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The
average age of entry into prostitution is 13 years (M.H. Silbert and A.M. Pines, 1982, "Victimization of street prostitutes,
Victimology: An International Journal, 7: 122-133) or 14 years (D.Kelly Weisberg, 1985, Children of the Night: A Study of
Adolescent Prostitution, Lexington, Mass, Toronto). Most of these 13 or 14 year old girls were recruited or coerced into prostitution.
Others were "traditional wives" without job skills who escaped from or were abandoned by abusive husbands and went into prostitution
to support themselves and their children. (Denise Gamache and Evelina Giobbe, Prostitution: Oppression Disguised as Liberation,
National Coalition against Domestic Violence, 1990)
Estimates of the prevalence of incest among prostitutes range
from 65% to 90%. The Council for Prostitution Alternatives, Portland, Oregon Annual Report in 1991 stated that: 85% of prostitute/clients
reported history of sexual abuse in childhood; 70% reported incest. The higher percentages (80%-90%) of reports of incest
and childhood sexual assaults of prostitutes come from anecdotal reports and from clinicians working with prostitutes (interviews
with Nevada psychologists cited by Patricia Murphy, Making the Connections: women, work, and abuse, 1993, Paul M. Deutsch
Press, Orlando, Florida; see also Rita Belton, "Prostitution as Traumatic Reenactment," 1992, International Society for Traumatic
Stress Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA M.H. Silbert and A.M. Pines, 1982, "Victimization of street prostitutes," Victimology:
An International Journal, 7: 122-133; C. Bagley and L Young, 1987, "Juvenile Prostitution and child sexual abuse: a controlled
study," Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, Vol 6: 5-26.)
80% of prostitution survivors at the WHISPER Oral
History Project reported that their customers showed them pornography to illustrate the kinds of sexual activities in which
they wanted to engage. 52% of the women stated that pornography played a significant role in teaching them what was expected
of them as prostitutes. 30% reported that their pimps regularly exposed them to pornography in order to indoctrinate them
into an acceptance of the practices depicted. (A facilitator's guide to Prostitution: a matter of violence against women,
1990, WHISPER - Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt Minneapolis, MN)
90% of prostituted women
interviewed by WHISPER had pimps while in prostitution (Evelina Giobbe, 1987, WHISPER Oral History Project, Minneapolis, Minnesota).
"About 80% of women in prostitution have been the victim of a rape. It's hard to talk about this because..the experience
of prostitution is just like rape. Prostitutes are raped, on the average, eight to ten times per year. They are the most raped
class of women in the history of our planet. " (Susan Kay Hunter and K.C. Reed, July, 1990 "Taking the side of bought and
sold rape," speech at National Coalition against Sexual Assault, Washington, D.C. ) Other studies report 68% to 70% of women
in prostitution being raped (M Silbert, "Compounding factors in the rape of street prostitutes," in A.W. Burgess, ed., Rape
and Sexual Assault II, Garland Publishing, 1988; Melissa Farley and Howard Barkan, "Prostitution, Violence, and Posttraumatic
Stress Disorder," 1998, Women & Health.)
78% of 55 women who sought help from the Council for Prostitution Alternatives
in 1991 reported being raped an average of 16 times a year by pimps, and were raped 33 times a year by johns. (Susan Kay Hunter,
Council for Prostitution Alternatives Annual Report, 1991, Portland, Oregon) 85% of prostitutes are raped by pimps. (Council
on Prostitution Alternatives, Portland, 1994)
Prostitution is an act of violence against women which is intrinsically
traumatizing. In a study of 475 people in prostitution (including women, men, and the transgendered) from five countries (South
Africa, Thailand, Turkey, USA, and Zambia):
62% reported having been raped in prostitution. 73% reported having experienced
physical assault in prostitution. 72% were currently or formerly homeless. 92% stated that they wanted to escape prostitution
immediately. (Melissa Farley, Isin Baral, Merab Kiremire, Ufuk Sezgin, "Prostitution in Five Countries: Violence and Posttraumatic
Stress Disorder" (1998) Feminism & Psychology 8 (4): 405-426)
A Canadian Report on Prostitution and Pornography
concluded that girls and women in prostitution have a mortality rate 40 times higher than the national average. ( Special
Committee on Pornography and Prostitution, 1985, Pornography and Prostitution in Canada 350.) In one study, 75% of women in
escort prostitution had attempted suicide. Prostituted women comprised 15% of all completed suicides reported by hospitals.
(Letter from Susan Kay Hunter, Council for Prostitution Alternatives, Jan 6, 1993, cited by Phyllis Chesler in "A Woman's
Right to Self-Defense: the case of Aileen Carol Wuornos," in Patriarchy: Notes of an Expert Witness, 1994, Common Courage
Press, Monroe, Maine.)
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These facts are excerpted
with permission from the Prostitution Fact Sheet, compiled by Melissa Farley, at the Prostitution Research & Education
site, www.prostitutionresearch.com
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