, saying: "A significant section
of the Government's prostitution strategy is aimed at supporting and protecting
those involved by raising awareness among young people of the risks, ensuring
the provision of services and supporting women to move away from a life on the
streets.
"We don't want to increase the risks faced by those involved but street
prostitution is inherently dangerous and the best way to protect men and women
is to prevent them from becoming involved in the first place. We see this
campaign as an opportunity to engage with those on the streets in a positive
way, and that is why we have selected pilot areas in which there is a strong
specialist support service and established partnership working with the
police."
