Is Craigslist Helping Prostitution, Law Enforcement, or Both?
The Site’s Dual Role and the Sheriff’s Heated Rhetoric The lawsuit presented an interesting irony: On one hand, the sheriff’s office argued that Craigslist acted, in essence, as a pimp – facilitating hookups where sex is exchanged for money. Yet, on the other hand, the sheriff’s office’s own evidence also showed that Craiglist functioned as a vital aid to police. In particular, the sheriff estimated that, from January to November 1998, his office made 156 arrests based on “sting” operations arising from Craiglist postings. Making these arrests, the sheriff noted, cost his office 3,120 man hours and $105,081. Yet can these police costs fairly be laid at Craigslist’s door? One underlying question here is whether Craigslist is actually increasing prostitution, or is just changing the way the solicitation of prostitution works. Craigslist may have made prostitution more efficient, but it also made sting operations to catch prostitutes more efficient, too. Despite this ambiguity — and desp
