Prostitution Essay, Research Paper

Prostitute Profile

Contrary to the popular stereotype of all prostitutes being crack victim

persons who were raised in single parent families on the wrong side of the

tracks, prostitutes vary tremendously in their background.

In a study by the CRD on prostitutes in Victoria, a prostitutes profile is as

follows:

Most prostitutes were from smaller cities on the Island, or from the suburbs

of Victoria, rather than international prostitution circuits,

Many do have a history of school, mental, or family problems. These problems

have led them to start drinking, doing drugs, eventually ending up in foster

homes, which led them to the streets.

After these problems have developed, the transition to the sex trade for the

youths is done

rather quickly.

In B.C, the average age of young girls entering the sex trade is a dismal 14

years old.

Most of the 75 prostitutes had dropped out of high school at about the grade

10 level, caused by boredom with school, or substance abuse problems that were

so bad that they couldn’t cope with school. Many, also suffered from Attention

Deficit Syndrome and other menatl disorders at a young age. These disorders

included depression and especially eating disorders for the girls.

Once, fully adapted to the scary, depressing life of prostitution, the sex

workers are constantly humiliated by their johns, pimps, and by passers-by on

the street. To leave the sex trade is as hard as leaving a drug addiction. Not

only is the life addicting, many pimps do not allow these girls to leave. One

girl told her Pimp that she was leaving, he opted to slash her on the neck and

arms with a knife.

Prostitues live in constant fear for their life. They fear a "bad

date", which defined by a prostitute, she was afraid ending up dead on

somebody’s bathroom floor. There is also the fear of what their pimp will do to

them if they don’t bring in enough money.

To the prostitutes, the lack of a positive influence on them makes the

sex-trade that much harder to rid themselves of. Many have no friends on the

outside, nor anyone around them that they trust. They don’t know how and if

society will accept them, or if they will be able to make friends who aren’t in

the sex trade. For others, its the addiction to drugs that prevents them from

leaving.