Teenage prostitution

Without intervention, these children run towards the street during adolescence in the direction of escaping the terrifying sexual exploitation by a trusted caretaker ("Children of the Night"). Estimates of the prevalence of incest among prostitutes range from 65% to 90% (Aid for Teens). 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 (Aid for Teens). 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 (Aid for Teens).
             American adolescents and teenagers that become involved with this sort of awful crime for the majority existed as victims of sexual molestation by a parent or other adult figure. Many of these children live in en route of love and compassion and chose prostitution as an outreach for affection. Entry into prostitution can become a passive acceptance of a social reality - thus the child believes prostitution is expected of him or her ("Children of the Night"). Many of the children that become prostitutes rarely become drug addicts but may begin headed for taking a variety of drugs that would numb his or her feelings ("Children of the Night"). Many of these children face terrible physical, psychological, and sociological instabilities. The physical impact of prostitution on children can range from a variety of diseases such as Aids, Herpes, and other sexually transmitted diseases. The low amounts of self-esteem that each child has to live with and the self-destruction or self-mutilation that one may induct on him or herself can subsists as a major psychological impact. The sociologic impact that comes with the life of a prostitute remains as the inability to enter mainstreams of society as the same person that they existed before ("Children of the Night").