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

Foreword
This re p o rt is one of five re s e a rch re p o rts published as part of the Vulnerable Gro u p s
R e s e a rch Programme. The central focus of the programme was to investigate patterns of
d rug use among groups of vulnerable young people and their access to services. Each
p roject focuses on a diff e rent group of vulnerable young people, who tend not to be
included in general population surveys. The project reported on here concentrates on young
people involved in sex work. The four other projects examine: young people leaving care
including runaways; homeless young people; young drug users who are in contact with
juvenile drug services; and young people in contact with youth offending teams. Many of
the young people across these projects are likely to have had similar backgrounds and
vulnerabilities. A number of the studies explore this area and the degree to which the young
people are in fact the same population caught at diff e rent points in their lives and via
different services.
Vulnerable and socially excluded young people involved in prostitution tend to be a hidden
population. This study aims to build on existing knowledge of the complex re l a t i o n s h i p
between drug use and routes in and out of sex work. It examines what links drug use and
prostitution for young people, and what circumstances influence exiting from problem drug
use and sex work. The authors suggest that the shared environment of problem drug use and
sex work may link together and become mutually reinforcing. They systematically analyse
the factors, which particularly when working in combination, were seen to trap young
people, offering them little opportunity to exit either problematic drug use or sex work.
Teresa Williams
Programme Director, Drugs and Alcohol Research,
Research, Development Statistics Directorate
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