Antecedents to Prostitution

Abstract

Many adolescents who run from intolerable home situations depend on prostitution for survival. The accumulated body of research on the topic suggests particular family experiences and adolescent behaviors are characteristic of prostitutes. Although a link between childhood sexual victimization and prostitution has been suggested in the literature, some previous findings are contradictory. Forty-five adolescent prostitutes and 37 adolescents who were not prostitutes were interviewed regarding their experiences related to childhood physical and sexual abuse, leaving home, family functioning, parental alcohol use, marital violence, adolescent alcohol and drug use, and level of self-esteem. Although the results of this study replicated previous findings about background experiences of prostitutes, when an appropriate comparison group was considered, these same factors failed to discriminate between prostitute and nonprostitute youth. This suggests that these factors may not be critical for entry into prostitution.

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