Juvenile Prostitution
Juvenile prostitutuion is not a new phenomenon but is an increasinly central component of the criminal justice system's fight against child sexual exploitation.
A number of impediments have hampered reasearch into juvenile prostitution. Crime reporting data often does not include the ages of juveniles involved in prostitution. Juvenile prostitution is potentially concentrated in certain parts of the country. Certain types of prostitution, such as adults offering young children in exchange for money, are treated as child sexual abuse cases rather than prostitution. The Internet's importance in facilitating juvenile prostitution is still emerging.
A second issue complicating this subject is the dual status of victim and offender that juvenile prostitutes often have in the criminal justice system. Inconsistencies in emphasis among law enforcement agencies leads to a lack of reliable data.
CCRC is conducting research to assess the nature and extent of the juvenile prostitution problem in the US and provide policy recommendations for governmental and law enforcement agencies. For more information, see the National Juvenile Prostitution Study (N-JPS).
