The XX Factor: What women really think.

Scared Straight Johns

Jessica, I, too, read the Los Angeles Times piece on "john school," the traffic-schoollike program for men who seek out prostitutes. As the article states, programs like this one are nothing new; they've been doing it in San Francisco for years. And, at least according to the article, it sounds as if it's an at least moderately effective way to discourage johns from seeking out working girls in the future. Typically, arrested johns pay a fine, do or not do a few days in jail, and are done with it. In this case, johns who fulfill the course requirements (they must be first-time offenders, have to take an HIV test, are required to fork over $600) can choose to attend john school, for which they will score a "free pass—of sorts." The solicitation charge is held over the john's head for a year after completing the course, and if he doesn't repeat offend, his case is closed. According to one study, since the San Francisco program was created over a decade ago, recidivism rates have dropped by 30 percent. Why? Well, perhaps it's because, at least in the case of the Los Angeles john school, looking at pictures of the penile consequences of sexually transmitted diseases, listening to the hard-core testimonies of real street workers, and learning how johns can get set up and robbed instead of laid doesn't really inspire johns to go out and repeated offend. What john schools lack, though, is any kind of deep-seated interest in why men seeking out prostitutes. As I've mentioned previously, I solicited stories from men about why they pay for sex as part of an online project called Letters from Johns. Without understanding the complicated realities of johns' psychologies, the system fails those caught up in it.