When drinking water, think of its source. – Chinese proverb
For the past two years on this day, I’ve published examinations of the myth that the average age at which a prostitute starts working is about 13. As I pointed out last year, the idea is farcical on its face:
If the “average age” of a given group of people is 13, that means that (roughly speaking) for every 14-year-old in the group there is a 12-year-old, for every 17-year-old a 9-year-old, etc. In other words, if the “average age at which a girl enters prostitution” were really 13, for every woman who started at 25 there would be someone who started at 1. Obviously, this isn’t exact; one 40-year-old could also be balanced by nine 10-year-olds, but I honestly don’t think even the trafficking fanatics believe that kind of age imbalance could possibly exist.
In that column, I calculated the average age of entry as actually about 25, and that was a very conservative figure; it might actually be higher. Even among underage prostitutes, the average age of entry is really about 16, so how in the world did anyone arrive at the ludicrous figure of 13 (which is sometimes even more idiotically claimed as the average age of prostitutes rather than the age at which we start)? I had thought the Estes & Weiner study was the original source, but as it turns out that is not the case; several readers told me it is attributed by Melissa Farley to three sources: a 1982 study of 200 San Francisco streetwalkers, “Victimization of Street Prostitutes” by M.H. Silbert and A.M. Pines; a 1985 study with an even more melodramatic name, “Children of the Night” by D. Kelly Weisberg; and something called “Oppression Disguised as Liberation” by Denise Gamache and Evelina Giobbe. The latter was not a research paper but rather an obscure, unpublished “discussion paper” for a domestic violence conference in 1990 (which specifically attributes the figure to “Children of the Night”). Furthermore, all of Weisberg’s data (such as it is) was obtained by averaging figures from two studies with different methodologies and methods of calculation (in other words, she compares apples to oranges); one of them is Silbert and Pines. This means Farley has engaged in duplicity right from the start by pretending her figures derive from three sources, when in fact there is only one. Some prohibitionists do appear to recognize this, because Silbert and Pines is the paper most often cited as the source of the “average age is 13” figure; interestingly, it also produced another popular bit of misinformation, the myth that 80% of prostitutes are coerced.
Since the article wasn’t readily available online I asked my correspondent Mary Setterholm (one of those who pointed out the Farley attributions) if she could locate it for me. Mary is a Divinity student at Harvard who has done considerable research for anti-trafficking groups (including Swanee Hunt’s “Demand Abolition”) and has consistently worked to convince them of the necessity for eschewing sensationalized figures, agency denial, anti-sex worker rhetoric and “end demand” nonsense; she is one of the most thorough, honest and tireless researchers I know. After Herculean effort she was able to track down the Gamache/Giobbe paper, but what she found in investigating Silbert and Pines was even more interesting: it contained no statement at all of a particular starting age! The closest was the phrase, “Almost all the juvenile prostitutes in the study (96%) were runaways before they began prostitution,” which says nothing about an “average age”. Mary was intrigued, so she kept digging; in the backend data she found several quotes from another Silbert and Pines article (published the same year) named “Entrance into Prostitution”:
…Average age at which subjects had (first) sexual intercourse with a boyfriend was a mean x = 13.5. Of these 34% felt coerced or forced, either emotionally (29%) or else physically (5%). Although 66% reported no coercion involved, many of their open-ended comments suggested pressure…The average age of starting prostitution was 16.1…On the average, subjects were working regularly as prostitutes when they were 16.9…The eight months difference between the average age of starting prostitution (16.1) and the average age of working regularly (16.9) indicates a somewhat reluctant entrance into street life…
What this means is that the ultimate source of the “13” myth actually lists the same average age at entry as most other studies of underage streetwalkers, about 16; the only mention of the number 13 was the figure for first intercourse with a boyfriend. Now, it’s possible that in their haste to find damning “evidence” some prohibitionists blurred the numbers together in their minds, but given Melissa Farley’s skill at massaging figures to suit her purposes that did not ring true to me. I also remembered this passage from Dr. Calum Bennachie’s complaint to the APA about Farley:
…Colleen Winn, who was briefly employed by Dr Melissa Farley while she was in New Zealand [wrote]…“I believe Melissa did state that Māori women were entering prostitution as young as 9 years old. Part of my position as researcher on this study was to help to collate data as I viewed all the questionnaires. I did not see these figures in the study at all. However, there were two women who stated that their first sexual experience was at age 9.” Question 13 of the questionnaire reads: “How old were you when you had your first sexual experience of any kind?”…page 3 of [Farley’s] research…states: “An adolescent…had been in prostitution since age of 9…” Clearly, the answer to question 13 was put across as though it were the answer to question 1…[which asked] “What age were you when you first started prostitution?”
In other words, Melissa Farley has been known to intentionally conflate first age of intercourse with age of entry into prostitution in other cases, so it is very likely she did exactly that when quoting from Silbert and Pines’ backdata. The “average age of 13” myth, repeated nigh-constantly by prohibitionists, “sex trafficking” fetishists and yellow journalists alike, is thus revealed as nothing more than a lie created through intentional (and tripled) misquotation of a methodologically-unsound 30-year-old study, perpetrated by a neofeminist working to advance her anti-sex agenda by any means necessary.
