Young People and Prostitution from a Youth Service Perspective

Retrieved on July 29, 2007

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/schools/humanities_and_soc_sciences/sociology/level3/prost1.htm

Young People and Prostitution from a Youth Service Perspective Footnote1

O'Neill, M, Green, J and Mulroy, S in Child Prostitution ed D. Barrett. London, The Childrens Society

"Prostitution is commonly defined as an activity where sexual acts are exchanged for payment. However, payment need not be a monetary transaction but could be a place to stay, something to eat, drugs or other payment in kind. Indeed a young person's introduction to prostitution may occur when he or she is without basic necessities and continuing involvement results when these needs are not met from elsewhere. Research has shown that for many children and young people on street, prostitution is a survival activity sometimes used in addition to theft and begging"(Lee and O'Brien 1995:4)

Introduction

We three are all women who are working or have worked in a professional capacity with women and young people involved in prostitution. Judith is a qualified youth and community worker currently working in Leicester as a Health promotion officer for sexual health and young people. Sue is also a qualified youth and community worker currently running an outreach project funded and managed by the local Health Authority. This outreach project addresses the needs of female sex workers. Maggie is a sociologist and a researcher involved in developing links between academic research, policy oriented practice and community activism through her participatory action research with female prostitutes and young people involved in prostitution.

We have worked together on a number of projects during the past six years. Judith was involved with Maggie in the development of the Nottingham Multi-Agency forum on prostitution whilst researching and writing It's No Game. Footnote2 Maggie was at that time working at Nottingham Trent University developing action research on routes into prostitution from local authority care. Sue and Maggie are currently collaborating on a pilot study examining possibilities for multi-agency approaches to prostitution. The intention is to facilitate a holistic/multi-agency approach to service provision for women and young people involved in the local sex industry. We have brought our specific knowledge and experiences together (two youth workers turned health workers and a researcher all committed to multi-agency approaches) to address the important issue of youth service provision to young people involved or at risk of becoming involved in prostitution

Our experiences and the available literature tells us that there is a huge gap in service provision to young women and to young men involved in prostitution (Barrett 1995). To this end we focus upon the necessary inter-relation between youth service provision and health service provision in developing a model which pivots around the central involvement of the youth service in responding to the needs of young people involved or at risk of involvement in prostitution. Our central point and recommendation in this chapter is to present the youth service as the integral lynch pin, or a central pivot in the development of multi-agency working and multi-agency outcomes with and for young people working in prostitution. In our professional capacities we have all worked mostly with young women, but we are, of course, also concerned with young men involved in prostitution. In the next section we build up a picture of our model. We specifically address the inter-relationship of the youth service and the health service in meeting the needs of these young people. To begin with we articulate the statutory frameworks that inform both the work of the youth service and the work of the health service within the context of the current socio-legal situation. We then move on to delineate our recommendations along multi-agency lines.

The context of the current situation

The removal of benefits for 16 and 17 year olds, the introduction of lower benefit rates for under 25 year olds, the introduction of the housing act in March 1989 and changes to arrangement for hostel payments towards the end of 1989 had the overall impact of impoverishing further many already impoverished and vulnerable young people. Add to this reduced youth training, low wages, lack of affordable housing and the introduction of the Community Charge in April 1990 it is hardly surprising that front line workers across the country noticed an increase in the numbers of young people selling sex in order to survive (Green, J 1992:9). For Green (1992) practitioners exposed a clear link between the social, economic and personal experiences of young women and homelessness. However, at this time many services addressing young peoples' housing needs were directed at young men. In many areas emergency accommodation for young women and specifically young women with children was rare if at all available. In 1991 Shelter identified that there were far fewer hostel places for women than men, nationally there were nine times as many places available for men as women (Dibblin,J 1991). Dibblin states "Young women are among the most hidden and unrecognised of all homeless people...their level of invisibility is matched only by their suffering"(1991:9).

Since the publication of 'It's no game' (1992) we have experienced the introduction of the Child Support Agency. The CSA has been criticised for: targeting working class families with already limited financial resources; penalising or threatening women with a reduction or withdrawal of their benefits if they refuse to name the father of their children; and for 'forcing' women to remain in contact with violent partners/fathers. We have also witnessed the introduction of age related housing benefits, with reductions to single young people under 25 years of age and a general driving down of benefits including: restricted housing benefit for private tenants; the total withdrawal of benefits from most people seeking asylum; and the payment of housing benefit in arrears for all claimants except council tenants. In addition the governments proposed Housing Bill will:

* limit the help available to people accepted as homeless by local authorities;

* promote the use of expensive private renting for homeless households, the majority of whom have low incomes;

*make it easier for private landlords to evict people in rent arrears.

