NCJ Number
185102
Journal
Criminology Volume: 38 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2000 Pages: 787-809
Date Published
August 2000
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article examines the co-occurrence of prostitution, drug use, drug selling, and involvement in non-drug crimes among women who have used serious drugs.
Abstract
The article examines perspectives on the drug use-prostitution nexus using three dimensions of the criminal career paradigm: prevalence, lambda, and age of onset. Approximately one-half of the women who reported regular drug use never prostituted and, except for use of crack cocaine, use of other drugs was unrelated to the prevalence, frequency, or age of onset into prostitution. Community property crime was associated with an increased prevalence and early onset into prostitution, while selling drugs coincided with a decreased prevalence and delayed onset into prostitution. These results show the possibility of two distinct groups of women who may have followed different pathways in illicit careers. These different pathways are indicative of a structural-economic explanation of involvement in prostitution in which, because of some unmeasured opportunity structures or characteristics of the women, some women were able to specialize in drug selling, which may have protected them from hustling between prostitution and property crimes. Notes, figure, tables, references