Table of Contents
Introduction
Often society is left to deal with a troubling issue with the sexual and social factors that directly influence teenage prostitution. As stated by Flowers (2010), countless minors abscond from their dwelling as a direct result of dysfunctional family dynamics such as abuse (physical, emotional, mental, and sexual) domestic disturbances, shattered households, and lack of attention. Vulnerable minors are left to divulge into a grim lifestyle, leaving them unsheltered to elements such as child exploitation also known as teen prostitution, developing addiction, diseases, exposure to deviance, and maltreatment. “The U. S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section estimates that in the United States, the median age of entry into the sex industry is between 12 and 14 years of age”, (Lloyd, 2010).
How is it Relevant to the Study?
According to Flowers (2010), two million minors flee from their residence, leaving their kin and guardians blindsided as to their location. Many of these boys and girls will not be sought after by their kin or guardians, opening a void to seek “love” in unacceptable places, but more importantly how to survive. “ Research indicates that approximately 95% have been victims of sexual abuse, and most have been rejected by their families, sometimes after parents found out their children are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered”, ( Mok, 2006).
“Sexual abuse leaves some lasting ramifications such as but not limited to looseness, hopelessness, and inability to have assurance from people, self-inflicted harm and “revictimization”, (1986). Most of these underage minors will have to soon find out that they will have to discover ways and mean to meet their basic needs. “This often vicious cycle forces runaways to do whatever they have to or are capable of to survive” (Flowers, 2010). Many of these underage minors will find themselves involved with “pimps”.
127 our experts are availableright now
Population Impacted and How
As per the National Center for Missing or Exploited Children, there is somewhere around 1 million youngsters who are delegated ‘missing’ in the United States annually, (Flowers, 2010). Huge numbers of these children have been explicitly, physically, or candidly mishandled or dismissed at home; have issues with substance misuse, school participation, or mental issue; or are generally genuinely burdened in their uprooting to road life. Soon their harsh reality of their idea of independence sets in, these children must seek out self-sufficiently by any means necessary to provide their basic needs. This is generally where the lifestyle of the streets begins to engulf these children, putting them at high risk for sexual exploitation.
According to Flowers (2010), “U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated that there are 300,000 prostitutes age seventeen and under operating on the streets of America”. “Many are runaways, throwaways, and alcohol or drug dependent, (Flowers. 2010). An innumerable amount of underage prostitutes are persuaded by “pimps, white slavery” and underage traffickers. A vast majority of young people who move sexual favors are wanderers and, alternately, most teenagers that leave home for good end up in the city and should regularly swing to prostitution to endure (Flowers, 2010).
Once these underage children hit the streets, they will all too often find that there are many other obstacles they have to hurdle over. Just as they may have had predators in or around their home, there are men and women seeking out these runaways for their own benefit. “Most have run away from sexually abusive or otherwise dysfunctional homes straight into the arms of the manipulative and cunning pimp who seizes the opportunity for sexually exploiting vulnerable, needy girls” (Flowers, 2010). In any event, these underage children find it to very difficult to escape the grips of “pimps” without a possibility of losing their lives or being scarred the rest of their lives.
Teenage boy prostitution is more common than most people think. “Experts are now beginning to question this assumption, finding that male teenage runaways-turned-street hustlers may account for an equal number of juvenile prostitutes as runaway girls selling their bodies”, (Flowers, 2010). Sexual identity seems to be the underlying causation for underage boys to be kicked out of their homes, generally this forces underage boys into a lifestyle of teen prostitution. Some of these underage boys already consider themselves homosexual before ever entering into the lifestyle of prostitution. “Researchers have found that most male prostitutes tend to be self-destructive, unstable, immature, irresponsible, and have high levels of psychopathology”, (Flowers, 2010).
Research states there it is a strong correlation with runaways and prostitution. Many underage children that runaway generally suffering in the home with some sort of abuses rather it are sexual or domestic. “Studies have shown that virtually all prostitution involved girl’s experienced sexual molestation or other abuse prior to entering prostitution”, (Flowers, 2010). It is abuse of this type that seems to be the precursor for teenage runaways and teenage prostitution. According to Flowers (2010), “A number of other researchers have also related the absence of one or both parents as a factor in juvenile prostitution”.
Conclusion
In the conclusion, teenage prostitution seems to have started out with a great deal of trauma. Most of the teenage prostitutes come from a home where either someone in the home or outside the home was inflicting some sort of abuse. In return the victim otherwise known as the teenage runaway or teenage prostitute begins to retaliate against every household situation eventually leaving or being thrown out in the streets. Once the teenage prostitutes hit the street, there are predators waiting at the door. These predators lurk around public places seeking those that he or she can devour.
Many of the underage teens will fall right into the hands of a pimp or child sex ring that will promise them the world however it begins a world of more abuse. These types of relationship with these teenage prostitutes make it almost impossible to sever ties with the pimps and child sex ring, causing further emotional and mental instability. There are many common sexual factors that influence teenage prostitution such as sexual abuse, gender identity, child pornography and many more. These factors play a big role in the reasoning of teenage runaways that turn teenage prostitutes.
Refernces
- Crooks, Robert, and Karla Baur. Our Sexuality. 13th ed., Cengage Learning, 2017.
- Flowers, R. B. (2001). Runaway Kids and Teenage Prostitution: America’s Lost, Abandoned, and Sexually Exploited Children : America’s Lost, Abandoned, and Sexually Exploited Children. Westport, CT: Praeger. Retrieved from http://library.limestone.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=url,ip,cookie,uid&db=nlebk&AN=299728&scope=site
- Tyler, K.A., Hoyt, D.R., & Cauce, A.M. (2017). The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Later Sexual Victimization among Runaway Youth.