Shelter, the national campaign for homeless people, expects these Social Security cuts to result in increased homelessness and warns of a substantial rise in the number of people sleeping rough. Footnote3 A recent research report Discounted Voices: Homeless Young Black and Minority Ethnic People in England (1996) has found that young single homeless people from black and ethnic minority communities are increasing disproportionately to their numbers in the total population. There is evidence that this is linked directly to racial disadvantage particularly differentials in unemployment rates, overcrowding and housing conditions, breakdown in personal relations within the households, sexual violence, leaving care, leaving penal institutions and eviction from insecure accommodation. Furthermore, white homeless young people are more likely than their black counterparts to use statutory and voluntary agencies for assistance (Childright 1996:5). Both the government and the media have further stigmatised young single mothers in particular with ongoing debates about their status as 'deserving' or 'undeserving' poor and in suggesting a link between teenage pregnancies and housing allocation.

A decade ago we rarely saw young homeless people begging or sleeping on the streets, but this is now a commonplace sight in many towns and cities, even rural areas. We avert our eyes in order to avoid thinking about how this could be, rather than acknowledging that some of the nations most vulnerable children and young people are being denied access to basic civil rights and services which should be addressing their needs as a matter of paramount importance. Many of these children and young people become caught up in sub cultures and milieu's including the criminal justice system which first institutionalises and then perpetuates the process of criminalisation. We are consequently witnessing an increase in the numbers of girls and young women, including single parents, entering prostitution as a viable alternative to low or no wages and/or having escaped broken families, residential care, homelessness, sexual, physical, emotional abuse or neglect. Many of these girls and young women enter prostitution with all the associated risks, in order to survive as they are denied an adequate income by any other means.

The statutory frameworks that inform the specialisms of the Youth Service and Health Service.

The youth service operates without an explicit statutory base, though is shaped by the 1944 Education Act as revised by the 1988-92 education legislation, and is part of local authority statutory responsibility for further education. In practice it operates through partnerships between local authority provision and a whole raft of voluntary and independent groups and organisations, some of which operate at local, regional, national and international levels. Whilst the philosophy of the service is essentially educational not all local youth services are based within education departments. As a consequence of local government re-organisations and education cuts many youth services now find themselves within for example, Leisure, Community Education, or Play and Recreation departments. For example, Nottinghamshire youth service is based within the Leisure Services department; Wolverhampton within Community, Play and Youth; and Northampton within Education and Libraries. Ironically, it is often some of these services that have best survived the devastating cuts which have virtually destroyed some other education based services whilst maintaining their educational philosophy.

The lack of a statutory base has both advantages and disadvantages. It has offered youth workers a level of flexibility within their work and often enabled them to find their own niche, to look for gaps in local services and to set up provision to meet young peoples needs where not already provided. It enables workers to lobby, campaign and act as advocates on behalf of young people. Youth work then is largely concerned with the informal social education of young people, both within group work situations and on an individual basis. The work can take place in a variety of young people's settings including: lunch time clubs in schools and community colleges; local authority youth clubs and centres; through outreach work; detached work projects; girls and young womens groups; sports and leisure centres; young people's drop in centres; young people's advice, information and counselling services; or through mobile projects as well as the most instantly and publicly recognised organisations such as the Scouts, the Guides, arts based organisations or sports or activity centred groups.

An important recent development is the way in which youth work skills and approaches are increasingly being recognised and adopted by other organisations and service providers. Youth workers are increasingly being employed by Health Authorities and Trusts, for example in order to develop creative ways of working with young people. Outreach and detached work, drop in, information and advice centres and peer education approaches are all now in use in order to move towards attaining the Health of the Nation targets (1992) in relation to sexual health and young people. Many Health services now work closely with the Youth Service in order to reach marginalised or disenfranchised young people who may not access existing services. The Health Service has looked to the Youth Service for models of good practice in terms of philosophies of empowerment and appropriate methods of working with young people. Where adequate funding exists particularly innovative work has developed. Problematically, the removal of ring fenced HIV/AIDS moneys for treatment and cure, but most importantly, in relation to prevention (March 1997), could have a major impact upon both existing work and future developments.

