Childhood Maltreatment and Child Protective Services Involvement Among the Commercially Sexually Exploited: A Comparison of Women Who Enter as Juveniles or as Adults.

A risk for commercial sexual exploitation is childhood maltreatment. It's unknown whether juveniles in commercial sexual exploitation experience more childhood maltreatment than adults or how involved child protective services is in investigating maltreatment, a focus of this study. Women (N = 96) who sold sex commercially completed a cross-sectional questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, t tests, chi-squares, and odds ratios were used to examine differences in background, childhood maltreatment, and child protective services involvement by juvenile or adult entry. Although 93% of participants experienced child maltreatment, juveniles had increased odds of parent/caregiver sexual abuse, being left alone, being kicked out, and running away from a parent/caregiver. There were no differences in cumulative childhood maltreatment resulting in an investigation or removal, indicating that juveniles not investigated or removed by child protective services had as much childhood maltreatment as juveniles who were investigated or removed by child protective services. Results highlight the need for child welfare staff to recognize childhood maltreatment as risks for commercial sexual exploitation.

Torture and its sequelae among prostituted women in the United States.

Background: Extreme violence and psychological abuse have been extensively documented and are pervasive in prostitution. Survivors of prostitution report high levels of posttraumatic stress disorder, dissociation, depression, and self-loathing. These are the same sequelae reported by torture survivors.Objective: Severe forms of violence have been categorized as torture by experts. The authors note that torture is commonly suffered during prostitution and should be appropriately named.Method: Using standardized measures and including a new measure of torture, we interviewed 45 women in the United States about their torture experiences in prostitution and their symptoms of PTSD, dissociation, childhood trauma, health status and somatic symptoms. The interviewees had exited prostitution and were in supportive programmes.Results: Formerly prostituted interviewees reported acts of physical, sexual, and psychological torture, including strangulation, rape, beatings, restriction of movement, denial of privacy, sleep, or food, and being forced to witness the torture of others. The 45 women had high levels of PTSD and dissociation. They endorsed needs for individual counselling, substance abuse treatment, and other medical care.Conclusions: A recognition of the physical, sexual, and psychological torture experienced in prostitution would strengthen psychological and medical interventions for survivors. Naming specific acts of prostitution as torture will reduce the survivor's shame and self-blame. Holistic treatment includes medical and psychological interventions and peer support, as seen in torture rehabilitation programmes for survivors of state-sponsored torture. This research supports the perspective that private or non-state-sponsored torture against women and marginalized populations should be clinically and legally understood in the same way as state-sponsored torture.

Using international legal definitions of torture, we assessed the prevalence of acts of torture perpetrated against formerly prostituted women in the United States.We found an extremely high prevalence of acts of torture perpetrated against prostituted women, as well as symptoms of traumatic stress common to other torture survivors.Two-thirds of the prostituted women in this study were beaten by sex buyers.Torture has been well documented when it committed by a state government's military or prison system, but it has not been well documented when perpetrated as a private, non-state act, for example, incest, battering, rape, and prostitution.Prostitution's harm is increased when it is perpetrated against economically and ethnically marginalized women.

Rape myth acceptance in men who completed the prostitution offender program of British Columbia.

In an effort to characterize the attitudes and characteristics of men who solicit sex, this study investigated rape myth acceptance as assessed by a modification of Burt's Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. The participants were all men who took part in the Prostitution Offender Program of British Columbia after being arrested for attempting to solicit sex from an undercover police officer. Relationships between endorsement of rape myths, other attitudes, sexual behavior, and demographic variables were examined. Results reveal that age, education, use of pornography, ideal frequency of intercourse, and believing that purchasing sex is a problem are all negatively correlated with rape myth acceptance. Positive correlations were found between rape myth acceptance and sexual conservatism, sexual violence/coercion, and social desirability. Results are discussed in terms of the association between rape myth acceptance and the violence frequently perpetrated against those working in the sex trade.

Friends, family, and boyfriends: An analysis of relationship pathways into commercial sexual exploitation.

BACKGROUND: The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is a major global issue that affects over two million children each year (Polaris Project, 2014). Large metropolitan cities, such as Las Vegas, have high rates of child prostitution (Shared Hope International, 2009). OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the current study is to elucidate to what extent interpersonal relationships and contextual factors (e.g. abuse within the home, substance abuse, etc.) influence commercial sexual exploitation. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants for this study include 26 CSEC survivors located within the state of Nevada. METHODS: The current study utilizes a qualitative content analysis approach to analyze interview transcripts gathered from CSEC survivors. Three stages of analysis were conducted to assess the relationships that influenced the participants' sexual exploitation, as well as the contextual factors shared by the participants. RESULTS: Analyses indicated that three types of relationships led to commercial sexual exploitation: friends, family, and boyfriends. Of the three relationship typologies, friends were the most common (n = 14). As for contextual factors, it was common for participants to have been abused within their home (n = 15) or to have run away from home (n = 20). CONCLUSIONS: The narratives provided in this study show that CSEC survivors do not often willingly engage in trading sex; rather this decision is influenced by a need to escape familial abuse or they are forced to trade sex by someone whom they share a relationship.

Suicide ideation in different generations of immigrants.

OBJECTIVE: To identify whether pressures associated with acculturation are related to suicide ideation. METHOD: We assessed 1135 undergraduates, using suicide measures and the Vancouver Index of Acculturation. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Suicide ideation, plans, and attempts did not vary by generation level or with mainstream acculturation for any of the ethnic groups studied (European, Chinese, and Indo-Asian), nor did they vary among ethnic groups. The results indicate that individuals who identified closely with their heritage culture were at an increased risk for suicidal thoughts but not for suicide plans or attempts.

Asian body image satisfaction: ethnic and gender differences across Chinese, Indo-Asian, and European-descent students.

This study extends previous research on ethnocultural differences in body image satisfaction by comparing two distinct Asian groups with a European descent group (N = 1471). Canadian undergraduates completed self-report body image measures. Participants descended from China reported the lowest levels of body satisfaction. Body satisfaction of participants descended from Indo-Asia was the next lowest, significantly lower than their European descent counterparts. The body satisfaction of women was lower than that of men across all groups and all participants expressed a desire to be thinner. The results suggest that one cannot generalize across Asian populations, as there may be significant differences between various ethnic minority groups.