The STOPLight

Barriers make leaving difficult

Prostitution is a severe form of violence and oppression. The four main factors that make a person vulnerable to being used in the sex industry are sexism, racism, and poverty, and child sexual abuse. Women, youth, and young men in prostitution are battered individuals. They are battered not by one person, but by hundreds. Aside from being sexually and physically battered every time they turn a trick, they are harmed spiritually and emotionally as well.

In 1991, the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women passed a resolution identifying prostitution as a form of battering and acknowledging that prostituted women should be entitled to all the resources given to other battered women. As with domestic abuse, the reasons it is hard for women to leave prostitution include fear, having children in common, finances, a dependent relationship, low self-esteem, and no place to go.

Founded in 1978 by a survivor and her counselor at Family & Children’s Services, PRIDE is one of the oldest programs in the country for people wanting help to get out of prostitution. Kristin Berg, program supervisor for PRIDE, recently spoke about the barriers women face in trying to get out of prostitution. Although the average age of entry into prostitution is 14, no matter what age she is when she tries to leave multiple barriers and dangers confront her.

The majority of people in prostitution turn to hard drugs to dull the pain of their existence. The addiction then becomes a barrier to getting out because prostitution pays for the drugs.

Lack of education and job skills is a huge obstacle to leaving prostitution. Many people in prostitution have not even completed eighth grade. They don’t have job skills or a work history so when they try to get a job there is nothing to put on an application—often not even a home address. They may also have a history of criminal offenses for prostitution, drugs, forgery, fraud or property crimes.