For those who didn't see this earlier on the other thread, this is interesting. Prompted by the discussion with KenH yesterday afternoon, I did some research this morning and here's what I've found, along with the NC State Bureau of Investigation website from which the data came.
http://sbi2.jus.state.nc.us/crp/public/Default.htm
In 2005, for North Carolina, there were 1,465 arrests statewide for Prostitution and Commercial Vice. The state's population for 2005 is estimated @ 8,683,42. That's one arrest per 5,927 persons.
There were 1,800 arrests for Sex Offenses statewide for the same year. That's a ratio of one arrest per 4,824 persons.
In Durham County, there were NO ARRESTS in 2005 for Prostitution and Commercial Vice. There were nine arrests in 2004.
There were 9 arrests in Durham County for Sex Offenses in 2005, none in 2004.
Durham County's 2005 population is 242,582. That makes the ratio ONE ARREST PER 26,953 PERSONS!!
Oh, I almost forgot. ALL the arrests in 2004 and 2005 were made by the DURHAM COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPARTMENT. None were made by the Durham PD or the Duke University PD.
And to give your interesting data more context, DPD was investigated and I believe found to be running prostitutes out of the police department in the mid 1990s. I would think IF I were running a department found to have been doing this in the 1990s, I would be highly skeptical that we had zero arrests in the latest reporting period.
"There hasn't been a major federal crackdown on escort services in North Carolina in a decade."
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/423120.html
Safety key to escort service, ex-owner says
Published: Mar 29, 2006 05:35 AM
EXCERPT
Problems in policing
Prostitution is a state crime that is prosecuted sporadically by local police. In the past few years, Raleigh and Greensboro police have turned their attention to escort services and made several prostitution arrests.
In Cary, police say they have targeted escort services by posing as customers in hotels. But the cases are hard to make, Capt. Dave Wulff said.
"When we talk to them on the phone, all they're doing is saying that they offer companionship," Wulff said.
Just getting a woman to the meeting location can start at $100. Once the woman is there, that's when they start negotiating sex services, Wulff said.
There have been cases, though rare, in which a woman will go to meet one of the officers and offer only companionship. Whether that means there are companies that legitimately offer just companionship or that the escorts suspect they are in the company of police, Wulff doesn't know.
There hasn't been a major federal crackdown on escort services in North Carolina in a decade. In the last one, Peeples was caught in an Internal Revenue Service sting that snared escort companies that used a credit card service allegedly to hide the source of their income. In 1999, he pleaded guilty to money laundering and served more than three years in prison.
Now living in Mississippi, he hesitantly agreed to a phone interview Tuesday, saying he would talk in hopes of helping protect women in the escort trade.
"They have a right to say 'no' just like anybody else does," said Peeples, who is no longer in the escort business. "The vast majority of girls working with escort services are not bad people. They are people who would absolutely abhor anybody knowing that they work there."