Abstract
Longstanding policy debates over how prostitution/sex work should be thought about and responded to have been upended in the
USA by a growing tendency to conflate the practice with sex trafficking. US law and social policy have converged most fully
on this issue in a movement to eradicate what has come to be known as the commercial sexual exploitation of children. One
outcome of this movement has been an expanded focus on prosecuting and imprisoning pimps and other legal adults who support
or abet juridical minors involved in the sex trade. This paper will show that the simplistic, one-size-fits-all narrative
of the child victim and the adult exploiter inherent in this policy does not reflect the realities of street-based sex work
in the USA. After 2 years of ethnographic and social network research in two cities, we find that sex market-involved young
people participate in a great diversity of market–facilitation relationships, many of which provide the only or the most crucial
foundation for their support networks. A social policy based on a one-dimensional construction of the child victim and the
adult exploiter not only endangers these crucial relationships but also disappears the real needs of young people involved
in the exchange of sex for money.
USA by a growing tendency to conflate the practice with sex trafficking. US law and social policy have converged most fully
on this issue in a movement to eradicate what has come to be known as the commercial sexual exploitation of children. One
outcome of this movement has been an expanded focus on prosecuting and imprisoning pimps and other legal adults who support
or abet juridical minors involved in the sex trade. This paper will show that the simplistic, one-size-fits-all narrative
of the child victim and the adult exploiter inherent in this policy does not reflect the realities of street-based sex work
in the USA. After 2 years of ethnographic and social network research in two cities, we find that sex market-involved young
people participate in a great diversity of market–facilitation relationships, many of which provide the only or the most crucial
foundation for their support networks. A social policy based on a one-dimensional construction of the child victim and the
adult exploiter not only endangers these crucial relationships but also disappears the real needs of young people involved
in the exchange of sex for money.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-14
- DOI 10.1007/s13178-011-0070-1
- Authors
- Anthony Marcus, John Jay College of the City University of New York, 899 Tenth Avenue Room 433T, New York, NY 10019, USA
- Robert Riggs, John Jay College of the City University of New York, 899 Tenth Avenue Room 433T, New York, NY 10019, USA
- Amber Horning, John Jay College of the City University of New York, 899 Tenth Avenue Room 433T, New York, NY 10019, USA
- Sarah Rivera, John Jay College of the City University of New York, 899 Tenth Avenue Room 433T, New York, NY 10019, USA
- Ric Curtis, John Jay College of the City University of New York, 899 Tenth Avenue Room 433T, New York, NY 10019, USA
- Efram Thompson, Social Networks Research Group, 899 Tenth Avenue Room 433T, New York, NY 10019, USA
- Journal Sexuality Research and Social Policy
- Online ISSN 1553-6610
- Print ISSN 1868-9884