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Edges Magazine is grateful to The
Children’s Society for permission to publish this article.
‘One Way Street?’ is the first
study dedicated to finding out how and why children become involved in
prostitution to help discover how to prevent their involvement in the first
place. This summary outlines key findings from the report and provides
background to The Children’s Society’s five year campaign.
‘One Way Street?’ is the latest
in a series of investigations by The Children’s Society to highlight the
problems faced by young runaways and children involved in prostitution as part
of its ‘Safe on the Streets’ programme. The Children’s Society
believes that all children and young people under the age of 18 involved in
prostitution should be treated as victims of abuse and those who exploit them
should be given sentences to reflect the severity of their crime.
Methodology
‘One Way Street?’ is a
retrospective study in which 50 interviewees – 46 females and 4 males
– were asked about their experiences of being involved in prostitution
before they were 18 years old. 26 of the sample were aged 25 or younger. 32
were still involved in prostitution and 18 had left. The average age of the
interviewees became involved in prostitution was 14.5 years old.
‘When her grandparents died
Lesley’s mother couldn’t cope and she was taken into local authority
care at the age of 13. She started running away, usually to her mother who
would then return her to care, so she started running away to friends’
houses and staying there.
When she was 13 one of her friends said it
was time she started earning her own money. Lesley didn’t understand, but
she was told what to do, how much to charge, and how to go about the business
of prostitution.’
The issues which drive a young person to
escape their background and end up in prostitution are complex and
multilayered: family conflict overlaps with abuse; drug use with violence;
sexual abuse with damaged self-esteem and harming behaviour. Disruption,
violence and a feeling of being unloved were common factors in the backgrounds
of many of the interviewees.
‘Looked after’ Children
Susan – first became involved with
prostitution when she was sixteen; she is now twenty six.
‘My mum has actually been married
twice, she’s had two marriages, both broken through alcohol and abuse and
stuff like that. My stepfather locked me in a room about half the size of this
room we’re sat in now, and there used to be a mattress and a bucket and
that bucket was my toilet and I was left to do my business in that bucket and I
could never go out anywhere. He used to lock me up continuously twenty four
hours a day. The only time I used to be let out was when I had to go to school
or when I went downstairs to have something to eat. That’s the only time I
got let out of the room and it was not just me that got locked up in that room,
it were me two year old sister as well.
I actually got put into care when I was 15
years old and my stepfather give my mum a choice: it was either him or me. So
she picked him and put me into care.’
- Almost two thirds of those questioned aged 18 or under
had been in care compared to a third of the over 25s.
- This younger group of ‘looked after’ children
– those 25 or younger at the time of interview – had also become
involved in prostitution at the youngest age, with over half becoming involved
before the age of 14.
- Three quarters of those who ran away from care became
involved in prostitution before they were 14.
Children in care are more likely to have
suffered family conflict or abuse. The Children’s Society believes it is
imperative that the care system provides them with the specialist support they
need to help them overcome the damaged suffered. Around half of those who had
been looked after had a history of running away from care. Some had become
involved in prostitution while being cared for by the local authority. Some
also said if they had had someone to talk to about their emotional
difficulties, they might never have become in prostitution.
Runaways
- Almost two thirds (60 per cent) of all those surveyed
had run away and a third had become involved with prostitution while on the run
from home or care
- More than a third had become caught up in prostitution
to survive while on the run
Young people who have been abused or who
have experienced violence or conflict at home or care are among those most
likely to escape by running away.
Estimates put the total number of children
running away every year at 43,000. Previous research carried out by The
Children’s Society has estimated that around 10,000 children run away ten
times by the time they reach the age of 16. One report claimed that in order to
support themselves, half of runaway children resort to prostitution, stealing,
drug dealing or other crimes after just one month on the run.
Drug
Use
Dawn
- 56 per cent of the sample were sample were using drugs
such as heroin, crack and amphetamines.
- Drug use was far higher in the younger age group (25s
and under); three quarters Of those using drugs before becoming involved in
prostitution were in the younger age group.
- 66 per cent of the sample using drugs started after
becoming involved in prostitution.
Several researchers have commented on the
high use of drugs in prostitution. In ‘One Way Street?’ many of the
interviewees acknowledged that they were stuck in a circle of needing drugs to
cope with prostitution and then needing to work because they couldn’t
function without the drugs. Drug use was particularly high with the younger
sample, aged 25 and under, who showed an alarming use of heavy drugs such as
crack and heroin at an early age.
Age of first involvement in prostitution
16, now 24.
‘I had a baby when I was 15. His dad
was violent. I stayed with him till my child was about four. But all that time
he was beating me up, being violent. When I was 16 I was going out, saying I
was just going out with me friends, but I was going out working, getting money.
