Data on prostitutes' educational, occupational, and socioeconomic backgrounds prior to their becoming prostitutes shows them to be generally unskilled and involved in low-paying jobs, suggesting that prostitution is a means of economic survival. Many are also involved in property crimes. Clients come from the whole sprectrum of society. The criminal processing of prostitutes generally proceeds through the stages of initial identification, first caution, second caution, and prosecution. One essential component of all four stages is the use of the Index of Prostitutes, which is composed of six subindices containing personal information on women known or suspected to be prostitutes. Rarely are the male clients of prostitutes subjected to criminal processing. The findings point toward discrimination against the prostitutes on grounds of sex, social origin, and socioeconomic status at every stage of the proceedings. Whatever social scientists, local and national politicians, churchmen, or the police feel about prostitution, data indicate that the British public does not regard it as a very serious social problem. Thus, less law rather than more is required in this area. Tabular data, 26 references, and 40 bibliographic listings are provided.