Outreach worker Rochelle Booker offers a prostitute advice. Photo courtesy of delwareonline.com.

Delawareonline.com recently ran this article on a researchers who are trying to determine why women prostitute themselves on Wilmington’s streets.

The article’s headline said social workers were collecting the prostitutes stories but the article focused mainly on Rochelle Booker, an outreach worker for Brandywine Counseling and Community Services (which does have social workers on staff).

Booker, a former drug addict who had sold her body, drives to areas where prostitutes gather and offers them condoms, toiletries and other assistance.

The article had input from at least one social worker. National Association of Social Workers member Stephanie Wahab, DSW, an associate professor at the Portland State University School of Social Work, said studies have not proven the effectiveness of diversion programs in stopping women from prostituting.

Stephanie Wahab

Diversion programs offer women drug counseling, housing, legitimate work and other services to get them out of prostitution. Wahab found troubling evidence when she did research on a diversion program in Utah, the article said.

“Essentially, women were still working while they were still in the program,” Wahab said.

Participants in the Delaware program acknowledge this concern. They said their research will not eradicate prostitution but should help reduce the number of prostitutes on area streets, the article said.

Q: Social Workers, do you think collecting data on why women are involved in prostitution will help social workers and others devise strategies to help them stop?