One item will record whether the juvenile prostitute (victim) was willing to act as
a witness for a prosecution of his/her exploiter(s). This variable is coded yes (1), no (0),
not applicable (98) and don’t know (99). The age of consent variable is coded 1 if the
youth’s age is below the state’s legal age of consent and 0 if the youth’s age is equal to or
above the state’s legal age of consent.
Youth/Exploiter(s)/Officer Characteristics: The prostituted juvenile’s and
exploiters’ (if applicable) prior record is measured with a count (frequency) of the
number of prior arrests. This variable captures the frequency of prior offenses,
representing officially sanctioned criminality. In addition to the frequency of prior
arrests variable, for up to five prior offenses the type of offense (e.g. runaway, loitering,
drug violation, etc.) will be recorded for each juveniles.
The youth and exploiters’ age variable measures their age in years at the time of
the occurrence. If not clearly stated in the report, this information is gained by
subtracting the juvenile’s birth date from the date of the incident. This variable should
range between 0 and 17 for juveniles and be any age for exploiters. Additionally, up to 3
nominal variables measure the relationship of the adult exploiter to the juvenile
prostitute. Categories include pimp, madam, family member, boy/girlfriend, customer,
other and not applicable (98), unknown/DK (99).
A nominal variable for each juvenile, exploiter (up to 3) and officer categorizes
the individuals’ race into the following 5 categories: Black/African American,
White/Caucasian, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/AK
Native. Any individual to which there is no indication of the individual’s race in the
report will be coded unknown/DK (99) and if not applicable (98). Additionally, for each
individual youth, exploiter (up to 3) and officer the ethnicity of the officer will be coded
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Convention