Vulnerability and involvement in drug use and ... - Sex Work Europe

The factors that lead a young person to being placed in care, may of course contribute to
their vulnerability to prostitution. However, the experience of living in care itself is said to
put young people at particular risk of entry to prostitution because of the social stigma,
marginalisation and ‘otherness’ related to being in care (Kirby, 1995). Living in care, young
people are often exposed to peers who can introduce them to and advise them on the local
prostitution scene.
The weak position of young people leaving care is also suggested as a factor underlying
high correlations between having been in care and prostitution. Stiffman and colleagues
(1988) describe how many young people leave care aged 16 with mental and physical
health problems and with fewer skills and educational qualifications than other young
people. They have far fewer sources of emotional support, and in a study at Centrepoint in
London by Kirby, (1995) few re p o rted being given advice or training on specific
independent living skills. As Pitts, (1997) comments on Kirby’s findings:
this had the effect of putting onto the street ill-prepared, poorly educated and
emotionally fragile young people, many of whom had been received into care in the
first place because of abuse, neglect, self-harm, or their violent or aggressive behaviour.
(Pitts, 1997: 147)
Focusing on the ‘reasons’ young people give for their involvement in prostitution, rather
than searching for ‘causes’, Streetwise Youth in London found 80 per cent of a sample of
young prostitutes beginning prostitution due to ‘a severe or desperate shortage of
money’ (Bluett et al., 2000). A desire to escape poverty and a lack of opportunity to do
so by any other means may lead many young people into prostitution. State benefits
w e re withdrawn from young people under the age of 18 living away from the pare n t a l
home in 1988. Their plight worsened with the 1989 Housing Act, which changed board
and lodgings regulations and tightened up funding arrangements for housing
association hostels.
Problematic drug use and sex work
Authors have long discussed the effects of various drugs to hinder or facilitate sex work
(James et al., 1979; Miller, 1995; Philpot et al., 1989; Silverman, 1982). Sex workers’
use of drugs, especially amphetamines to cope with the long and late hours of sex work
have also been described (Barn a rd et al., 1993; Donovan, 1984; de Graff et al.,
1994; and Miller, 1995). On the other hand, it has been suggested that the use of
Introduction
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