MYTH 7 - Prostitution is a deterrent to sexual crimes.
This myth provides faulty justification to prostitution
and pornography. There is no evidence that prostitution deters sex crimes. In fact the
opposite may be true. Prostitutes can be victims of violent acts including rape and
murder. Young prostitutes can be easy victims for perpetrators. Pornography can feed their
fantasies about women and prostitution. Rather than these phenomena being a deterrent,
they may reinforce sexual violence.
MYTH 8 - Prostitutes are from
specific socioeconomic groups.
Teenage prostitutes come from all socioeconomic groups.
While other common denominators exist (drugs, alcohol, child abuse), there is no causative
relationship with socioeconomic status.
MYTH 9 - Juveniles make an
educated decision to become prostitutes.
Entry into prostitution may begin in the teens or earlier.
The majority have been sexually abused as children--usually by fathers, stepfathers, or
other trusted adults. Many also suffered physical abuse and neglect. For most of these
young women the only way to stop the violence was to run away from home. Young,
frightened, with limited skills, and unable to find shelter, teenagers are easy prey for
pimps who promise them friendship, romance, and riches. Once involved in prostitution both
pimps and customers replicate the abuse these teenagers endured in their families.
MYTH 10 - There are laws to
control prostitution.
Historically there has been an unequal application of laws
prohibiting prostitution. Until recently only a few customers and even fewer pimps were
arrested or convicted.
MYTH 11 - There is a
difference between being a high-class prostitute and a street walker.
The most prevalent fantasy is that of the high-class call
girl who is typically envisioned as an independent, sophisticated businesswoman whose
rendezvous' with well-heeled executives in luxury suites are intellectually stimulating,
sensual interludes for which she is handsomely compensated. The following account by one
such prostitute dispels that myth:
I was a New York City call
girl with my own book. My johns had careers in the fashion industry, finance, law, and the
media. I visited them in their homes, offices, and at well-known hotels like the Plaza. I
also worked for madams in well-established brothels around the city. However, this is
where any resemblance between my experience and the mythical call girl ends.
I was a young teenage girl, not a sophisticated woman. I
wasn’t an independent agent, but controlled by a brutal pimp who had a stable of
women. People believe only streetwalkers are drug addicts, but I abused drugs until well
into my twenties. It was the only way I could cope with the physical, sexual, and
emotional abuse that defined my job.
As for my well-heeled clientele and their fancy suites, all I can
say is, whether you turn tricks in a car by the Holland Tunnel or in the Plaza Hotel, you
still have to take your clothes off, get on your knees or lie on your back, and let this
stranger use you in any way he pleases. Then you have to get up, get dressed, and do it
again with the next trick, and the next. In the movies, call girls make lots of money
which they invest in legitimate businesses when they retire from the life. It’s taken
me close to twenty years to undo the damage that was done to me in prostitution. Not only
did I leave prostitution impoverished, I was totally isolated from mainstream society.
The only people I’d had contact with for almost a decade
were pimps, tricks, and other prostitutes. I was deprived of a basic education. I had no
job skills. My health was severely compromised. I required surgery and repeated medical
treatment for reproductive damage and remain infertile. In addition to these tangible
issues, I’ve coped with the trauma resulting from years of emotional, physical, and
sexual abuse that is common in the lives of prostitutes. Like battered women who escape
abusive partners, women escaping prostitution must totally rebuild their lives.
This material is reprinted from
"Female Juvenile Prostitution: Problem and Response" © 1992 by the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), Arlington, Virginia, USA, and reprinted
with permission. All rights reserved.
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