Pathways into Sexual Exploitation and Sex Work

The Experience of Victimhood and Agency

Jane Dodsworth

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781137431769
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book identifies risk and protective factors influencing routes into, through and out of sexual exploitation and sex work. It explores how the sense made of key childhood and adult experiences influences the ability to manage roles and identities and choices they feel empowered or forced to make.

1

Introduction

My Mum was involved in prostitution. I think it’s where I got the idea from. Me and my friend. It was like a dare. We made loads of money and the money looked good so we just carried on. … People think prostitution’s about drugs and pimps, but it’s about survival; some have pimps but some have kids to feed, bills to pay, they need money and a place to stay and food. The majority are there to survive.

(Natasha in Dodsworth 2000:1)

Natasha was a 15-year-old young woman on a Care Order living in foster care who had run away from her local authority to return to her mother when I became her social worker in the mid-1990s. Her ‘family business’ was sex work and she was being sexually exploited. However, like other young people identified in reports on child sexual exploitation in other areas of the UK (Berelowitz 2013, Coffey 2014, Jay 2014, Casey 2015), initially she did not see it as such.

Natasha saw selling sex as a way to survive, but felt that she was making choices and exercising agency about her involvement. Eventually, against considerable odds, Natasha managed to break away from selling sex. This led me to consider whether it is possible to identify key risk and protective factors influencing involvement in sexual exploitation and, for some, as adults in sex work.

This book sets out the key issues faced by children and young people at risk of, and involved in, sexual exploitation and adult women involved in sex work. It draws on a range of literature and key theoretical frameworks and uses a research study to illustrate the importance of the need for a comprehensive understanding of the issues faced by those involved in selling and swapping sex, both children and adults. The historical context of how those involved in selling sex have been perceived and treated has been an important part of shaping attitudes in the present day. The findings of recent inquiries in Rotherham and elsewhere (Coffey 2014, Jay 2014) indicate that we cannot afford to be complacent about our level of awareness of the issues. It is clear that, although there have been some positive moves forward in the treatment of the children and adults involved over the last two decades, there is still a long way to go. As this book will argue, much can be learnt from listening to the voices and expertise of those directly involved in selling sex and swapping sex.

Changing perceptions and definitions

Perceptions of sex work, of sexual exploitation and of childhood are socially constructed and therefore evolving. Shifting perceptions affect attitudes and responses to those involved, estimates of the extent of the problem and consequent service responses (Shaw and Butler 1998). Language and definitions are extremely important in terms of awareness and understanding of the issue and crucial in terms of determining thresholds for intervention (Jago and Pearce 2008). A definition developed by the National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People (www.nwgnetwork.org) has been adopted in government guidance:

Sexual exploitation of children and young people under 18 involves exploitative situations, contexts and relationships where young people (or third person or persons) receive ‘something’ (for example food, accommodation, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, affection, gifts, money) as a result of performing and/or another or others performing on them, sexual activities. Child sexual exploitation can occur through the use of technology without the child’s immediate recognition; for example being persuaded to post sexual images on the Internet/mobile phones without immediate payment or gain. In all cases, those exploiting the child/young person have power over them by virtue of their age, gender, intellect, physical strength and/or economic or other resources. Violence, coercion and intimidation are common, involvement in exploitative relationships being characterised in the main by the child or young person’s limited availability of choice resulting from their social economic and/or emotional vulnerability.

(DCSF 2009:9)

This is more holistic than previous definitions (DCSF 2000) and the lack of choice resulting from wider structural factors is made clearer. However, whether it has translated into effective nationwide service provision is an issue of ongoing debate.

Routes into sexual exploitation and sex work

A pattern of childhood histories of neglect, abandonment and abuse frequently emerges from the stories told by those involved in sex work (Pearce 2006a, 2013a). These are factors which are not insignificant in pushing individuals along what, to some young people, appears to be an almost preordained route towards involvement. Certain key ‘push/pull’ factors (Hayes and Trafford 1997) play a central role in increasing the likelihood of children and young people becoming involved in child sexual exploitation (Lee and O’Brien 1995, Barrett 1997, Pearce 2009).

‘Negative push’ factors include: physical and sexual abuse; poverty; neglect; family breakdown; bad experience of the care system; inadequate after-care services; homelessness, often as a consequence of running away; school exclusion; unemployment; and lack of benefit provision. Low levels of self-esteem and feelings of powerlessness exacerbate the ‘push’ factors and, combined with the need to survive, peer and perpetrator pressure, and substance misuse, contribute to the risk of a downward spiral into continued involvement. ‘Positive pull’ factors that contribute to initial and continued involvement include: excitement; freedom; independence; access to money; support from others involved; a muddled way of seeking affection and approval; and a sense of power and control which differs from previous abuse experiences.

It is important to recognise that involvement in selling sex is not a free or necessarily informed choice. Indeed, it is often described as a survival strategy in a situation in which there appears to be no other viable choice. ‘It’s more, a lot of the time, about money, not about wanting to do it. You do it because you have to; you have to do it to survive’ (Nic in Dodsworth 2000:46).

