NCJ Number
134548
Date Published
1991
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Prostitution is sexual abuse because prostitutes are subjected to various sexual acts that in any other context, perpetrated against any other woman, would be labeled assaultive, or, at the very least, unwanted and coerced.
Abstract
Because money has been exchanged between a prostitute and the "client," irrespective of whether the woman maintains control of or benefits from this exchange, the client believes he owns the woman and can use her in a manner that would not be tolerated in any other business or social arrangement. The woman's acceptance of the money is construed as consent to engage in any sexually-oriented acts that follow. If this concept were applied to other victims of sexual assault, then women raped by their husbands or teenagers molested by their fathers, for example, would be viewed as consenting to the abuse because they accept monetary considerations from their assailants in the form of food, lodging, and perhaps cash. As in the case of other victims of sexual assault and battering, women and girls used in prostitution need and deserve tangible assistance to escape and overcome the trauma of commercial exploitation. 16 references