John schools originated in San Francisco due to community frustrations about the great occurrence of street prostitution in their areas and the lack of effective policies to combat the sex industry.
John schools are usually a diversion program for people - almost exclusively men - arrested for soliciting the services of a prostitute, or another related offense.
Generally speaking, there is no definitive evidence demonstrating whether or not john schools have been able to reduce the number of people who hire prostitutes.
The presence of the sex trade led to increased drugs and violence, more traffic and trash, such as used condoms, needles, and alcoholic bottles, littering the streets.
[6] With families making up a large proportion of residents in these areas, one of the biggest concerns heard was the fact that they had to raise their children around so much crime and violence.
In response, police increased the number of officers in these communities and prohibited offenders of sex-related crimes from being presented in prostitution-filled areas.
[6] These organizations shared the beliefs that the practices of the sex trade were harmful to society and that the policies put in place to address and fight the crime of prostitution weren’t effective.
[11] The proceeds from a john school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada finance an eight-week life skills-based course for prostitutes run through Streetlight Support Services.
The earliest cities to have followed the footsteps of San Francisco were Grand Rapids, Minneapolis, Rochester, and West Palm Beach.
Some schools acted as diversion programs, dismissing the criminal charges of participants upon completion while others were assigned to arrested buyers as part of their sentencing.
John schools wanted to educate buyers of the realities of the sex trade and get rid of their ignorance and denial of the harms.
A 2009 audit of the first john school in San Francisco conducted by the City's budget analysis, faults the program with ill-defined goals and no way to determine its effectiveness.
Despite being touted as a national model that comes at no cost to taxpayers, the audit said the program didn't cover its expenses in each of the last five years, leading to a $270,000 shortfall.
"[17] There is no clear evidence whether the establishment of john school programs has led to a decline in re-arrest rates of offenders of prostitution-related crimes.
However, experts have labeled these results as inconclusive, and stated that they do not prove the effectiveness of such schools, as first-offenders could have simply relocated to other areas to engage in prostitution or begun to use more private forms of sex work instead.