Selling Sex in Honolulu: Police Focus Prostitution Arrests on Women, Not Men
UPDATED
Editor’s Note: This report tallies the number of arrests made by the Honolulu Police Department under Hawaii’s main prostitution statute, . Subsequent conversations with the department revealed that police also enforce prostitution laws using , a street solicitation law. This story has been updated to reflect that information. Read our related coverage:
- Selling Sex in Honolulu: Prostitution Busts for Men Turn Up Mostly Locals, Few Tourists
- Selling Sex in Honolulu: Unlicensed Massage Parlors Lack Enforcement Scrutiny
The Honolulu Police Department targets women twice as often as men when enforcing prostitution laws, a Civil Beat investigation found.
It also arrests suspects in just two areas of the island: Waikiki and Downtown. An analysis of all 49 prostitution arrests in the three-month period between July 8 and Oct. 8 revealed1:
- Two-thirds of those arrested were women
- Only one pimp was arrested
- Only one arrest (at the airport) was made outside Waikiki or Downtown
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After this story was published, the department revealed that police also use , a street solicitation law, to make prostitution arrests. Between July 8 and Oct. 8, the department reported it made 21 street solicitation arrests. A spokeswoman for the department said it does not track whether arrestees are male or female.
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The investigation also revealed that when police arrested men for prostitution-related offenses, they appeared to be targeting locals instead of tourists.
Civil Beat decided to review three months of prostitution-related arrests in Honolulu as part of our coverage of human trafficking, which includes sex slavery and forced prostitution.
Using information taken from the police department’s daily arrest log, which is a public document, Civil Beat created a database tracking individuals who were arrested and charged with prostitution-related offenses, where and what time they were arrested, their gender, age and home address.
The data offers a glimpse into what local law enforcement is doing to enforce prostitution laws and investigate human trafficking in Honolulu. One thing the Civil Beat study makes clear: Police are not focusing on the demand side of the problem. Their enforcement emphasis is on the supply side.
Getting that picture is difficult because the department doesn’t share its data and has been resistant to a Civil Beat request to review all prostitution arrest reports for 2009. Last week, we ran into more roadblocks when trying to track the arrests through the court system via public court documents.
The subject of human trafficking in Hawaii — both labor and sexual — has taken on national prominence after federal prosecutors in Hawaii filed the biggest case in U.S. history involving 400 foreign farm workers. Hawaii remains one of six states that doesn’t have a human trafficking statute after Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed what would have been the state’s first anti-human trafficking law this summer. The bill was widely opposed by law enforcement, which said it contained many flaws.
One Arrest Every Other Day
Civil Beat offered to sit down and discuss our findings with Honolulu police, but the department declined a request for an interview. A spokeswoman instead offered to answer questions submitted in writing.
There are 90 officers assigned to HPD’s Narcotics/Vice Division, which is responsible for enforcing anti-prostitution laws.
“Since we have separate units dedicated to narcotics and vice offenses, we enforce both on a full time basis,” wrote Maj. Susan Dowsett, head of the division. “Officers from other divisions also participate in the enforcement of narcotics and prostitution laws.”
Yet 49 arrests over a three-month period amounts to one arrest every other day. Extrapolated over one year, that’s 196 prostitution arrests — nearly a third less than a year earlier.
In 2009, the department reported 276 prostitution arrests compared with 393 in 2008.
During the period we examined, the majority of arrests were women prostitutes. Police arrested 34 women and 15 men. Two 19-year-old women were the youngest arrested while the oldest were two 51-year-old women.
Female Arrests
| Age Range | Number of Arrests |
|---|---|
| Teenager | 2 |
| 20s | 15 |
| 30s | 8 |
| 40s | 5 |
| 50+ | 4 |
To be sure, it’s not unusual to see more women arrested for prostitution than men.
“Prostitution has traditionally been one of those offenses where the number of women arrests always exceeded the number of male arrests. That’s national as well as local,” said Meda Chesney-Lind, a criminologist and Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
“Who’s vulnerable to arrest for the selling of sex are typically, mostly women because it’s one of the few assets you have to sell if you’re out on the streets,” she said.
Another reason Honolulu police arrest more women than men is because prostitution happens in a variety of venues — street, massage parlor, on the Internet. It’s difficult to place undercover female officers in all of them.
“Normally if we go after johns, it’ll be often on the streets,” said former police chief Lee Donohue. “I don’t think there is any way we can go to a massage parlor operator and ask them ‘Can you hire one of our female police officers to catch a john?’ It’s too much of a risk for the operator. That’s the history of why we stayed on the streets.”
In three months, with one exception, police made prostitution arrests in just two areas: Waikiki and Downtown, near Fort Street Mall and near Restaurant Row.
Maj. Susan Dowsett, head of the Narcotics/Vice Division, in a written statement, explained the department’s focus on those two areas:
“We enforce prostitution laws islandwide. Waikiki and Downtown have traditionally been the areas with the most prostitution activity. They are also the areas where we get the most complaints from the public.”
Civil Beat asked the department to provide the number of arrests it has made outside of Waikiki or Downtown. It did not provide an answer.
Conspicuously absent from the list are three locations well-known to sex trafficking victims’ advocates as prostitution zones. One is along Ward Avenue near Ala Moana Boulevard, where police have previously done prostitution busts. The second is a four-block stretch of Kuhio Avenue in Waikiki known as “the track,” where prostitutes linger most evenings. The third is an area near Ala Moana Shopping Center bounded by Kapiolani Boulevard and Keeamoku and Sheridan Streets, lined with windowless nightclubs, hostess bars and massage parlors.
When asked why the department appears to have made no arrests at nightclubs or hostess bars on Kapiolani Boulevard, Dowsett wrote:
“We routinely conduct prostitution enforcement at nightclubs, hostess bars and massage parlors in that area. For the months of July-September there were 11 prostitution arrests in various establishments on or near Kapiolani Boulevard (3 in bars, 2 via internet, and 6 in massage parlors).
Civil Beat’s data doesn’t support 11 prostitution arrests in this area. Our research shows only four arrests in the area — eight if the area is extended to Moiliili.
When asked why police had arrested only one pimp in three months, Maj. Dowsett wrote:
“We are aware of the importance of enforcing laws regarding promoting prostitution. In fact, the penalty for promoting prostitution is more severe than the penalty for prostitution itself. However, promoting prostitution laws are more difficult to enforce. They generally require the cooperation and testimony of prostitutes, most of whom are afraid or otherwise unwilling to do so. The department works with other law enforcement agencies on cases involving human trafficking and promoting prostitution. We have ongoing investigations, but unfortunately we cannot go into detail.
Even with a prostitute’s cooperation, prosecutions of pimps can go awry. In July, suspected pimp Joseph Vaimili didn’t show up for his trial’s opening arguments. He was convicted in absentia and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Prostitution is a petty misdemeanor, though the booking log does not distinguish between those who were charged with prostitution versus solicitation. The standard maximum fine for someone convicted of a petty misdemeanor in Hawaii is $1,000, but there’s a legal exception made for johns, who face a lower mandatory fine of $500. Convicted first-offender johns also face up to 30 days in jail, though the sentence is rarely used on a first offense.
Next: Read about what the state is doing to regulate massage parlors.
