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On June 21, 1988, Attorney General Hubert Humphrey Ill announced the f <br /> rga <br /> of a Working Group on the Regulation of Sexually Oriented Businesses to ass pt <br /> officials and private citizens in finding legal ways to reduce the impacts of sexu <br /> oriented businesses. Members of the Working Group were selected for their spe <br /> j expertise in the areas of zoning and law enforcement and included <br /> representatives of the state Legislature as well as members'of both the Min P apc <br /> and St. Paul city councils who have played critical roles in developing city ordinanc <br /> regulating sexually oriented businesses. <br /> The Working Group heard testimony and conducted briefings on the impacts <br /> sexually oriented businesses on crime and communities and the methods available <br /> reduce or eliminate these impacts. Extensive research was conducted to revie <br /> regulation and prosecution strategies used in other states and to analyze the leg_. <br /> f ramifications of these strategies. <br /> As testimony was presented, the Working Group reached a consensus that <br /> comprehensive approach is required to reduce or eliminate the impacts of sexual <br /> oriented businesses. Zoning and licensing regulations are needed to protect re ' n; <br /> from the intrusion of "combat zone" sexual 'crime• and harassment into <br /> ieneighborhoods. Prosecution <br /> of obscenity has played an important role in each of th <br /> 1 cities which have significantly reduced or eliminated <br /> pornography. The additions <br /> threat posed by the involvement of organized crime, if proven to exist, may justify th. <br /> resources needed for prosecution of obscenity or require use of a forfeiture <br /> racketeering statute. c <br /> The Working 9 Group determined that it could neither advocate prohibition of ai <br /> sexually explicit material nor the use of regulation as a pretext to eliminate all sexually <br /> oriented businesses. This conclusion is no endorsement of pornography or the <br /> businesses which profit from it. The Working Group believes much pornography <br /> conveys a message which is degrading to women and an affront to human. dignity. <br /> Commercial pornography promotes the misuse of vulnerable people and can be s d <br /> by either a perpetrator or a victim to rationalize sexual violence. Sexually oriented <br /> businesses have a deteriorating effect upon neighborhoods and draw involvement of <br /> organized crime. <br /> • <br /> -2- <br /> I <br />