NCJ Number
115354
Date Published
1982
Length
25 pages
Annotation
Prostitution often is thought of as a victimless crime, and those who view prostitutes as victims tend to base this view on presumptions about the prostitute's degradation or immoral lifestyle.
Abstract
However, rather than being victims of prostitution itself, prostitutes may be victims of the laws against prostitution, the white middle-class men these laws are designed to protect, and the discriminatory enforcement of the laws that penalizes the prostitutes but rarely their customers. Further, while prostitutes are sanctioned as deviants, prostitution is an extension, not a contradiction, of traditional feminine sex roles. Finally, prostitutes are victims of the broader economic discrimination against women in the sex-segregated job market. Because of this economic discrimination, prostitution offers a job of greater variety, independence, and financial reward than might otherwise be available. Research into factors that enable women to accept the deviant status inherent in prostitution include parental abuse and neglect and negative patterns of sexual experience, including incest and rape, that may contribute to low self-esteem and a high degree of sexual self-objectification. These factors may be evidence that prostitutes are women with histories of victimization. Only widespread changes in sociosexual attitudes will affect these patterns of victimization and their relationship to prostitution. Decriminalization of prostitution provides a means to lessen the victimization. 2 notes and 41 references. (Author abstract modified)