The debate on the question of what causes, or predicts, vulnerability to sexual exploitation is ongoing, although attention has, as Cusick (2002) notes, shifted away from individual pathology towards social and situational factors. A key issue is the meaning ascribed by young people who become involved to those social and situational factors, and whether and how resilience develops in managing early experiences, which may help make the pathway more navigable and a different destination more reachable.

The legislative and policy framework: Victimhood or agency?

Historically, those involved in selling sex, whether children or adults, have been defined as ‘sad’ or ‘bad’ (Self 2003) and ‘rescued’ or criminalised accordingly. The legislative and policy framework has enshrined this duality of purpose, weighted heavily on the side of criminalising, and, until recently, has done little to redress the contradictory dual standards operating both attitudinally and legislatively.

Researchers and practitioners have pointed increasingly to the contradictory legislative situation in Britain, whereby a child could be protected from sexual exploitation, on the one hand, and yet prosecuted for offences relating to that abuse, on the other (Barnardo’s 1998, Pearce 2009, Phoenix 2010). Legislative and policy changes have not moved this significantly further forward. The underpinning philosophy of recent changes still appears to be that of defining those involved as ‘bad’ and to be criminalised, or ‘sad’ and to be treated as victims, with little attention paid to the agency of the individual or the limits to the available choices for some young people and adults.

A counter argument to the definition of those involved in selling or swapping sex as victims is raised by Phoenix, who suggested that ‘the rhetoric of victimhood operates to render redundant discussions of young people’s agency and poverty, as well as what should be done about it’ (Phoenix 2002:363). This argument is one which is increasingly recognised and debated (Melrose 2010, Pearce 2010, Phoenix 2010, Dodsworth 2013, Melrose and Pearce 2013). However, most current preventative and support strategies, whilst acknowledging the existence, relevance and impact of the wider context in terms of issues of poverty and other major social and economic factors, concentrate largely on individual-level solutions.

Managing identity and selling sex: Attachment and resilience, pathways, critical moments and turning points

Many young people, in the face of the most extreme adversity and abuse, have not become involved in selling sex; others who have become involved have coped, survived and, on occasion, moved on to successfully exit sex work; whilst others have been unable to see an alternative to continued involvement as adults. The management of identity for these groups appears to be intrinsically bound up with their perception of the ‘sex worker identity’, which is seen by many, but crucially not all, as a ‘spoilt identity’ (Goffman 1963).

Part II of this book uses a research study of 24 women involved in selling sex to explore whether there are identifiable protective factors, including inner resources of intelligence or humour, which have nurtured a sense of self-worth enabling some people to survive and manage a sense of identity in situations where others cannot. The concepts of attachment (Bowlby 1969, 1973) and resilience (Rutter 1985, 1987, 1999, Fonagy et al. 1994, Sroufe 1997) are used as theoretical frameworks in making sense of the different developmental pathways of the 24 women interviewed.

Attachment theory is, as Howe (2001, 2011) notes, a theory of personality development in the context of close relationships, which suggests that children increase their chances of survival when they can mentally represent, via an internal working model, the way their interpersonal world appears to work, particularly in terms of what increases or reduces the protective responses of their caregivers. Children, including those who are neglected and abused, actively seek ways of adapting to their world rather than becoming victims of it. Taking a lifespan approach, it is possible to consider the continuities and discontinuities that affect attachment relationships from childhood through the pathway to adulthood (Howe et al. 1999).

It is the presence of multiple adverse circumstances which interact and reinforce each other that is liable to severely undermine an individual’s development and life chances (Rutter 1999). Rutter argues that our ability to deal effectively with life challenges is likely to be influenced by how we have dealt with stress and challenge in the past. The extent of environmental risk exposure is determined in part, he suggests, by societal circumstances, but above all is influenced by how people themselves behave.

The carrying forward of ill-effects into adult life is influenced by the negative chain reactions by which people’s behaviour increases the likelihood that they will have further negative experiences. To break negative chain reactions, there is a need for new experiences which provide a break from the past (Rutter 1999). The likelihood of a resilient outcome is increased if the young person owns their actions and/or accepts support from others.

In examining the concept of resilience and its interrelationship with vulnerability and coping mechanisms, Sroufe (1997) outlines the developmental pathways model. This model explains how the pathways a child may follow can take different routes: either a smooth ascent if things go well, or a zigzag or downward spiral if too much adversity is experienced. It is possible, at various stages, to encounter a turning point at which one may find oneself in an upward or downward spiral. There is a need, when considering outcomes, to take a lifespan perspective in relating the concept of resilience to the developmental pathways of individual children. It is important to consider the interaction between factors internal and external to the child, but also to recognise that the interaction takes place alongside the child’s maturation process (Schofield 2001).

