| Description: |
From 2008 to 2011, the Longueuil Police Service and the Centre jeunesse de la Montérégie (Montérégie youth centre) undertook an initiative to address juvenile prostitution linked to street gangs. MOBILIS is a program for information exchange between the two agencies. The agencies shared information about minors involved in prostitution and those who were using their services. The information helped the Longueuil Police Service target and arrest johns. The police service and youth centre then worked with the minors involved, connecting them with the appropriate support services. To complement these information-sharing activities, another partner, Maison de jeunes Kekpart (the Kekpart youth centre) ran an awareness campaign in Longueuil high schools as a crime prevention measure.
Phase 1 of this initiative ended in 2011. Phase 2 began on September 1, 2012, and aims to prevent youth from joining street gangs and falling into prostitution. This second phase also aims to link strategies around crime prevention, networking and communication, with educational strategies on preventing and addressing violence. |
| Objective: |
This initiative has several objectives:
- mobilize the resources of the Centre jeunesse de la Montérégie and the Longueuil Police Service to combat the exploitation of minors;
- prosecute the johns in court and remove young girls from the sex trade;
- give young girls at risk, or those who have fled exploitation, the necessary support to definitively end or avoid future exploitation; and
- promote the exchange of tactical information needed for both agencies to fulfill their mission.
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| Outcomes: |
A preliminary internal evaluation found that this initiative had resulted in the prosecution of johns (90 were arrested and 81 were prosecuted, with 100% pleading guilty) and the removal of 238 young girls from the sex trade. The girls were provided with the necessary support to end or avoid future exploitation. The initiative also improved the exchange of tactical information (with 81 formal information exchanges taking place). |
| Resources: |
For the Longueuil Police Service, the initiative involved one detective lieutenant in charge of five detective sergeants, one information officer, and a strategic analyst who worked part-time on this initiative. The total cost was approximately $553,000 over three years.
For the Centre jeunesse de la Montérégie, two full-time employees were involved. Maison de jeunes Kekpart employed two people to deliver the anti-prostitution campaign in Longueuil high schools. The Longueuil Conférence régionale des élus (regional conference of elected officials) and the Forum jeunesse Longueuil (Longueuil youth forum) also financially supported this initiative. Costs are not available for the non-police partners. |
| Pillars: |
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| Province: |
Quebec |
| Keywords: |
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| Record Entry Date: |
2013-08-01 |