One guy told me his whole life passed before him when I grabbed him,” Officer Schiffer recalled. The men are likely to take the advice, terrified that their families will learn of the charges against them. Usually they are permitted to plead guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct and told to get psychiatric help. They are often reluctant to give evidence against men they consider friends, and in other cases parents are reluctant to expose a child to the public scrutiny of a trial. As for posing as a “chicken” an officer said: “If we had some undercover cops who looked like teen‐agers, it would be a lot easier, but we don't even have any young‐looking cops, because they've been laid off.”Īuthorities do not count on the testimony of boys against men who solicit them. To supply sufficient proof, an officer must witness a solicitation or a sexual act, or in some other way be able to prove that a man and boy walking off together intended to engage in sex.Ī policeman is not permitted to pose as a “hawk.” That is considered entrapment, and evidence so obtained is invalid. Fitzpatrick, commander of the public morals division, few arrests are made and even fewer cases are successfully prosecuted because the required evidence is difficult to obtain. A boy caught soliciting may be charged with prostitution and referred to juvenile authorities.īut according to Deputy Chief William F. It is of course illegal to solicit a child for prostitution-a misdemeanor, endangering the health and morals of a minor, which carries up to one year in prison. “They know they have to do something for the money, and they want the money,” he said. Some of the boys do not think of their sexual activity as outright prostitution, Officer Schiffer said. “Here comes this guy who treats the boy special,” he said. Officer Harold Schiffer of the pubiic‐morals division, who has worked the “chicken‐hawk” detail for a year, said many of the boys were attracted to Times Square by the bright lights and flashing games. Often they are hungry, lonely and fatherless, the police say and fall prey to men who offer affection and money-usually about $20. Most of the boys are 10 to 15 years old, Hispanic or black and from poor families in Harlem, the Bronx or Brooklyn some are white and from middle‐class families. Many of the “hawks” are white, middle‐class men who drive in from the suburbs.
“I got a lot of friends on my block who come to me and say, ‘Let's go downtown and make some money,’ but I just come to play the machines,” said the 15‐ year‐old.Īccording to the police, prostitution involving young boys is growing in and around Times Square. All insisted they never allowed themselves to be picked up by men buying sex, and said they merely hung around Times Square for fun. He was joined by two pals, v no said they were 13 and 15. The boy said he was 13, but he looked younger. ‘The men come up to me and they say, ‘How much you want?’ and I say, ‘I don't want nothing.” I don't want to get. His face was a mixture of innocence and street‐wise savvy.
“Me?” said the boy, when asked if he had solicited the men outside. They were checking on a thriving form of prostitution in the Times Square area -involving “hawks,” men who pick up young boys, and “chickens,” some of them only 10 years old.Īs the officers watched, the boy outside Playland moved on, stopped another man, talked briefly and moved on again, this time Into a subway arcade at 42d Street and Eighth Avenue, where several teen‐aged male prostitutes lingered in the oily yellow light, awaiting customers. Nearby, two plainclothes policemen watched the tableau.