Childhood Adverse Experiences and Age of Entry into Prostitution: A Multivariate Model

Background and Purpose: The expanding knowledgebase around prostitution indicates a need to investigate early life experiences directing women toward and the timing of entry into the sex industry. Many women engaged in prostitution report life long histories of chaos, trauma, mental illness and substance abuse. In addition, research suggests that women entering prostitution at an earlier age take longer to exit. The purpose of this research, then, is to identify early life events influencing entry into prostitution in order to inform evidence-based prevention efforts. We hypothesized that adverse childhood experiences (i.e., homelessness, sexual abuse, witnessing family violence, and juvenile delinquency) would predict an earlier entry into prostitution.

Methods: The study relied on cross-sectional, self-reported survey data from women (N=80, 56.7% African American, 40% Caucasian, and 3.3% Latino) enrolled in prostitution-diversion specialty courts in a large southern metropolitan community. Bivariate analyses and linear regression were conducted in SPSS 22.0. Specially, we regressed age of entry into prostitution on prevalence of childhood (before 18 years old) sexual abuse (80%), homelessness (28.8%), witnessing family violence (62.5%), and being held in juvenile detention (20%), controlling for age (M=41.94, SD=9.30).

Results: Bivariate analyses showed that those experiencing childhood homelessness entered prostitution at a significantly younger age compared to those not experiencing childhood homelessness (M=17.91, SD=8.38 vs. M=25.05, SD=7.74). Age was significantly correlated with entry into prostitution (r=0.42, p<0.01). The multivariate model was significant (F(5,53)= 6.20, p<0.001), and childhood homelessness significantly predicted earlier entry into prostitution (β=-0.35, p=0.004), controlling for age. Childhood sexual abuse, witnessing family violence, and juvenile detention were not significant.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings partially supported the hypothesis, and suggest that childhood homelessness is a risk for entering prostitution before adulthood. This early entry into prostitution may be due to economic pressures, and in fact, many unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness report engaging in illicit behaviors to survive on the street, including trading sex for money. More research is necessary to determine what type of childhood homelessness poses the greatest risk, e.g., family homelessness or unaccompanied youth on the street. The non-significant relationships between entry into prostitution and childhood sexual abuse, family violence, and juvenile detention require further study. The high prevalence of the former two experiences may mean that they do not discriminate strongly across women engaged in prostitution. Overall, though, preliminary results highlight the critical need for more prevention efforts for children in families experiencing homelessness and intensive street outreach services to unaccompanied youth.