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from www.nola.com – The murders of two women this month, both strangled in East Jefferson motel rooms, and the non-fatal choking of a third woman in a Harvey motel, highlight how prostitution has evolved from the days of walking the streets to using the Internet to set up meetings. But one aspect of the trade hasn’t changed.

“Prostitution is very violent work,” said Lt. William Hare of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office vice squad. “These girls don’t know who they are going to meet. They don’t know who will come through that door.”

In the cases of Anita McDonald, 22, killed Monday at the Comfort Suites motel in Kenner, and Jateese Hudgins, 21, killed Aug. 10 at La Quinta Inn in Metairie, police think both women met their assailant through a website that they say is popular with prostitutes around the country. The 22-year-old woman who survived the attack at the Sun Suites motel in Harvey on Aug. 18 said she, too, arranged the date with her eventual attacker by advertising on a website.

The suspect in all three cases is Kylan Laurent, 22, of Vacherie, who eluded pursuing police Tuesday by driving to the top of the Veterans Memorial Bridge in Gramercy, then leaping 165 feet into the Mississippi River. He has not been seen since.

Hare and Capt. Tom Angelica, commander of the vice squad, said the reach and immediacy of the Internet have radically altered how prostitutes solicit business.

As late as the 1980s and 1990s, prostitutes often worked for so-called escort services, or could be seen freelancing on Airline Drive in Metairie and Fourth Street in Marrero. The escort services advertised in the telephone directory, but hanging out on street corners made it easier for potential customers to set up meetings, Angelica said.

“Now you look out and you can’t find any girls on the corners,” he said. “Everything has completely changed.”

So, too, has the way that most law enforcement officials view prostitutes.

“The main focus used to be on arresting the prostitute,” Hare said. “Now we treat her more like a victim.”

National studies, for example, say 28 percent of all prostitutes were sexually abused when they were young. They often come from broken homes. They meet a pimp who treats them well initially, but then might turn to force or threats to keep them working.

Police still arrest prostitutes, but the goal is the pimps. In some cases, deputies are relying on a new federal human trafficking law. The punishment is much more serious if prosecutors prove a pimp coerced or forced a woman to work as a prostitute, Hare and Angelica said.

Last year, Jefferson Parish deputies made four arrests with the help of federal officials in juvenile sex trafficking cases, and in 2009 and 2010 made nine arrests in adult cases.

There has been no public indication that Hudgins, who was from Philadelphia, or the Cleveland woman attacked in Harvey, was part of a trafficking ring. In the case of McDonald’s killing in Kenner, Police Chief Steve Caraway said his detectives suspect she was working on her own.

“I think she was a traveling criminal who went around to different states, never for lengthy periods of time,” Caraway said.

McDonald, who was from Flowood Miss., arrived in Kenner less than a day before she was killed, Caraway said. She put an ad on the Internet, quickly received a reply and set up a date for that evening, he said.

“It makes business for them so much easier,” Caraway said. “It’s like one-stop shopping. You pick out the person that strikes your fancy and set up a meeting.”

Many prostitutes work a circuit, a series of cities they regularly visit. Suburbs such as Metairie and Kenner are popular with traveling prostitutes for several reasons, Angelica said. The suburbs usually have easy access to interstate highways, and motels are cheaper there than in big cities.

Another advantage of local suburbs to prostitutes is that New Orleans attracts plenty of visitors for events such as Mardi Gras, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Essence Fest.

“Big events attract people with cash, and that’s a busy time for prostitutes,” Hare said.

Battling prostitution in the computer age involves a much different approach than the 1970s and 1980s, Angelica and Hare said. Deputies spend plenty of time monitoring Internet sites where prostitutes set up dates.

During times such as Carnival and Jazz Fest, 100 to 150 new ads looking for dates can show up every day, Angelica and Hare said.

Deputies also talk to motel owners. Hare said he visited all the motel managers in East Jefferson last year, leaving behind a list of indicators that a guest might be involved in drugs or prostitution.

“Most of these managers are cooperating with us,” Hare said. If deputies discover any hotels that are allowing drugs and prostitution to flourish, “they will be targeted,” Angelica said.

Hare and Angelica said they are aware of critics who think investigating prostitution instead of other crimes is a waste of time.

“People say prostitution is a victimless crime,” Hare said. “But how it can it be a crime without victims when you have these two ladies just killed out here?”