Geographic Profiles of Violent Clients of Prostitute Women and Clients Overall

Abstract

Female prostitutes have the highest homicide victimization rate of any group of women ever studied. Violent crimes against prostitutes have low clearance rates. However, cleared cases indicate that most perpetrators are prostitutes' clients. We present geographic profiles of violent clients and clients overall based on patronizing arrest data from 8 states and 3 cities in the U.S., and other data on hundreds of violent clients. We compare clients overall with adult men residing in the same areas and compare violent clients with clients overall on several spatial measures.

Both violent clients and clients overall are overwhelmingly local. The journey-to-crime distance is not useful for profiling violent clients. Most efforts to link geographically distant prostitute victims are unlikely to be successful. Perpetrators encountered most of their victims on or very near prostitution strolls known by police, thus surveillance in these areas is a potentially productive investigative strategy.

Keywords: homicide investigation, prostitution, offender profiling

JEL Classification: C90, K14, K42