But activists and police say the efforts may have had unintended consequences β landing women and girls back on the streets, where dangers also lurk.
The impact was almost immediate after the seizure of Backpage. The number of sex ads online plummeted by 75 percent, an indication that the law was thwarting human traffickers no longer protected by the anonymity of the internet. But sex workers and their advocates say another casualty was the income of escorts who advertised online, along with the ability to vet clients better than on the street. Jimmy Sides, of the San Antonio police. Phoenix police said they experienced a surge in street-prostitution arrests in but did not provide figures.
In Houston, levels have remained constant, but more to year-olds have been working outdoors since May, said James Dale, a police captain. Police in Sacramento, California, noted three street-prostitution arrests between March 21, , and mid-August of that year. During the same period in , they recorded Police in many big cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle, did not grant requests for interviews or data. In March, there were about , adult services ads posted per day worldwide, according to researchers at Uncharted Software, which has monitored such ads since After the trafficking act passed Congress, that number dropped to around 76, ads.
Then, when Backpage shut down, numbers fell again to 25, ads per day. The change was not permanent; by July, the numbers had rebounded to more than 50, ads per day, researchers said. Still, a fragmented market with no single replacement for Backpage will likely continue to reduce trafficking, according to counter-trafficking consultant Rob Spectre.
Kara Alexander, who lives in Florida, advertised her services on Backpage, Craigslist and other sites before April. When media companies closed down sections hosting adult services ads, she said, she started working on the streets. In May, she said, a client raped her and poured alcohol in her body in an attempt to destroy evidence. Alexander, 29, said she had faced violence while working online, but never on this scale. Near the end of April, she started selling herself outdoors in Boston for the first time since she was a teenager, she said.
