ABSTRACT
The involvement of youth in prostitution has proven to be a difficult and complex
issue for law enforcement, child welfare, and social service agencies to confront. This
stems from the complicated social and legal aspects of the problem, which have created
considerable ambiguity in how to recognize, define and, ultimately, handle juveniles
engaging in prostitution. This research project examines how juvenile prostitutes are
currently conceptualized by law enforcement, as victims of child sexual abuse or as
delinquent offenders, by examining law enforcement’s response to this social problem.
Two hundred law enforcement case files, from four major U.S. cities, in which a juvenile
had engaged in prostitution, provide the data for this research project. Each case is
examined to determine if the juvenile has been treated as a victim, as an offender or as
both by law enforcement. Analyses also examine factors which affect law enforcement
decision making about how to handle cases in which juveniles are involved in
prostitution.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
While juvenile prostitution is not a new phenomenon, it was not until the mid-
1970s that it emerged as a social problem in the United States. Prior attention focused
mainly on prostitution as a moral and ethical problem, and largely ignored the issue of the
age of individuals engaging in prostitution. It was not until child sexual abuse emerged
as a social problem that the prostitution of juveniles began to be recognized as a social
problem, and, notably, as a form of child sexual abuse (Best, 1990).
Child sexual abuse emerged in the 1970s as an umbrella term for incest and
molestation, linking these two acts to the already well-established social problem of child
abuse. This new term conveyed the idea that sexual contact with children is harmful and
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Convention