Drug Use and Prostitution
Data on the number of prostitutes related to drug use is very
hard to compile. Most studies that have attempted to quantify prostitution and
drug use are from more than 20 years ago. Availability of drugs and more users
has skyrocked since then both within prostitution and non prostitution
populations. And while there is no data to prove it I bet the rate of drug use
for street hookers which is mostly what studies find after they have been
arrested is far higher than the private professional sexworker that you rarely
hear about unless its a big national story.
The Journal of Sex Research in 1998 article " Pathways to Prostitution: The
Chronology of Sexual and Drug Abuse Milestones." quoted am almost 30 years ago,
1979 study:
Although the association of prostitution with sexual and substance abuse in the
United States has long been noted (Goldstein, 1979), data on the chronology of
sexual and drug abuse milestones in the lives of prostitute women are
inconsistently reported and derived from convenience samples. Goldstein
estimated that 40% to 85% of prostitutes were drug users; in addition, he
reported that among higher class prostitute women, prostitution tended to
precede substance abuse, while in lower class prostitutes, the reverse tended to
be true (Goldstein, 1979).
Sexually Transmitted Diseases:Volume 26(2)February 1999pp 93-94:
Our own inquiries into the antecedents of prostitution (admittedly collected
from women) indicate that prostitution entry is likelier to be caused by
psychological than socioeconomic factors. In a representative, cross-sectional
study of prostitutes in Colorado Springs we empirically demonstrated that drug
abuse is pervasive and antecedent to prostitution,4 that drug abuse itself
implies psychological morbidity, and that drug abuse pervasiveness is the
etiologic cue that prostitution (at least for women in the developed world) is
likelier to be caused by characterological/psychological than socioeconomic
factors.5 Our sense is that persons who enter prostitution are generally a small
subset of substance abusers whose psychological characteristics (not yet
elucidated) permit them to engage in prostitution. Just as it is a small
minority of persons with histories of childhood sexual abuse who eventually
enter prostitution, so it is that only a minority of substance abusers,
including injection drug users,6 engage in prostitution to support their drug
habit.
References:
4. Potterat JJ, Rothenberg RB, Muth SQ, Darrow WW, Phillips-Plummer L. Pathways
to prostitution: the chronology of sexual and drug abuse milestones. J Sex Res
1998; 35:333-340.
5. Potterat JJ, Phillips L, Rothenberg RB, Darrow WW. On becoming a prostitute:
an exploratory case-comparison study. J Sex Res 1985; 21:329-335.
6. Lewis DK, Watters JK. Sexual risk behavior among heterosexual intravenous
drug users: ethnic and gender variation. AIDS 1991; 5:77-82
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Although high rates of drug use have been documented among prostitutes, the
relationship between drug use and prostitution is far from clear. Studies have
demonstrated higher rates of drug abuse among women with a history of
prostitution among female arrestees Source: Kuhns JB, Heide KM, Silverman I:
Substance use/misuse among female prostitutes and female arrestees.
International Journal of the Addictions 27:1283-1292, 1992[Medline]
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Pathways Into Prostitution Among Female Jail Detainees and Their Implications
for Mental Health Services
Psychiatr Serv 50:1606-1613, December 1999
Just more than half the sample (51.4 percent) met criteria for moderate or
severe cocaine or opiate abuse or dependence. The average age at the first
symptom was 22.8 years. Hispanics were significantly less likely to be diagnosed
as having heroin or cocaine abuse or dependence (35.3 percent) than were African
Americans (51.9 percent), whites (55.5 percent), and others (66.7 percent).
African Americans reported experiencing the first symptoms of substance abuse or
dependence at a slightly later age than others. Prevalence of drug abuse did not
vary by level of education, although high school dropouts had a somewhat younger
age of onset of drug abuse.
In summary, the bivariate analyses suggested that all three variables—sexual
abuse, having run away, and drug abuse—predicted entry into prostitution.