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 men
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.