Minors+in+the+US

A dichotomy has been identified for how the United States society views sex workers as either criminals or victims with minor populations falling in the latter (Clarke, Clarke, Roe-Sepowitz, & Fey, 2012). Common assumptions made about minors working in sex trade industry are of exploitation and brutal violence. Kotrla (2010) cited America’s most vulnerable population for sex trafficking is youth. Sex trafficking is differentiated from other types sex work by the elements force, fraud, or coercion used to recruit, harbor, transport, provide, or obtain a person under the age of 18 for labor.

Risk factors that add to youth’s vulnerability to sex trafficking include history of abuse, running away, homelessness, foster care, child protected service systems (Kotrla, 2010), family member with substance abuse, attempted suicide, and have not completed high school. Clarke //et al// (2012) also found the highest rates for entering into prostitution as minors to be African Americans.

While a majority of the research on adult sex work is tied to outcomes of drug use, incarceration, and sexually transmitted infections (Clarke //et al//, 2012), a recent study with commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) showed that people overestimate the role of pimps recruiting minors into prostitution (Marcus //et al//, 2014).

The contextual factors placing certain youth at risk among others lead the legal system to work against rather than support for them because the United States has too few resources to meet the needs after rescuing sex trafficking victims that is reaching epidemic proportions (Kotrla, 2010). Minors are motivated to continue selling sex in the variety of forms due to the economic rewards, increased control, power, and lifestyle that they create can be better than the situations they were born into (Marcus //et al,// 2014).

Economic perspectives place minors in sex work within supply and demand principles where money motivates people to have power over others and seek out vulnerable populations to supply for the growing demands (Clarke //et al//, 2012). However, Marcus, Horning, Curtis, Sansom, and Thompson (2014) found pimps in New York City to value minors less due to the fewer earnings they bring in.

On an institutional level, sex work in the United States was first criminalized starting in the 1920’s in response to the venereal disease epidemic and activism among public health organizations (Middleton, 2002). The Policing and Crime Act of 2009 added the criminalization of purchasing of sex placing blame on the consumers rather than only on the victims (Sanders, Kingston, & Hardy, 2010).

[] The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) decriminalized sex working minors through the creation of rescue and punishment institutions that provide resources for youth to escape the sex work lifestyle and choose different career paths. Marcus //et al// (2014) found the majority of minors in their study to wish for a different occupation, but not so much as to accept the help from the TVPA due to the real life consequences and community repercussions these resources limit to participants.

The literature has not fully captured the depth of complexity that comes along with an individual’s experience for their involvement in sex work as a minor. They may benefit from normalizing the extent of others that share their experience, while creating space for their unique personhood and agency to have a future they want outside the confinement of sex trafficking whether that be sex work or not.

Clarke //et al// (2012) cited severe family dysfunction, drug use, and clinical symptomology to be greater in those who entered sex work as minors rather than adulthood. Cognitive behavioral, dialectical behavioral therapy, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing clinical approaches such as working with this population must consider the traumatic experience of forced sex trafficking (Kotrla, 2010). However, the stereotypes of sex working minors portrayed in the media where children are held captive and sexually oppressed exist, but are the extreme cases for a more widespread majority in sex work (Marcus //et al,// 2014).

There is extreme difficulty in producing research generalizable to the United States population of minors in sex work making the actual prevalence and impact hard to define. Many studies use incarcerated populations or law enforcement professionals (Clarke //et al//, 2012), people who have been through treatment (Kotrla, 2010), and urban populations (Marcus //et al,// 2014) leading the literature to be biased with negative undertones. Sex workers would benefit from others seeking to understand their life decisions to choose this work rather than jumping to change their sexual behavior to fit within the social control norms that are dominant in the United States. >It is important for people to be open to understanding the context and variation among sex workers rather than either viewing them as victims while children and then as criminals into adulthood. Education around this topic can help to reduce stigma and add to the prevention of the negative consequences that the youth in sex work may experience.

Sex Work home page Sexuality home page
 * India
 * Thailand

**References** Clarke, R. J., Clarke, E. A., Roe-Sepowitz, D., & Fey, R. (2012). Age at entry into prostitution: Relationship to drug use, race, suicide, education level, childhood abuse, and family experiences. //Journal of Human Behavior In The Social Environment, 22//(3), 270-289. doi:10.1080/10911359.2012.655583 Kotrla, K. (2010). Domestic minor sex trafficking in the United States. //Social Work, 55//(2), 181-187. Marcus, A., Horning, A., Curtis, R., Sansom, J., & Thompson, E. (2014). Conflict and agency among sex workers and pimps: A closer look at domestic minor sex trafficking. //The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,653//(1). 225-246. doi: 10.1177/0002716214521993 Middleton, D. R. (2002). //Exotics and erotics: Human cultural and sexual diversity.// Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. Sanders, T., Kingston, S., & Hardy, K. (2010). //New Sociologies of Sex Work//. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Pub.