A Gentleman's Best Kept Secret: Policing the Internet Escorts

• In Event: Police Strategies Targeting Illegal Markets

Abstract

The internet has become the virtual Madame of cyberspace by facilitating connections between the sex industry and the real world. Almost since its inception the World Wide Web’s infinite realms have offered a convenient, easily accessible and practically secure environment for the purveyors of mail order brides, pornography, swinging, domination and sex. Man’s oldest profession has taken its darkest secrets to an uncharted world filled with wireless bandwidth and clandestine and not so clandestine meetings. In an industry that boasts few regulatory controls; what is law enforcement to do? This ongoing study examines the strategies and tactics that law enforcement agencies employ to combat this growing trend.

Author

• Francis M. Williams, Plymouth State University