Whilst this list of settings in which youth work takes place is not exhaustive, the commonality is that young people become involved in the youth service on a voluntary basis. In other words they 'vote with their feet'. They participate because they want to rather than being required to, as with, for example formal education, social or probation services. There is no imposed obligation placed upon them which makes the relationship that exists between youth workers and young people unique. Consider the following mission statement later known as the statement of purpose for the youth service as agreed at the second of a series of ministerial conferences administered by the NYA in 1989; 1990 and 1992.

The purpose of youth work is to redress all forms of inequality and to ensure equality of opportunity for all young people to fulfil their potential as empowered individuals and members of groups and communities; and to help young people avoid being harmed, or harming themselves or others during the transition from childhood to adulthood(1990:4).

The statement of purpose sought to offer "young people opportunities which are educative, participative, empowering and designed to promote equality of opportunity"(1990:4). These three ministerial conferences fuelled debate and discussion which highlighted how local partnerships of voluntary, statutory and independent organisations can and do meet the needs of young people in specific localities. The conferences also served to raise the profile of the youth service and increased the potential to work collaboratively with relevant agencies by demonstrating the breadth and diversity of the youth service. However, the statement of purpose was not endorsed by the government nor was funding attached to it. The implications of this are particularly significant at a time of local government re-organisation when newly seated unitaries of hybrid authorities need to 'own' the statement. Meanwhile, a standing conference of principal youth officers has evolved who currently meet three times per year. This group are beginning to identify good practice and to campaign for, and define adequate local provision.

The key youth work approaches therefore, now being adopted and fostered by health promotion and education workers are: a holistic approach; peer education; harm minimisation or risk reduction; preventative work and crisis intervention. We will elaborate a little on each of these in turn.

A holistic approach means working with the 'whole' person. In working with young people this means recognising that the issues which affect young people's lives are not separate but necessarily inter-related. For example work with young prostitutes funded through HIV/AIDS moneys acknowledges that HIV needs to be addressed within the overall context of the young persons life. Sue's approach, for example, is to counsel and refer young women to services best suited to meet the individuals differing needs as well as offering a drop in facility off street and outreach sessions on street. Trust, confidentiality and a genuine concern and care for the person as a whole are crucial to the dynamics operating between Sue and the young women/women she works with. A holistic approach within this context, is best met through effective inter-agency collaboration.

Peer education is about training and supporting young people to work with other young people around specific issues of concern to them. It is a working process which aims to develop knowledge, attitudes and skills as well as confidence and self esteem in order for young people to make informed choices about their own behaviour, beliefs and attitudes. There are an increasing number of peer education projects established between health and youth services. The Leicestershire Health Promotion Centre, for example, employs Health Promotion Officers who are trained youth workers to co-ordinate, deliver and support a peer education project which trains young women to become sexual health peer educators and then work with young people in informal and formal settings. Further to this, the Leicester based WHIP project (women's health in prostitution) based within Leicestershire AIDS Support Services (LASS) has recently employed a trained youth worker to develop peer education approaches to working with prostitutes, with young women at risk, particularly within the student population and with young women leaving care.

Harm minimisation or risk reduction recognises that children and young people are sometimes pressurised to take risks and that there are many factors which influence risk taking behaviours beyond lack of knowledge. This approach, therefore takes practical action to reduce risks, by, for example distributing condoms/femidoms to young people in order to encourage safer sexual practices. It also involves the provision of appropriate advice and information which is relevant and acknowledges the lifestyles of the young people it aims to reach.

Preventative work involves adopting and implementing strategies for prevention and attempts to discourage young people from taking risks. Youth workers and other educationalists act as role models/mentors and, given trusting relationships, they are in positions to address some of the issues associated with risk taking and the negative outcomes.

Crisis intervention involves intervening when young people are in crisis situations, such as living on the street, homeless, involved in drug cultures, street cultures and/or prostitution. Offering a holistic approach to young people in this situation is critical in order to try and address the most pressing immediate needs (which might be for shelter or for food) whilst also working through peer education and/or harm minimisation to prevent further harm, getting the young person to a place of safety, and/or try and develop relationships of trust and confidentiality so that welfare and health needs can be met and the skills, confidence, or resources developed to lead a different lifestyle.

The future of the youth service and the way it might be delivered may be unclear, particularly with regard to Local Government re-organisations, but, there is no doubt that youth workers are in a unique position to support young women and other young people both on and off street. What is evident is that youth workers can often do this more effectively than other workers from the statutory services, particularly as some of these young people will already have had negative experiences of statutory services. Youth workers, working alongside other key services are in an excellent position to befriend, support and advocate on behalf of the young people involved. It is absolutely vital however, that this work is underpinned by policies, inter-agency collaboration and training. The contexts of young peoples lives have changed dramatically in the course of the last fifteen years. Those in positions of power who have influence over funding, resources and training issues, such as policy makers, managers and trainers must address this and recognise the importance youth workers can play in working with oppressed, exploited, criminalised and increasingly marginalised young people.