My impression from the 200+ papers I’ve gone over so far is that the average age of entry is probably in the early to mid twenties, assuming the outdoor/indoor split is something like 80/20. Street workers enter earlier, indoor workers later. Unfortunately, most studies narrow their samples to street workers recruited from drug rehab clinics or similar such contexts (which tends to generate much lower average entry age estimates)
I’m glad I found your blog. I am enjoying your writing. Thank you.
love the motto you chose… considering its source is fundamental to living a meaningful and fulfilled life in general.
I’m not at all a sex work researcher but, talking about the (young) age that people enter the profession, I’ve never come across studies that incorporate a quality which, I think, is quite relevant: “preparedness”.
Age in itself is a rather arbitrary criterion particularly during youth and adolescence; it’s established as a criterion mostly for legal reasons and to “structure” young life. There are no two people who would show at their 15th birthday the same level of life experience, of mental and emotional development. Too many innate variables, too many external variables. In terms of development and readiness, so-called under-aged people in some parts of the world seem better prepared to take on the responsibilities of an independent, mature, adult life than 25-year old college kids in the US or EU.
Same thing for entering prostitution. I got into it at 14 because I wanted it; I was quite aware that my mental unit was better prepared for it than my physical unit which had to experience and learn a lot of things by trial and error that my mind and emotions had already figured out.
From a good number of conversations with others throughout life (not really research, but anyway…) I know that I’m definitely one of MANY “pre-aged” adolescents in Western Europe who entered the profession prepared enough to absorb and handle the inevitable pleasant and shocking surprises during their noviciate. It’s a tough time in every sense, but that’s the life they choose. Legally, they are “under age”, but in reality they’ve reached the mental maturity this work requires. That sense of maturity is a crucial reason why they choose to enter it at that moment and not earlier. It’s like precocious young people who graduate from high school at 16 and move on to college. Why? Because they’re ready for it even though they’re “under age”.
Do studies incorporate this variable, “Preparedness” (mental, physical, emotional), in assessing how (young) adolescent prostitutes experience their work and more often than not feel themselves capable of being good and often proficient at it?
Adding to this. I was working, in non sex work jobs like store cashier by 13. I think my mentality was way different than most people my age. Also, like Frans, I had the benefit of a partially European upbringing, where were weren’t infantalized as much as US kids.
Also, my introduction to the sex business was rather gradual. I was on my own, did a bit of street work for survival (never had to try for that. Men approached me.) Then did stripping, modeling, porn and only then prostitution.
I must add that even with my under-age street adventures, I never really considered myself a prostitute then. It was just something I did for money to get by. Other young women did as well.
At that time, my image of a prostitute was so stereotypical. I imagined some tart in a mini-skirt, fishnets, and too much makeup. I was a skinny ginger, with glasses, and rarely wore makeup. The exact opposite. Even when invited to audition as a stripper, I thought the club manager was taking the piss. (Joking). I saw myself as way more math nerd than stripper.
So I’m wondering how self-image works into all this- Did the young women in the study really consider themselves prostitutes? It doesn’t match what I saw.
I was always kind of proud of the sex work I did and got paid for in various ways. I knew it was taboo and forbidden in my environment, but “it” was “sex” and not “paid sex”. At the time I also made regular money playing the pipe organ during Catholic church services. I never felt different about one or the other. I liked doing both (“liking” as in “pleasure”) and did my best to make the best out of both.
The term “prostitution” entered for me only after I graduated from high school, when escort work became my main source to fund college and general life. Simultaneously I kept making money with playing the organ for wedding and funeral services; a newspaper paid me for going to concerts and writing reviews, and I made money tutoring high school juniors and seniors. I thought of myself as a prostitute in many fields. If there was money to be made and I could do a good job while enjoying myself, I was happy to sell my services.
Ok, one other thing I could say-
These people claim their goal is to help kids avoid being drawn into prostitution. I’m totally in favor of that.
So why do their actions run in exactly the counter course to their goals?
Want to keep kids out of prostitution? Set up a no questions asked place where they can go, and stay. Don’t try to ship them back home. There’s a reason they feel the street is better than home. Listen to them if they want to talk. Make education, jobs available to them, also medical care.
The last thing you do is get the police involved. No run away kid wants anything to do with the cops, and as soon as you associate any outreach with them, you reduce your credibility. As a teen on my own, I remember well how one tried to avoid the cops at all cost. If you got caught, and were very, very lucky, you got shipped back home, or to a juvenile centre. If you weren’t so lucky, well… We all knew of things that had happened.
One last thing: I would love to know how “prepared” people felt or were when they entered the profession, particularly those like Comixchik who were “too young” by normal social standards. I’m grateful to anyone willing to share something about that.
