Emotional Collapse: The Cumulative Disadvantages of Prostitution

• In Event: Women’s Perspectives on their Experiences of Prostitution

Abstract

From a life-course perspective, prostitution is a not a stand-alone event. In this view, involvement in prostitution is interpreted as a developmental process that takes root in a myriad of vulnerability factors – such as poverty, child neglect and abuse, and drug use – that gives rise to several hardship conditions (Clarke et al., 2012; Reid & Piquero, 2014). The qualitative interviews conducted with women involved in prostitution were based on interview guides that were developed in line with this perspective. This paper will focus on the long-term emotional collapse associated with an involvement in prostitution that transpired from our analysis of the data collected during both interviews. Indeed, women reported a large spectrum of trauma related-symptoms and these symptoms were presented as the direct results of very tramatic and violent events involving clients and pimps. Implications for practices will be discussed.

Authors

• Nadine Lanctot, Universite de Sherbrooke

• Mathilde Turcotte, Université Laval

• Sanika Audet, Universite de Sherbrooke