prostitution22

child prostitution: the horrors of selling sex

by Andrew Johnson
child prostitution
One month before her 14th birthday Aliyah Ismail was found dead in a grubby flat
in Camden Town, London, in her 17-year-old ex-boyfriend's bed. She had taken
twice the amount of methadone needed to kill her and had been working as a
prostitute in nearby King's Cross.

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Shocking but not unusual, according to Andy Bates of children's charity
Barnardo's. 'It's not a long-term career option,' he says of child prostitution. 'That
lifestyle is extremely violent and dangerous. Some children do die.' At Barnardo's
they don't use the term 'child prostitution': 'We call it abuse through prostitution,'
Andy Bates says. 'It's child abuse.'
how does it happen?

Children end up as prostitutes as the result of a complex process involving
manipulation, violence, sexual abuse, drugs, alcohol and poverty. Barnardo's
gives an example of how it could happen: A girl, who has run away from home or
is being abused at home, meets a young man, probably aged between 18 and 25.
He gives her the love and affection she is missing. He pretends to be her
boyfriend, impressing her with his maturity and lifestyle, his money and car. She
falls in love with him and they start to have sex.
Then he becomes possessive and demands proof of the girl's love. Often this
includes breaking off with friends and family. If she is still living with her parents
he may help her put herself into care. Soon he controls her life – what she wears,
what she eats, where she goes. He becomes violent and she becomes
frightened, but she still hopes that one more proof of her love will restore their
relationship. Once the man totally dominates her he demands she has sex with
one of his 'friends', and then with other men. He uses violence and threats to
control her. He has now become not her boyfriend but her pimp (someone who
takes a share of a prostitute's money in exchange for 'protection' from punters –
men who buy sex).
Another charity, the Children's Society, which has campaigned for tougher laws
against pimps and punters since 1994, says there are other ways girls, and
sometimes boys, become prostitutes. It says that many child prostitutes say 'it is
an easy transition' from being sexually abused at home to selling sex to strangers.
what do prostitutes say?

The charity interviewed 50 young people – four of whom were boys. Some had
stopped being prostitutes, others were still selling sex. It found nearly half (42%)
had been abused at home – a quarter (26%) before they were 10-years-old. Just
under half (48%) had experienced violence from pimps or punters. Children in
care were most likely to end up as prostitutes, the charity says.
One girl they interviewed, Louise, started selling sex aged 11. Her mother was
spending all the family money on alcohol and she needed to feed herself and her
siblings. 'I didn't like it but I knew it was the only way I could get money without
going thieving,' she said. One of the boys had run away from home because he
was gay and his father wouldn't accept that. Some children may become addicted
to drugs after running away from home and have to sell sex to pay for them.
Others become addicted to drugs once they become prostitutes, to numb the bad
feelings. Then they needed money to pay for drugs.
Some children and teenagers have phoned ChildLine, the telephone help and
counselling service for children. Caroline, 14, told them she had run away from
her foster carer. 'My pimp has got me a flat to live in, but I want to leave because
he hits me a lot,' she said. 'I can't leave though. I've nowhere else to go.'
No-one knows exactly how widespread child prostitution is but between 1989 and
1995 4,000 children (under 18) were cautioned or convicted for selling sex. Child
prostitution is spread throughout the country and is as common in rural areas as
it is in towns. It was only in May this year that the Government told the police they
should treat child prostitutes as victims of abuse, and treat the pimps and clients
as child abusers. Before then, men were charged with lesser crimes, such as
living off the earnings of a prostitute, and the children were treated like criminals.
how can it be stopped?

It is very difficult for children to stop being prostitutes, children's charities say.
They have no self-esteem, may not trust authority and have lost out on their
education. 'When you get out of it it's not just a lifestyle change for you,' a former
child prostitute from Middlesbrough said. 'You change your friends, you change
the places where you go, you change the places where you live, the people you
associate with.'
Everyone agrees that what is needed is safe houses for child runaways to go to,
before they find themselves locked in to drugs and prostitution. Once children
are identified as prostitutes, they need support, counselling, education and
careers advice. 'I've still got people coming up to me now saying "you're a
smackhead, you're a prostitute",' said a former prostitute. 'They don't give you a
second chance. It's not all money in your pocket. You do get beaten up, you do
get raped, I've had friends who have been killed through it.'