Would legalising prostitution help sexually exploited children and young women?
As sexually exploited children and young people are found wherever there is a sex market, approaches that would expand the sex industry, such as legalisation, will increase the number of underage young women who are forced or drawn into selling sex. Research suggests that approximately 50% of women in prostitution began selling sex under the age of 18 years old. There are a range of precipitating factors including family disruption and/or breakdown, experiences of abuse, poor educational achievement, disenfranchisement from school, running away and homelessness and substance misuse (Melrose et al 1999, ONeill 2001, Pearce et al 2003). There are also known links between experiences of local authority care and routes into prostitution (Coy, 2007). These experiences render young women vulnerable to grooming by older men and being forced (pimped) into selling sex. Sometimes it also appears as if young women and girls are choosing to enter prostitution. The childrens charity Barnardos refer
