PROSTITUTION

Prostitution: A Comprehensive Discussion



Prostitution: A Comprehensive Discussion

Thesis Statement

Fifty eight percent of homeless people engage in prostitution by trading sex for money, drugs, shelter, and other needs, like clothing and food.

Introduction

It is estimated that as many as 58 percent of homeless people engage in prostitution by trading sex for money, drugs, shelter, and other needs, like clothing and food. Estimates vary, at least in part because of different definitions of prostitution (“commercial sex” or “survival sex”), different sampling methods (most studies rely on convenience samples), different geographic areas, different data collection settings (street, shelter, or jail), and different target populations. The literature on prostitution and homelessness focuses on two particularly vulnerable groups: homeless adult women, and male and female homeless adolescents. Reported rates of prostitution are higher among male and female youth living on the streets (28 percent) and homeless women (22 percent) than among youth living in shelters (10 percent). Childhood physical and/or sexual abuse may be predisposing factors for prostitution, which in turn is associated with victimization, unsafe sexual practices, substance use, and other psychiatric disorders.

1- What is Prostitution?

Prostitution is usually understood as the exchange of sexual services for money between a female prostitute and a male customer. Although most prostitutes are women, male prostitution also exists (Kidd and Kral, 2002). Nearly all customers of both female and male prostitutes are men, but heterosexual couples occasionally hire prostitutes, as, more rarely, do women. Prostitutes find customers, and vice versa, through personal solicitation on the street or at bars, nightclubs, strip clubs; at truck stops; through advertisements in telephone books, classified ads in magazines and newspapers, and flyers and cards distributed on the street; and via the Internet. Where prostitution is legal, it may also be advertised on television and billboards.

2- Types of Prostitution

There are several types of prostitution. Prostitution is associated with an increased risk for engaging in unsafe sexual practices (inconsistent contraceptive and condom use, multiple sexual partners, and needle sharing). In turn, unsafe sex places individuals at greater risk for unwanted pregnancy and for contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other blood-borne viruses such as hepatitis B. Homeless youth often become sexually active at an early age and are likely to practice unsafe sex. The HIV infection rates, especially among young males living in the streets, may be two to ten times higher than in the general population (Kidd and Kral, 2002). Among homeless female adolescents, teen pregnancy rates are still disproportionately high despite a recent decrease among the general adolescent population.

Streetwalkers are prostitutes who make themselves visible and commercially available on urban streets. They solicit customers who are passing on foot or in automobiles. Services are performed in customers' cars, in nearby hotels, alleys, doorways, and so on. On average, these prostitutes command the lowest prices, they typically have the least bargaining leverage over condom use and choice of sexual practices (Sullivan, 2001), and they have the highest risk of harm from customers or ...