Unlike the youth service the health service operates within a statutory framework. This includes attempts to reduce the incidence of HIV and STDS in various 'target groups' via a harm minimisation process. This harm minimisation process aims to inform, educate, empower and enable the 'target group' to make informed decisions and choices about their sexual health needs. Within this framework health workers aim to address and develop the health promotion ideology, attitude, knowledge and skills of 'clients' in order to reduce the incidence of HIV and STDS. It is therefore implicit within this framework to approach health from an holistic perspective.

Recent Guidelines from the Department of Health (1996) indicate that female sex workers are no longer seen as in need of direct HIV resource funding.These guidelines can be interpreted on a local level depending upon the needs identified in local HIV strategies. In Sue's locality the guidelines have been interpreted to allow for developing the project to address the needs of 'sex workers' and 'vulnerable young women'. However, in areas where the guidelines are not interpreted to enable the continuation and development of such services, a reduced amount of direct health work being carried out from outreach services may ensue. Given this scenario, we need to look at how direct work with women and young people involved in prostitution can continue if funding is being re-allocated away from such projects.

The Health Service has demonstrated a commitment to working with marginalised young women by commissioning projects around the country which are similar and carry the same philosophies of empowerment to the project in which Sue is involved. They acknowledge that the health of women is an issue that needs to be maintained within an holistic approach to the overall well being of women. In order to continue to build upon existing good practice and develop new initiatives Youth Services and Health Services must engage in meaningful dialogue and continue to develop and build on current links in order to meet the needs of vulnerable and marginalised groups of young people who are becoming more and more alienated from mainstream society.

The project which Sue is involved in, has for example, been informed by identifying models of good practice from other sex worker projects in Britain Footnote4. Due to the innovative method of Outreach HIV prevention work commissioned by her Health Authority she is able to bring a youth work ideology into her current practice. The project aims to enable prostitutes to make autonomous decisions about their well being, by building trusting working relationships with the women concerned. This is grass roots, street level based work. In taking this approach the project is then able to work with women in addressing what they define as their priority needs.

The main issues that arise from the experiences of outreach projects working with women and young people working as prostitutes are summarised as follows.

i) Insitu HIV & Sexual Health Work is not generally a major priority

for female sex workers who often have many other multiple needs

that take priority such as homelessness, violence, drugs and

poverty.

ii) Research does indicate that most prostitutes are at risk of HIV via

incidents of sexual violence or abuse rather than unprotected sex in

negotiated interactions. (see Kinnel 1992)

iii) The criminalisation of female prostitutes tend to perpetuate the need

for young women to continue working in order to pay fines.

iv) Policing policies and actions can hinder developing relationships between

Outreach workers and sex workers if the role of the outreach worker is not understood. High profile policing also puts the female sex worker at more risk of violence as it can serve to displace women from areas they know well to areas they are unsure of and/or push sex work further underground.

v) Options or exit strategies are often not apparent to women/young people or to

outreach workers. Linking into local youth service provision could enable a more pro-active approach by the outreach worker to support and facilitate options for women/young people wishing to exit prostitution.

vi) The further problem facing workers in undertaking street based work with prostitutes is the need for female sex workers to engage their clients on the street. This means problems around the timing of contact with each woman and of resident backlashes towards prostitutes which are becoming more common. High profile policing also makes developing contact with women on street difficult. Pimps may also reject the outreach workers interventions on behalf of the women.

These difficulties all inhibit the development of deeper working relationship with young people involved in prostitution. Youth services operating in tandem with health outreach and supported by police services, probation services, magistrates, mental health services, educationalists, social services could provide a model which offers a better organised network of services to young people; the possibility of developing options or exit routes for these young people; and developing preventative work with young people in local authority care.

Certainly, for the work Sue is involved in, multi-agency work has broadened the range of insitu service provision such as needle exchange and drug harm minimisation programmes, as the project works closely with the local Drug Link project. Personal safety is highlighted both on and off street by distributing resources such as mug sheets (information sheets stating dates, time and identifying features of 'dodgy punters', clients who have robbed/raped/attacked or assaulted women working on or off street), personal attack alarms and information on keeping safe.

