Juvenile and Young Adult Prostitutes: Reconsidering the Trafficking Narrative

• In Event: Youth Who Exchange Sex for Money in the United States

Abstract

The dominant narrative of prostitution in public media and even much scholarship equates sex work with trafficking, giving rise to the ubiquitous expression “sex trafficking” and portraying sex workers as victims, while an alternative perspective maintains that sweeping anti-trafficking policies are misinformed by exaggerated, sensationalized statistics. These debates have suffered from a lack of empirical evidence about the nature of sex work among those who engage in it, and the paucity of data is especially prevalent among juveniles, presumably the most vulnerable (and likely victimized) population. This study examines the ethnographic experiences of teenage street prostitutes in Las Vegas, Nevada, using in-depth interviews conducted between 2012 and 2014 as part of a Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) research project. We investigate the circumstances of these adolescents’ entry into both sex work and first sexual experiences in the context of oppression and empowerment themes, finding that they experience a wide range of conditions that range from abuse and coercion to innovation and survival. Our discussion attempts to situate these results alongside the dominant narrative surrounding child sex trafficking in the United States.

Authors

• Andrew L. Spivak, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Jennifer M. Whitmer, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Brooke M. Wagner, Wittenberg University