Purpose To date, there is a gap in the literature exploring the perceptions and experiences of law enforcement regarding enforcement of online and offline prostitution. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of law enforcement in the USA regarding the safety and mobility of individuals who prostitute online compared to those who sell sexual services offline. The next section will explain the methodology of the exploratory study, including the method of original data collection. Design/methodology/approach All police departments in the USA located in a jurisdiction of 50,000 people or more were requested participation in the study (n=689). Respondents were sent an initial mailing of a cover letter and survey, followed by an e-mail reminder and a second mailing of a cover letter and survey. Individual respondents were asked questions about their own perceptions of behaviors and lifestyles of offline vs online prostitutes. Findings The majority of law enforcement respondents did not feel as if online prostitutes were safer compared to offline prostitutes. However, the majority of respondents did believe that online prostitutes are afforded a better lifestyle and are more mobile. Research limitations/implications The majority of the respondents were from the Northeast and Southwest may mean that their perceptions could be different from those that are not located within either region. In addition, since almost 80 percent of the agencies were in a jurisdiction with a population between 50,000 and 249,000, this too may have influenced their perceptions. Law enforcement in a smaller or larger area may have felt differently or have had different experiences to report. Originality/value This study is very unique as to date, another study with the same methodology and question content was not found.

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placebo gels were rubbed onto the skin in the same way as active treatments, we found that active treatments were significantly better than placebo. Creating double blind conditions in trials of counter irritants can be problematic as rubefacients irritate the skin whereas inactive placebos do not. Some studies allowed for this by removing the principle ingredient from the treatment, leaving a placebo vehicle containing some other potentially irritant ingredients. Although the number needed to treat for combined outcomes of trials of this type was greater (worse) than for trials with inactive placebo, the difference was not statistically significant and there was insufficient evidence to draw conclusions.

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