Prostitution

I’ve often wondered what drives women into prostitution? Is it always by choice or are they forced into it? The whole idea of paying for sex seems so undignified. Something so intimate, in my opinion, should not be up for sale.

It is thought that those who are prostitutes are driven to do so because of their childhoods. Recent research does support this idea. Dr. Melissa Farley and Dr. Howard Barkin reported that out of 130 prostitutes surveyed fifty-five percent reported that they had been sexually abused as a child by three perpetrators or more. Ninety-four percent reported that a caregiver had physically abused them until they were bruised or injured. This gives us a good idea that most prostitutes have had an unstable childhood. Their childhoods have caused them to enter a profession where they repeat the abuse from the childhood in their adult lives. Of those interviewed eighty-two percent said they had been physically assaulted since they entered prostitution and sixty-eight percent had been raped. Which makes you wonder why they would stay in the profession if it causes them so much pain.

Eighty-eight percent expressed a desire to leave the profession, but complained they need help. They needed training and education. They also needed medical attention because most of them had health problems from prostitution. When you face so many problems it sometimes seems easier just to s...