A continuity of relationships has evolved between the outreach workers and female prostitutes. Many of the women have not been previously able to maintain long term relationships due to the nature of their lives. For instance if they are from backgrounds of being in local authority care many will have experienced several moves between residential units and/or foster families. Also, if they are pimped, then they are often moved around between differing locales. Developing trusting relationships, relationships which bring continuity are a vital aspect of work with alienated, marginalised and criminalised young people.

In Sue's area the Health Authority has taken the lead in addressing some of the needs of young female sex workers. But, a single agency cannot alone address and develop interventionary strategies to meet the overall needs of women and young people involved in prostitution, needs which stem from specific psycho -social and socio-economic factors. A multi-agency response led by a youth service perspective or a joint health and youth service led approach based on the principles of a youth service perspective is, we feel, a positive and purposeful way forward to deal with the complexities involved in working with children, young people and women involved in prostitution.

Multi-agency possibilities and the role of the youth service

The Youth Service should be integral in liaising, raising awareness and meeting training needs/development needs of a range of statutory organisations. In turn, it is important for these services to adopt a youth work philosophy or youth work approaches to their own interventions and work with young people. An important dimension we raise here is the vital link between youth work and health work. In many locations the Health Service has begun to adapt and adopt youth service approaches in an attempt to address attitude/knowledge and behaviour of young people. Health authorities have looked to the Youth Service for models of good practice in terms of philosophies of empowerment and approaches such as peer education, outreach and detached work.

Possibilities for multi-agency working which pivot around the work and approach of the Youth Service need to be contextualised within the current legal, social and political frameworks in order to better understand the necessary inter-relation between agencies working with and for young people. In turn this will enable us to develop more informed responses and interventionary strategies around child/juvenile prostitution along multi-agency lines. The Games Up: redefining child prostitution (1995) gives us a thorough and comprehensive account of child prostitution in current British society focusing specifically upon street prostitution. The report focused upon children and young people under the age of eighteen years. The report concerned itself largely with the legal framework of child protection and prostitution and also the legal responses to child prostitution(1995:4).

"Current responses to child prostitution are ineffective in that they do not help young people to leave the streets or change the circumstances that led them into, and keep them in, prostitution. These responses rarely aid the police in investigating adults who exploit and abuse; nor generally speaking do they protect young people. Most current responses do not treat child prostitution as exploitation. The response of treating children and young people as offenders encourages pimps, clients, the media, the public - and young people themselves - to view them as such"(Lee and O'Brien 1995:48).

The report developed from extensive literature review and interviews with young people themselves and also those working in the area including magistrates, probation officers, police, social workers, youth workers, health workers and representatives from the Crown Prosecution Service. Part 11 of the report deals with the legal framework and includes an overview of the 1989 Children Act; the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; the European Framework focusing upon the Council of Europe and the European Forum for Child Welfare. It examines criminal legislation focusing upon both the young person and the client and the criminal justice system including the Police, arrest, prosecution, sentencing and pathways through the criminal justice system for young people involved in prostitution.

The report concludes that there is a legal framework in place for responding to the needs of children and young people involved in prostitution. The Children Act "provides for the development of services to young people in need and many young people involved in prostitution will have a series of needs that are not being met"(1995:21). Further to this, the Act also provides "for interagency work on child protection and emergency intervention when the welfare of the child is at risk"(p21).

There is extensive legislation already in place that is used against young people involved in prostitution, for example Section 32 of the 1956 Sexual Offences Act, Section 1 of the 1959 Street Offences Act and Section 12 of the 1956 Sexual Offences Act. There is also "a range of punitive measures that can be taken against clients, pimps and other people who may be directly or indirectly involved. This could include hoteliers, club owners and landlords...and, if used effectively, could remove the financial incentive for some of those involved in the sexual exploitation of children and young people"(p30). In addition to the Acts named above, these potential measures include the Indecency with Children Act 1960, the Sexual Offences Act 1985, the Sexual Offences Act 1967, and the Local Government Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1982.

However, despite the availability of the legislative framework in law and the admirable and desperately needed recommendations from the UN and Europe, in British law children can on the one hand be protected from sexual exploitation and abuse and on the other hand, as the report indicates, children as young as ten can be "prosecuted for offences relating to that abuse"(p31). This revolves (as for women involved in prostitution) around a notion of deserving of intervention or undeserving of intervention. Lee and O'Brien state that in "criminalising young people, the police-informed by a perception of which young people are 'innocent' and deserving of protection and which are not-are simply emphasising one section of legislation over another"(p31). This, they maintain, can lead to a situation where the children of a man known to use child prostitutes would be the subject of investigation whereas the children he uses as prostitutes are not. The report concludes that more emphasis must be placed upon the welfare of young people under the auspices of the Children Act and less use be made of the criminal justice system. It is simply inappropriate to deal with children and young people involved in prostitution within the criminal justice system, which is the current situation in Britain.

