Prostitution can harm changing neighborhood

Compared to many other crimes, the petty misdemeanor of patronizing a prostitute may appear to be a "victimless" activity worthy of little more than a scolding from the law.

And that is generally how customers of prostitutes are treated in the courts: Most first-time customer offenders of this law receive a lecture and then are allowed a deferred acceptance of guilty plea, which allows the case to be dropped if they behave.

But Honolulu District Judge Russell Blair changed that recently when he refused to accept the request for deferred acceptance for 11 of 13 men who came before his court.

Blair's reasoning — and it seems sound to us — is that these particular cases involved more than the prostitute and customer. The arrests took place in Chinatown, which is the locus of the federal-state "Weed and Seed" program.

This is an innovative effort to rid a community of crime by weeding out the criminal activity and seeding alternative economic and social activities.

Blair agreed with deputy prosecutor Jason Kim that the prostitution was, in effect, a crime against the neighborhood where it occurred. Most, if not all, of the customers were from other neighborhoods. In effect, they transported their criminal activity to Chinatown and then left it behind when they returned to their own homes.

This is an important message. While the actual act of prostitution may not be particularly troublesome to either customer or prostitute, the "business" of prostitution has definite negative effects on a neighborhood.

Blair's ruling makes an important point: If you choose to import the "crime" of prostitution into someone else's neighborhood and you get caught, expect to pay the price.