A PROGRAMME which aims to cut prostitution by teaching men about the realities of sex work has delivered its 100th course.
Nottingham's on-street prostitution team has been running its Change Programme since 2004.
It has now delivered 100 sessions to 846 men who were caught buying sex on city streets.
Of these, only 21 are known to have re-offended – a rate of only 2.5 per cent.
The team, a partnership of Notts Police and the city council, says the tactic is now one of the most effective ways of cutting prostitution in the city.
Sergeant Neil Radford, who leads the group, said: "It is so successful because it works to alter perceptions.
"For many of these men, it's easier to see a sex worker as an object, so when you make that person real, you make it harder to abuse them without guilt."
The one-day courses are run by probation officers and are for men caught trying to buy sex on the street.
Instead of facing court, they agree to pay £240 each to go on the course.
It gets men to think carefully about their reasons for wanting to pay for sex and gives them information about the lives of the women they pay.
Every man who attends a course gets a police caution at the end, instead of facing court with the possibility of being named and shamed. Sgt Radford added: "We know that one offence is one offence too many and there's always more to do. We believe that the more you can do to help men understand the repercussions of their behaviour, the more chance you have of preventing them from re-offending."
The on-street prostitution team also uses undercover officers and works with women to get them off the streets.
The team, alongside charities such as Prostitute Outreach Workers (POW), has been credited with helping to cut the number of prostitutes working on city streets.
It estimates there are around 50 women working as street sex workers in the city, as opposed to around 250 a decade ago.
Mr Radford added: "Men think the women are bored housewives or students paying off loans – but they almost exclusively have serious drug addictions and are living desperate lives."
Sue Johnson, the former director of POW and now a city councillor, said: "It educates the men – they are not just thinking 'I'll go and pick someone up' any more.
"They realise it could be their daughter, it could be their sister – it could be anyone. It opens their eyes."