Rather, we should be working towards the recommendations made by the UN, by the Council of Europe and the European Forum on Child Welfare within the context of operationalising the Children Act. Certainly, the UK sections of the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE) agreed that there should be special recognition of children in the Treaties of the European Union arguing that the "development of children's rights requires the foundation of a European treaty base"(Watt 1996:12). Watt argues, and we agree, that " a new and unequivocal children's rights Article to the Treaties, giving the Commission power to issue Directives, rather than Recommendations, would accomplish this important step"(p13). Realistically, Watt acknowledges that simply getting Children's rights onto the European agenda is a small victory and one step further to full recognition.

The development of a youth service perspective which brings together health services and welfare services in multi-agency strategies and initiatives to address both prevention of involvement in prostitution and responses to involvement in prostitution geared to the emotional, physical and cultural needs of our most vulnerable children and young people is urgently needed. Politically, the years of Conservative government have been instrumental in rolling back state welfare services, at the same time as implementing a strong central controlling state which looks down on the poor and marginalised, thus re-instating an ethos of individualism which focuses the 'blame' on the backs of the poor and marginalised. For Galbraith (1992) this has in part developed in the U.S and Britain what he calls the "culture of contentment".

"In what is the accepted and, indeed, only acceptable view, the underclass is deemed the source of its own succor and well-being; in the extreme view, it requires the spur of its own poverty; and it will be damaged by social assistance and support"(1992:40).

This deeply embedded ideological position which demonstrates the myth of democratic government on the one hand and a strong central controlling state on the other must be resisted and changed if we are to develop child centred approaches to the needs of young people existing at the sharp end of poverty, violence, exploitation and misery. Such children and young people have been denied 'childhoods' living on streets as runaways, throwaways, or "outlaws" (Nicholson 1981), involved or not involved in prostitution, leaving Care without the necessary skills and continuity of care, without the benefit of loving relationships with carers which serve to help develop self worth, self confidence, self esteem.

"The evidence clearly points to a prevalence of disruption and discord in the early lives of young people involved in prostitution. It shows sexual abuse, neglect, school problems, unemployment and running away are particularly associated with prostitution"(Lee and O'Brien 1995:12)

Barbara Gibson (1995) states that most of the young men she has worked with have lacked most of the basic needs children require as defined by the NSPCC; "love, trust, respect, physical care, attention and praise"(p154) Footnote5 Unhappy childhoods, deprived, neglected, and mistreated, they lack self confidence and self worth. These experiences are reflected in our own work with young women and young men involved in selling sex. These common experiences also run through the lives of the young people present in the work of Nicholsen (1981), McMullen (1987), Sereny (1984), West and de Villiers (1992), Ennew (1993), Gibson (1995) and Lee and O'Brien (1995).

Listening to young people reveals the significance of a range of factors and experiences: the effect of pre-care familial experiences; routes into care; peer group pressure and the 'culture of care'; male violence and peer abuse; the feelings expressed by young people of abandonment, hopelessness and the need to 'belong'; experiences of doing crime and doing prostitution (O'Neill 1996).

Angela.

"Care needs changing a lot- a lot...and people in homes have been abused that much they just turn to work..out on the street..when I first started working I said "oh well, I might as well go out and get paid for working rather than getting abused by someone"..that's when I first started working..then I fell into a trap with a bloke..and I only got out of that last year....that's how the kids turn out..they've had a rough life and they get put in care..and they have a rough life..they are going to come out and still be the same as when they first went in..or worse"(O'Neill, Goode and Hopkins 1995:15).

