-from associatedcontent.com-

By Rachel Krech

According to a Cook County Sheriff’s Department press release, a four-month prostitution bust across the county and in the city of Chicago resulted in the official arrests of 254 men and women. A large amount of those people had turned to the internet to advertise their prostitution services throughout the city and even the county.

The Cook County prostitution crackdown targeted both male customers and the female prostitutes themselves all over Cook County. The operation also branched out and targeted prostitutes who advertised on craigslist, a popular “for sale” website.

At the end of the four-month bust, 145 women and 49 men were charged with crimes involved with prostitution. The women were charged with street prostitution and the men with solicitation of a sex act. An additional 60 women were arrested for prostitution for advertising their sexual services on the craigslist website. Most ads on the site offered sexual acts in exchange for money. Two of the women were arrested twice in the operation.

Sheriff Thomas J. Dart said, “Some have argued that prostitution is a victimless crime…but in truth, prostitution victimizes entire communities by spreading disease, exploiting underprivileged women, destroying families, and driving down property values.” Most of the craigslist arrests came when the women posted ads with nude or semi-nude photos of themselves. Undercover police officers would contact the women on craigslist, pretending to be interested in their sexual services. The undercover police officers would then arrange to meet the women at various hotels throughout the County and the city of Chicago and as soon as the woman made an agreement for sexual acts for money, they were arrested by the officer. Some women even traveled from different parts of the country to meet up with the perspective customers. Most of the advertised prostitutes online charged between around $150 and $300 an hour for their services.

The other women arrested were typical prostitutes gathered together and working at street corners in low-class or broken down neighborhoods throughout the city and Cook County. Most of these women offered between $10 and $50 for a specific sex act.

The final sting in the operation included undercover female officers posing as prostitutes. Once the male customer offered the undercover officer money in exchange for sex acts, they were arrested. Police arrested only 49 men. They also impounded the offenders’ cars. The offenders’ had to pay a $500 impound fee on top of the bail and other costs.