NCJ Number
93383
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 30 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1984) Pages: 69-74
Date Published
1984
Length
6 pages
Annotation
For teenage girls who are runaways and 'throwaways,' the promises of prostitution and dependency on an attentive pimp are more attractive than the life they have known in the past, and elaborate social and criminal justice interventions in themselves are not likely to change this attraction.
Abstract
Teenage prostitutes are often portrayed as the victims of predatory pimps who exploit and abuse them, thus making them amenable to alternative lifestyles offered by rehabilitative interventions. The more accurate scenario is that teenage girls take up prostitution as a way of acquiring a pimp. The relationships between a pimp and his prostitutes are most often perceived by each party as being mutually beneficial. The most important benefit provided by the pimp is the perception by the prostitute that he cares about her. The teenage prostitute creates an image in her mind of a pimp who will meet her emotional needs, and when the image is destroyed by the pimp's mistreatment, she will seek fulfillment of the image in another pimp. The emotional dependencies and promises fostered by prostitution do not make it amenable to government intervention, except in cases where the girl is very young, very ambivalent, or very abused. For those girls who seek it, a place to 'flop,' some supportive counseling and therpy, and good food are indispensable; these services are a wise expenditure of public monies. To develop more elaborate and comprehensive interventions is questionable. There are no reasons to predict a diminution of teenage prostitution. More, rather than less, is likely. If there are ways of achieving a reduction, they are long-term. Teenage prostitution is not so much a problem as a proxy for ills that form part of contemporary America. The individual and societal life.