Youth Involvement in Prostitution: A Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography

Appendix A: Annotated Bibliography (continued)

Yates, G., MacKenzie, R., Pennbridge, J., & Swofford, A. (1991). A risk profile comparison of homeless youth involved in prostitution and homeless youth not involved. Journal of Adolescent, 12, 545-548.

This study compares visits of 467 non-prostitute youths to a runaway/homeless outpatient clinic with 153 youth involved in prostitution who attended the same clinic. The data was collected over a 12-month period. Using information from “adolescent risk profile” interviews, the authors note that homeless prostitutes are involved in more high-risk/health compromising behaviour such as drug abuse, suicide and depression. HIV-related risks associated with prostitution include multiple drug abuse, “gay or bisexual male involvement,” and numerous sexual partners. A large number of youth prostitutes reported a history of sexual abuse, “suggesting the need for intervention by the child protective service system.”

Zigman, M. (1999). Under the law: Teen prostitution in Kensington. Critique of Anthropology, 19 (2), 193-201.

Traditional explanations of the antecedents of youth involvement in prostitution focus on drug abuse, sexual abuse and the “dysfunctionality of the nuclear home.” According to Zigman, these “monocausal explanations fail to take into consideration the myriad of reasons why young women enter into prostitution as well as the complexity behind their actions.” The current capitalist system makes prostitution a viable source of income for some youth. For instance, because youth are excluded from the workforce – usually via child labour laws – they turn to forms of marginal work as a means of subsistence (including prostitution). “The regulation of children’s labour, in addition to a weakened household economy, functions in such a way that if forces children into marginal work, and the streets become a viable alternative to the home.” The author argues that confronting youth prostitution is conditional upon our willingness to address an economic system that has allowed prostitution to be a viable source of income for some youths. The author also argues that most of the literature on the causes of youth prostitution ignore the demand aspect of the trade – “poverty and social problems do not explain such a large demand factor.”