Generational Prostitution in the United States

Prostitution is a multi-million dollar business in the United States. Research has shown that 70 percent of all prostitution is handled by a pimp, who keeps most of the money their prostitutes make. Prostitution is also found in escort services, sauna and spa clubs, and massage parlors. However, a great number of prostitutes are found as single women who work the streets in large and small cities. More than two thirds of these women in prostitution have at least one child. Some estimates claim there are at least 300,000 children in prostitution with others who believe the numbers may be as high as 500,000 to 1.2 million. Young boys are often found in prostitution with research indicating about 25 percent of the number of women. However, because they lose their looks earlier, many are able to get out usually by the age of 21.

Prostitution may also be promoted by members of a family who are prostitutes or use prostitutes. This "generational prostitution" may come about through a variety of reasons. How likely is the fact that these children followed their parents into prostitution, either willingly or through habitual abuse, both physical and sexual? What type of family dynamics causes this to happen? What are the reasons women begin to prostitute their bodies for money? What effect does prostitution have on the family, especially younger children?

One family consisted of the grandmother known here as Maggie, her daughter Rosita, granddaughter Ashton, and two young granddaughters. They were all involved in prostitution or had been sexually abused by family members. The grandmother had been married six times with children by each marriage. Each marriage was to a man who had physically abused her and the children. He sold her to friends for sexual favors in return for money and drugs. In one case, he had sold the oldest daughter Rosita (from a previous marriage) to a 44-year-old cousin for a weekend in return for putting gas in his vehicle. Rosita was only 11 years old.

When Rosita was 16, she married a neighborhood man, who at the age of 19 already had a criminal record involving pimping, drug use, and sexual assault. He, in turn, physically and sexually abused her, raping her twice in the first week of marriage. After becoming pregnant, she helped her husband in a variety of crimes. After being caught by the police manufacturing and selling methamphetamine, he was convicted and sentenced to prison for 10 years. Rosita testified against her husband and was able to avoid being sentenced herself. During the time her husband was in prison, the wife and daughter were still systematically used by other family and friends as sexual objects, with Ashton being sexually abused at the age of three.

When Ashton reached the age of 17, she also married and divorced in the same year. After that, she decided she did not want to be used anymore without having some control and went to work for an escort service. Now pregnant with her third child, she continues to work catering to those who want to have sex with a pregnant woman. Although she won't admit it publicly, she believes her two young daughters, ages ten and seven have also been sexually molested by an uncle.

Self-esteem was non-existent for any of these women and all believed their lot in life consisted of being manipulated by the men they lived with or serviced as a prostitute. With little education from quitting school by the age of sixteen, both the grandmother and mother had spent time in a mental institution for trying to commit suicide. All the adults were actively using drugs from marijuana to crack cocaine and felt they had no other choice than to continue as they were. When offered help, it was turned down on several occasions because they did not think they could cope working in a standard job position or going to school to learn a trade. Instead, they believed that by collecting welfare supplemented by prostitution, they were doing as well as could be expected. In all likelihood and without outside assistance, the younger females would also join the ranks in prostitution as they became older.

Prostitution in the United States is an ongoing and growing social dilemma. With an estimated one million women involved in prostitution, the threat of contracting STDs, HIV/AIDs, along with a multitude of other sexual diseases is prevalent. In the United States, it is estimated that seventy percent of prostitutes experience multiple rapes each year and some women are raped once a week. The profile of prostitution and those who become prostitutes reveals that the most likely age to begin prostitution is 13 - 14 years old with the average age being 20. Almost 33 percent of the women got started in prostitution through family members or friends.

These children are often members of families with dysfunctional parents, including violence, drugs, incest, and sexual assault. The childhood history of most of these women were disordered and unsound, and with a high percentage having parents who either were physically and sexually abusive, heavy drug users, in jail for a variety of criminal activity, or deceased. They had become prostitutes either to pay for their drug use or for money to buy possessions not covered by state aid.

Many suffer from mental disease, caused either by the conditions surrounding their childhood years or from the use of drugs and alcohol. Countless suffer from the downgrading effects of being raped, unwanted pregnancies, stress (including PSTD), anxiety, depression, injuries (broken bones, stabbing, coma) and sexual diseases. At least 60 percent admit to thinking about committing suicide or have made the attempt at least once. Most prostitutes are from minority races and are most frequently the ones arrested and jailed. Seldom are the "johns", those who use prostitutes, ever arrested or have their names released.

Some people believe that prostitution should be made legal, thus providing for health and mental health care and a safer work environment for prostitutes through regulation and legislation. Other programs developed by the Department of Justice and private programs through State initiatives have sought to try to break the cycle of prostitution and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE) of children. Public awareness has been raised through television such as the Oprah Winfrey Show, where a program called "Suburban Teen: The New Prostitute", which highlighted many research findings. Nevertheless, it would appear that prostitution, already known as the "oldest profession", is not likely to disappear any time soon.

Sources:

Research on Street Prostitution - Prostitution Overview

Prostitution - Background

The Effects of Systems of Prostitution and CSE in the United States and Worldwide