Alice

"I have been abused and all that stuff..I have never had parents who actually cared, never had like lots of money to give me..and like presents given to me..do you know what I mean..when I was two I went into care..I nearly died because I was so abused..I stayed in hospital for a year....when I was fifteen I went into this..independent flats with staff there..its not like a secure unit..you can go out and do what you want..but you see I didn't like it..I didn't want to go there but I was made to go there..I was attacked there..not actually attacked..but you know..like raped..I got that..that happened to me..another resident he got 2 years..he comes out this year..I had to go through all that..I had to go to hospital and all that stuff..I had to have tests..But I didn't have to go to court because he admitted it..they said 'did you know what he was doing?'..he admitted doing it......I wasn't very happy..That time is when I wasn't sure who I was..know what I mean..I felt like I wanted to be dead..do you know what I mean..There was nothing there..Do you understand?"(O'Neill 1996:11-12)

Pat

"..when I was seventeen and I used to work on the beat..I was pregnant with my little boy..and I got in this car and he took me everywhere and he told me 'get in the back'..and he started pulling my hair..and I just burst into tears and told him I was pregnant...it was my idea to go out..we didn't think I could claim until eighteen..because I was so young..we didn't think I could get benefit at all" (Mulroy and O'Neill, 1996 forthcoming)

Pat was put into voluntary care at age twelve following the fact that she had been sexually abused by an elderly man who lived nearby. Psychiatric help and 'unruly' behaviour together with the fact that her Mum and step-dad couldn't "cope" with her combined to facilitate her entry into local authority care. Pat began to work on street to make money for herself and her boyfriend on leaving care at sixteen, they weren't aware that she could claim money from the Department of Social Security. Alice entered local authority care as a toddler, she had been sexually abused by her Father, she was hospitalised for a long time as the abuse was so severe. When interviewed she was living independently and attending college but felt very deeply lack of self confidence and self doubt. She describes herself as 'surviving'. Angela entered local authority care at the age of two. "I have been all over-I have been adopted-that broke down-when I was nine-I have been in different foster carers-they wanted me to be someone different-they said 'I wish we had you when you were different without these problems'...I have been in four kids homes and 13 foster homes"(O'Neill, Goode and Hopkins 1995:15).

By working in multi-agency ways with committed individuals from the various agencies all working both with and for young people, we can together explore, foster and develop change which is gender aware and focuses upon sexuality; racial, sexual and social identity; the inter-relation of education, welfare and health needs; the whole spectrum of incivilities that young children and young people face including intimidation, harassment and lack of care to physical, sexual and emotional violence. The list includes lack of support when leaving care and lack of support in the community, lack of continuity of care; and the relationships with courts, police, remand institutions and secure accommodation. We need to develop work which better understands children and young peoples experiences and acts upon that understanding. We can aim to achieve this by developing action research projects, by analysing the available literature, by listening to practitioners in grass roots projects working with children and young people and then by developing policy oriented practice in collaboration with young people and with the statutory and voluntary agencies working with and for them.

It is vital that we listen to young people and together develop social knowledge as social critique which is then used in a purposeful way to develop policy oriented practice - social policy initiatives to improve the lived experiences of our children. It may appear a banal truism, but, our children are our future.

Summary and Recommendations

Responding to young peoples needs should be our priority. We can find out what their needs are by talking to them, by talking to experienced or appropriate youth workers, educationalists and health workers delivering front line services to children and young people involved in prostitution. A multi-agency response to young peoples needs must mobilise to change the current socio-legal situation so that protection, harm minimisation and the welfare of the children and young people is absolutely paramount.

We have illustrated that the mechanisms are already in place, we simply need to make sure our actions and training of workers involved in the criminal justice process operationalise the recommendations presented by Lee and O'Brien(1995) through the introduction of directives not recommendations. Indeed, a national organisation that makes recommendations for young people and children would be a welcome addition.

Certainly, more effective targeting of paedophiles is vital. Young people and children involved in prostitution must not be criminalised or seen as 'deserving' victims. They are children and young people who suffer at the hands of men who desire, fantasise and buy sex with children - paedophiles. Ask yourselves how the recent tragic death of Daniel, from the east end of London (murdered by two paedophiles), would have been interpreted and dealt with by the media and the criminal justice system had he been working as a child prostitute. The youngest boy Maggie has talked to who was 'working' was nine at the time but involved in 'the scene' from eight years of age.

Participatory action research to develop effective interventionary strategies is needed. Multi-agency working groups could form the foundations for support and also the mechanisms for implementing the recommendations of participatory action research. This is research which includes the young people at all stages in the process, progress outcomes and actions following such research.

The training of staff/workers in both statutory and voluntary organisations working with children and young people is a priority. The youth service provides an admirable role model for other organisations and agencies in that it is rooted in experiential learning, models of systematic supervision and in peer support and development.

