German Bridge: A Street Hookers' Strip in the Amsterdam Red Light District (From Collection and Interpretation of Data From Hidden Populations, P 146-155, 1990, Elizabeth Y Lambert, ed. -- See NCJ-128609)

• NCJ Number: 128619
• Author(s): H T Verbraeck
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 10 pages
• Sale Source: Superintendent of Documents, GPO; National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: NIDA Research Monograph 98

Annotation

This ethnography describes heterosexual prostitution in Amsterdam and focuses on addicted female street prostitutes in the city's red light district.

Abstract

The geography of the street hookers' strip is outlined in terms of the places of sex trade and drug trafficking. Enforcement policies, intended to discourage hard drug scenes, have consisted of intensified uniformed surveillance and arrests directed against petty thieves and drug dealers. While some addicted street prostitutes have moved to other locales and addicts and dealers can no longer frequent certain areas, a hard core of 400 addicts and street prostitutes has remained in the area. The article focuses on the chronology and personnel of the German Bridge, in particular noting the interactions of the prostitutes' social isolation, tourism, and drug use. While condoms and clean needles are distributed freely in this district, the incidence of AIDS among intravenous drug abusing prostitutes remains quite high. 1 figure and 6 references