Early sexual experience and prostitution

The authors compared several aspects of early sexual experience found in two earlier studies of prostitutes with results of research on "normal" women. The prostitutes had in common many negative experiences not found or found less often in other populations of young women. These include incestuous and/or coerced sex, lack parental guidance, intercouse at a young age, and few or no meaningful relationships with males. These women had discovered that sex could lead to a kind of status, even though that status is negatively labeled by the wider culture. In a society that values women on the basis of their sexuality, a woman who views herself as "debased" may see prostitution as a viable alternative--perhaps the only alternative.