In considering this model in relation to young people involved in selling sex, clearly the challenge of puberty, issues of sexual identity and sense of self also have an impact and are intrinsically interlinked with ecological factors and internal coping mechanisms. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model (1979), in which child development takes place through processes of complex interactions between a child and the people, values and culture in their immediate environment, is helpful in increasing awareness that the development and behaviour of individuals can only be fully understood in the context of the environment in which they live.

Positive views of self, it appears, grant the individual a degree of psychological resilience to be drawn on in facing adversity (Howe et al. 1999:30). This may, in part, provide an explanation for why it appears to be the case that some young people are ‘self-righting’ in their ability to adapt constructively to challenge in ceasing involvement in selling sex, or in surviving continued involvement, whereas others appear to flounder.

Although we may not be able to eliminate all of the negative factors in a child’s life, as Gilligan (2001) suggests, it may be possible to counteract or cushion the negative effects by inserting, or strengthening, countervailing protective factors. He further notes that there is evidence that cumulative positive factors work in the opposite direction to cumulative negative factors, in that they can have disproportionately positive effects, and that this suggests that even a small overall improvement in a child’s situation may lead to a virtuous, rather than vicious, spiral of change.

Natasha, the young woman whose, seemingly almost inevitable, involvement in selling sex led to my concern about this issue, exited and moved on to a life of studying, different friends and a boyfriend who is not coercing her into selling sex. If she has succeeded, what can be learnt from her experiences and those of other women which may help others in a similar position?

Having examined the literature on what is known about those involved in selling sex from a historical, legislative and theoretical perspective, this book will examine a study on women involved in selling sex. The qualitative, grounded theory study (Glaser and Strauss 1967) draws on the experiences and pathways of 24 women in the UK – women who have experience of selling sex, including those who have successfully exited, those who have chosen to remain involved and those who feel there is no alternative to continued involvement – to determine what their narratives indicate about the impact of risk and protective factors on who they feel they are, and the choices they feel forced, or empowered, to make.

The aim of the study was to hear the women’s stories and to explore in their retrospective accounts the meaning given by them to their experiences of childhood, adolescence, adulthood, parenting, relationships and coping strategies. Issues of resilience and vulnerability, ‘critical moments’, adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies, and the management of identity are also examined. Whether it is possible, from a psychosocial perspective, to identify key risk and protective factors, ‘critical moments’ and turning points influencing routes into, through and out of sex work is considered.

Concepts of attachment and resilience provide a model with which to consider the women’s narratives. Although they had very similar early background histories, they appear to take different pathways into, and in some cases out of, sex work. How a person’s sense of identity is managed appears to be intrinsically interlinked with the place of sex work in their life, and the balance achieved between inner and outer identities for each individual. How identities are managed, and in which way the balance of inner and outer identity factors determines outcomes for those who become involved in selling and swapping sex, is explored.

It is argued that which women are likely to be most vulnerable and which are most likely to manage life experiences is determined by the accumulation of risk factors in early childhood, the personal, familial and wider ecological resources available to individuals from childhood, and the meaning attached by women to early experiences of adversity. In identifying the impact of these key factors, it may be possible to consider how preventative intervention and support services can be made more meaningful and effective. It is important not to pathologise individuals, but to take a holistic, strengths-based, person-centred approach to policy and practice with all those involved, whatever their age.

Recurrent, and often polarised, themes of victimhood and agency are evident in the perception and treatment of both young people and adults involved in sex work. It is intrinsic to the nature of this activity that society and individuals hold contradictory perspectives, seeing those involved as ‘sad’ or ‘bad’, ‘victim’ or ‘criminal’, and that legal and moral responses are based on those perceptions.

There are inherent paradoxes in the polarisation of the victim/agency debate, particularly for those involved. If a lifespan perspective is taken, it is clear from the narratives of sex workers that it is a more complex picture, in which there is often a differing balance of agency and victimhood throughout their life pathways, from the impact of childhood experiences to the experiences, relationships and wider structural factors impacting on them as children and as adults.

The notion of agency in the context of sex work has different meanings and levels of appropriateness at different life stages. However, the situation is complex, and taking too polarised a position, in terms of only seeing those involved as victims, risks negating self-determination to such a degree that the voices of those involved are ignored or silenced in the debate about effective ways forward for children and young people involved in sexual exploitation and adults involved in sex work.

The women interviewed for the study outlined in Part II shared common childhood experiences in terms of risk factors encountered and accumulated. Age of entry is clearly a ‘critical moment’ on the pathways of those who become involved in selling sex and an important factor influencing outcome. However, what is also crucial in identifying who is likely to be the most vulnerable is the accumulation of risk factors in early childhood, or the personal and ecological resources, or lack of them, available to people to manage their perceived choices and sense of identity once involved.

Early damaging experiences, which may increase the likelihood of involvement, also affect the consequent ability to deal with...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction
• Part I: Pathways through Sex Work: Historical, Legislative and Theoretical Perspectives
• Part II: Pathways through Sex Work: Experiences of Victimhood and Agency
• Bibliography
• Author Index
• Subject Index