Female Juvenile Prostitution: Problem And Response

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Introduction
People have argued for centuries now on the controversial topic of prostitution. Prostitution is the “performance of sexual acts in return for payment” (Funk & Wagnalls, 2014). While prostitution may cause no inherent physical harm, the idea of prostitution allows for consumers to think of men, women, and children as commercial enterprise. The people who are in prostitution are usually “forced” into this life style. Wouldn’t this be considered duress? This means that no consent can be really be given, but seen more as compliance. Prostitution is also a gateway crime that leads to many other types of criminal activities including drug addiction, homicide, rape, and sexual assault. In order for communities to prosper and succeed …show more content…

The National Center for Missing Children and Exploiting Children released the article Female Juvenile Prostitution: Problem and Response; their article claims “It is an assault when he/she forces a prostitute to engage in sadomasochistic sex scenes. When a pimp compels a prostitute to submit to sexual demands as a condition of employment, it is exploitation, sexual harassment, or rape -- acts that are based on the prostitute's compliance rather than her consent” (1992). When sex-workers do work for a “pimp” sometimes they are obligated to perform acts they would not usually consent to. This causes a legal problem of “duress”. Duress is defined as “restraint or danger, actually inflicted or impending, which is sufficient in severity or apprehension to deprive a person of free choice, destroy his volition, or obtain consent only in form” (Lectric Law Library, 2015). This allows for the pimp to have too much power over their employees. First of all, most pimps are males and are able to take advantage physically. Second, they could threaten to revoke the protection they provide. This causes the sex-workers to enter work fearfully and without much opinion on how the conduct their transactions. Concluding, that everyone who fits this category of prostitution has been placed under …show more content…

The argument being that there is a correlation between rape percentages and prostitution not necessarily causation. The risk of being raped is raised when participating in prostitution. Michael J. Anderson, author of Prostitution and Trauma in U.S Rape Law, claims “the threat of such assault is greater for prostitutes than for women working in other fields. For example, an interview consisting of 200 prostitutes found that 73% of them had been raped under circumstances unrelated to their work as prostitutes” (Anderson, 2003). Prostitution increase the rates of becoming a victim of rape, therefore it is suffice to say that there are victims to prostitution even if there is no direct

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