child prostitution: the horrors of selling sex

by Andrew Johnson

child prostitution | help and info

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.'

(resources updated June 2005)

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