The bottom line is that resources and commitment are needed to develop and foster multi - agency working from a youth service perspective. Ring fenced funding is still possible in the current climate given an explicit commitment to address the issues as outlined, although we are aware that HIV ring fenced funding is going in March 1997. We cannot afford to simply turn over the page, walk away, or sigh in disbelief at the experiences and needs of these young people. They are our most vulnerable children. The way we choose to address and act on this issue is a marker of our humanism as a society, or our barbarism.

The common link between all three of us is a commitment to multi-agency working, a concern with and for young people involved in prostitution and a desperate need to involve ourselves in both the debate and policy oriented action by making recommendations on the basis of our own work and experiences with and for children and young people.

Notes

The names of the young people documented in this chapter are pseudonyms. The interviews were all carried out within research projects based upon the centrality of ethics, confidentiality and accountability in the process and progress of the research (see Lawrinson, S 1995 and Whittaker, D 1995) . Our thanks to David Phillips, youth worker development advisor at the National Youth Agency and Maureen Whiskin for very helpful comments on the first draft of this paper.

References

Barbaret, Barrett and O'Neill (1995) Report on Juvenile Prostitution in Europe, in European journal of social work

Barrett, D (1995) Child Prostitution Highlight No.135, National Children's Bureau, 8 Wakely Street, London, EC1V 7QE

Childright (1996) No 124 published by The Children's Legal Centre

Dibblin, J (1991) Wherever I Lay my Hat - Young Women and Homelessness Shelter-The National Campaign for Homeless People. ISBN 1 87076101

Ennew, J (1986) The Sexual Exploitation of Children Cambridge, Polity Press.

Gibson, B (1995) Male Order:life stories from boys who sell sex London, Cassell Press.

Green, J (1992) It's no game: responding to the needs of young women at risk or involved in prostitution Leicester, National Youth Agency. ISBN 0 86155 1443

Health of the Nations (1992) A Strategy for Health in England Goverment White Paper.

Kinnel H (1989) Prostitutes, their clients and risks of HIV infection in Birmingham Occasional paper, Dept of Public Health Medicine, Birmingham, B15 2TZ

Kinnel H (1991) SAFE: HIV Prevention Project Collection of unpublished papers.

Lawrinson S (1995) 'The ethical (mine)field of researching women sex workers'' Monograph in the series Critical Reflections on the Research Process University of Surrey

Lee and O'Brien (1995) The Game's Up: redefining child prostitution The Children's Society/

Nicholsen, A H (1981) Youth in Crisis: a study of adolescent and child prostitution California, Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, 1213 North Highland Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90038.

O'Neill, Goode and Hopkins (1995) Juvenile Prostitution - the experience of young women in residential care , Childright Feb No 113, Journal of The Children's Legal Centre

O'Neill (1996) Young People in Care: feminising theory/theorising sex Social Exclusion Research Monograph number 5, Housing and Community Research Unit, Staffordshire University.

Sereny, G (1984) The Invisible Children:child prostitution in America, Germany and Britain. London, Deutsch.

Watt, B (1996) 'A Place for Children in Europe' in Childright Feb, No 123, The Children's Legal Centre.

West D and de Villiers (1992) Male Prostitution Duckworth Press.

Whittaker, D (1995) Ethics and feelings: exploring issues raised in health services research with women sex workers MSc dissertation in Medical Sociology, Royal Holloway, University of London.

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Footnote1

Within this paper we use the broad term 'Youth Service' to describe the personal and social education of young people which takes place within the maintained sector; the traditional voluntary sector and the independent sector.

Footnote2

Judith researched and wrote 'It's no game' , published by the Youth Work Press whilst she was working as a youth work advisor at the National Youth Agency. Judith held this post between 1988-1994. This work developed from previous work undertaken by the National Youth Agency focusing specifically upon gaps in the provision of services to meet the needs of young women who were perceived at risk of becoming involved in prostitution. Funding was provided by The Worshipful Company of Weavers to address a youth service response to the needs of these vulnerable young women. In this text Judith examines links between homelessness and poverty, economic factors and prostitution.

Footnote3

see Shelter briefing 'How four new benefit rules will increase homelessness in 1996'.

Footnote4

For example the work of POW! (prostitute outreach workers based in Nottingham); WHIP (women's health in prostitution based in Leicester) the SAFE project based in Birmingham, one of the earliest and pioneering of projects in this country to identify and meet the needs of hundreds of women involved in prostitution.

Footnote5

Barbara Gibson worked for Streetwise Youth in London as a health consultant. Streetwise is a unique charity targeting and working exclusively with young, male, homeless street prostitutes (known as 'rent boys') and offers a holistic service.