Got on heroin, got addicted to heroin, I was feeding mine and his habit,
that’s why I was going out…I did it really cos of me heroin
addiction.’
Routes
into Prostitution : Key Findings
This study shows that the routes into
prostitution are complex but consistently tell a story of betrayal, deprivation
and abuse. Sexual and physical abuse, poverty, family conflict, running away
and drug use all played significant roles in the background of children
involved in prostitution.
Most had had significantly disrupted
family lives and many had spent time in residential care.
Age of
First Involvement in Prostitution
- 64 per cent of the sample became involved in
prostitution before they could legally consent to sex.
- The youngest children became involved in prostitution
aged 11.
- 48 per cent were involved in prostitution before they
were 14.
- 72 per cent of the interviewees said that they thought
there were more children on the streets than when they started out.
Melanie
Age of first involvement in prostitution
14, now 34.
‘Melanie, the only girl in a family
of five, was sexually abused from the age of three by her oldest brother. When
she was about five her godfather started sexually abusing her during
babysitting sessions; later his friend also began abusing her. Her godfather
would give her money for sweets and clothes.
“You could say I was a prostitute
since I was seven,” she says.’
For some of the people interviewed,
prostitution was just an extension of the sexual abuse they had experienced as
children at home. Some, like Melanie, were bribed or threatened by their
abusers into silence. The actual age that some children become involved in
prostitution is difficult to pinpoint because of the transition from abused
child at home to selling sex on the street was a seamless journey.
Some of the interviewees felt that youth
was clearly at a premium and their earning power depended on it.
Abuse
and Family Conflict
- 1.42 per cent said their first sexual experience was of
abuse, 26 per cent before they were ten years old
- 2.8 per cent said their first sexual experience took
place in the context of prostitution.
- 72 per cent said they experienced conflict or abuse in
their family.
- 48 per cent experienced violence at the hands of
partners, pimps or punters.
Lesley
Age of first involvement in prostitution
13, now 40.
‘Lesley was an only child who never
knew her American Serviceman father. She was brought up by her mother and
grandparents until she was 13. Lesley describes herself as a loner and used to
travel across the city on her own to and from school from the age of six. On
these journeys she was befriended by an old man who would take her to the park,
fondle her and give her sixpence for sweets.
Education
Since half of those surveyed had become
involved in prostitution when they were 14 or younger, this indicates that in
schools across the country there are children who may be pupils by day and
‘child prostitutes’ by night. Many had disrupted or prematurely
terminated education as a result of truancy, bullying or exclusion. This had in
itself exposed them to greater risk and left them without qualifications for
future work.
1.66 per cent had a disrupted education.
Rachel
Involved in prostitution from 14, now 18.
‘I left school because I
couldn’t cope with being bullied. I didn’t care anymore so I walked
out when I was about 15. I couldn’t concentrate…my mum’s
boyfriend, family arguments and stuff, and people bullying me.’
Louise
Age of first involvement in prostitution
11, aged 17.
‘Louise first became involved in
prostitution when she was 11 so that she could provide food for herself and
younger siblings because their violent alcoholic mother was spending all the
household income on alcohol. She was 17 at the time of the interview and had
not been involved in prostitution for a year. She said, “I didn’t
like it but I knew it were the only way I could get money without going
thieving.”’
Gender
Only four of those interviewed were males,
and it is impossible to draw any general conclusions from their interviews
except that they told familiar tales of families in conflict and abuse. Two are
sill involved in prostitution. One young man told how he ran away because his
father could not accept his sexuality. Three of the four described themselves
as homosexual, and one as heterosexual even though he was selling sex to men.
The average age of their first involvement in prostitution was 13.5 years old
– young than the females surveyed.
The two men who had left prostitution did
so because they tested HIV Positive.
Routes
out of Prostitution
The research shows that by the time a
child has become involved in prostitution he or she is multiply damaged.
Escaping a lifestyle which promises a regular income is extremely difficult for
young people who are used to a life of poverty and hardship and may not be
entitled to benefits. Interrupted education means that many of those caught up
in prostitution have little hope of job prospects. Many of them have learnt to
distrust the authorities and their experiences have left them with no reserves
of self-esteem to draw on.
Many faced with rejection and isolation by
the rest of the society, felt accepted only among their peers. There was also
evidence of manipulative and predatory relationships which locked some young
people into prostitution.
The Government guidelines on child
prostitution which recommended that children in prostitution are treated as
victims of abuse rather than criminals are currently out to consultation, and
can provide young people with a positive way of re-engaging with the
authorities. The early signs of pilot schemes set-up by the Association of
Police Officers in Wolverhampton and Nottingham show that by treating children
as victims of abuse, more young people can be helped, while the adults who
abuse them can be targeted by the police.. |
