DeclinetoState
02-26-2008, 06:01 PM
By Jennifer Sullivan (mailto:jensullivan@seattletimes.com)
Seattle Times staff reporter
While her high-school classmates were chasing boys or hanging out at the mall, Stephanie walked "the track" along Aurora Avenue North, eagerly scanning the passing cars for her next customer.
The baby-faced Tacoma girl with a porcelain complexion and a glittery nose stud estimates that she was paid for more than 1,000 sex acts during the nine months she was a 15-year-old prostitute in North Seattle. Although she no longer works as a prostitute, Stephanie concedes she would still be on the streets if her boyfriend — who was also her pimp — hadn't been arrested and imprisoned.
Just weeks from her 17th birthday, Stephanie today struggles with the memories of her past. She's been diagnosed as bipolar. She's out of school, without a job and still infatuated with the man who she says began controlling her life when she was 14, beat her and made her walk the streets to prove her love. She readily concedes she could go back to prostitution despite the intervention of her family and police.
Though prostitution is a crime, Seattle police Sgt. Ryan Long says that Stephanie and the more than a dozen juvenile prostitutes they encounter each year also are victims — girls without direction, role models or self-respect who are preyed upon by men who take advantage of their often troubled pasts. Police, prosecutors and mental-health providers have offered many of these girls advice, a shoulder to cry on or a meal, but Long said there is little else they can do to help the girls leave the streets.
More (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004203738_childprostitution26m.html)
If we were to legalize prostitution (but only for adults 18 or older), would situations such as the above be avoided? Would they become worse (either in frequency or severity)? Or would there be little or no difference?
Seattle Times staff reporter
While her high-school classmates were chasing boys or hanging out at the mall, Stephanie walked "the track" along Aurora Avenue North, eagerly scanning the passing cars for her next customer.
The baby-faced Tacoma girl with a porcelain complexion and a glittery nose stud estimates that she was paid for more than 1,000 sex acts during the nine months she was a 15-year-old prostitute in North Seattle. Although she no longer works as a prostitute, Stephanie concedes she would still be on the streets if her boyfriend — who was also her pimp — hadn't been arrested and imprisoned.
Just weeks from her 17th birthday, Stephanie today struggles with the memories of her past. She's been diagnosed as bipolar. She's out of school, without a job and still infatuated with the man who she says began controlling her life when she was 14, beat her and made her walk the streets to prove her love. She readily concedes she could go back to prostitution despite the intervention of her family and police.
Though prostitution is a crime, Seattle police Sgt. Ryan Long says that Stephanie and the more than a dozen juvenile prostitutes they encounter each year also are victims — girls without direction, role models or self-respect who are preyed upon by men who take advantage of their often troubled pasts. Police, prosecutors and mental-health providers have offered many of these girls advice, a shoulder to cry on or a meal, but Long said there is little else they can do to help the girls leave the streets.
More (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004203738_childprostitution26m.html)
If we were to legalize prostitution (but only for adults 18 or older), would situations such as the above be avoided? Would they become worse (either in frequency or severity)? Or would there be little or no difference?