Soliciting for prostitution

Male kerb-crawlers are the would-be clients of prostitutes, who prowl the streets in cars or on foot. They cause nuisance to all women on the streets by harassment, pestering and molestation, and can also be violent.

The majority of street prostitutes have experienced violence from kerb-crawlers, including being raped, kidnapped, punched, knifed, beaten and thrown out of moving cars when a police vehicle was spotted. In the UK in 1989, over 1,000 men were prosecuted, a fraction of the nuisance. The more traditional kerb-crawlers are men seeking a variety of sexual and allied services including companionship as well as manual masturbation, felatio and sexual intercourse. Offenders are as likely to be pillars of the establishment as they are to be drawn from the ranks of the unskilled.