NCJ Number
93288
Date Published
1983
Length
38 pages
Annotation
Prostitutes can be viewed as victims on several levels because of their experience and position within society.
Abstract
They are victims of their past, because prostitution is an expression of deviance from the traditional sex roles and therefore entails ostracism from the status and privileges of respectability. An inadequate parent-child relationship and the development of a negative self-image or a view of themselves as sex objects as a result of physical or sexual abuse generally precedes prostitutes' entrance into the profession. Prostitutes are then victimized as a result of their position in the social structure. They continue to be victimized within the context of the lifestyle of prostitution. Treating prostitutes as the sole offenders maintains the inequities in the relative status of males and females. Only widespread changes in social and sexual attitudes will change these patterns of victimization. Viewing the prostitute as the victim of a contradiction in the structure of male/female relations would be a positive first step. The cause of prostitution must also be determined. Decriminalization would seem to be the least abusive method of dealing with prostitution in the United States. Requiring a license and a health card might be a realistic way of implementing this approach. A list of 86 references is supplied.