Well, as I said I had been working, deal with adults on my own, making most of my own decisions for several years. I knew about the sex bit, although had only tried a little of it myself.
If you don’t mind me asking, what do you mean by ‘prepared’? I’m putting together a sex worker survey and am looking for additional questions worth asking. This sounds like an interesting angle.
“Prepared” means that the person who considers getting into sex work has taken time to consider and weigh the pros and cons from various angles, possibly consulted professionals with some or considerable experience, and made the conscious decision sufficiently informed to be able to make the best of it. I’m aware that this preparation must have different levels and approaches depending on the persons age, development, background, beliefs, intelligence, material urgency, and other such things. Sex work is certainly the kind of work most people won’t even seriously consider for all the obvious reasons, With most it doesn’t even come to their mind. It seems to me that anyone, whatever her or his age, who chooses it voluntarily must have some innate talent for it consciously of subconsciously. From interviewing for years several hundred potential escort candidates (first time sex workers) and working with dozens, I’m quite convinced that the level of personal “preparation” as indicated above is a good indication of a sex worker’s professionalism and future success. I should add that the age of these many dozens of “freshwomen” with whom I worked (in the Netherlands between 1996 and 2001) was between 18 en 39, with a majority aged “late twenties”. They represented the full social spectrum and formed a very lively, tough, smart, and intelligent ensemble. The sense of humor of all these women deserves to become proverbial. I find it very interesting that sex work, unlike any other profession, seems to know no social compartmentalization.
That’s a great point! Would it be OK if I tried to integrate that into the survey in the form of a few questions?
by all means! I would be very interested in seeing your survey when you have it ready.
Will do! Just send me a direct message via twitter (@WilsonKM2) with your email address and I’ll send you a draft copy once I’ve integrated that content (maybe tonight or tomorrow). Thanks!
began following you on twitter. can’t send you my email address until you follow me @fim2244
The short answer is no, they did not consider preparedness, readiness, emotional maturity, or anything else like that. To them, legal minor = child. They might as well be a roving pack of five-year-olds.
Well, in her mind, the two were the same.
You beat me to the punch. I think that in the minds of anti-sex neofeminists or Christians, there is no difference between consensual sex or rape. Sexual pleasure for them is inherently evil. I think that even the Christians who claim that God wants men and women to enjoy sex the right way don’t really believe it because after a lifetime of reinforcing the idea that “sex=evil” to keep themselves pure, they can’t turn off those attitudes once they are married. I think they genuinely believe that even married Christians need to beg forgiveness of God for enjoying sex while conceiving their children.
Certainly there are SOME Christians who feel that way, and I think it’s even an official part of some sects. But there are a lot of Christians, and a lot of varieties of Christianity. Not all of them believe that it is evil for husbands and wives to enjoy making love to each other.
@Laura;
HA! beat you to it. ;-p
What sad, totally closed-minded things to say. Also plain wrong. Please know there are: gay and bisexual Christians including fundamentalists. I’m a bisexual Protestant fundamentalist. From my research on this there’s 2 basically 2 categories of us: those that act on their attraction to the same sex and those who don’t. There’s Christian churches where they preach that’s it’s OK to act on your attraction to the same sex. There’s even a denomination specifically for gay/bisexual Pentecostals. Pentecostal is about as fundamentalist as you can get in the U.S. There’s also a Baptist denomination now specifically for gay/bisexual believers. On the statement about Christians who are married feeling bad about having sex for pregnancy: this contradicts the New Testament completely. There’s a Scripture in the Book of Hebrews that says the “marriage bed is holy” (I’m paraphrasing here, but that’s the gist of it). There’s also preachers who preach AGAINST this very common lie put out about us in blanket statements. Thank God for them! I’ve heard some of these sermons. There’s also polyamorous Christians (I’m 1 of those also). Also groups of Christians that don’t follow at least some of the teachings on sex (in and out of marriage) in the New Testament (an example is the group “Liberated Christians”). While I’m typing this there’s another thing I’ve wanted to say for a while on here: there’s now 2 basic definitions of Christian fundamentalists. I’m what’s called an “old” fundamentalist. It’s been said on here that if you’re any kind of fundamentalist Christian that automatically means you take all of the Bible as literal. WRONG. There’s also fundamentalists who take ONLY the teachings from the Bible on how to live literally and NOT the things like the 1st few chapters of the Book of Genesis. There’s a name for this type of fundamentalist but I don’t remember it for sure offhand. Fundamentalist doesn’t only mean this 1 thing anymore and hasn’t for years now. There’s also denominations within Christianity (including Protestant 1’s) that talk about evolution in their belief statements, creeds, etc. and don’t have any struggle with it. Unfortunately, there’s so much ###*** about us Christians out there (this is 1 of the reasons I started posting here) ESPECIALLY fundamentalists. Muslims also and this ###*** is pushed in the media constantly. You can’t know the full picture of the types of Christians with just a few news articles, etc. This also goes for the family/friends of murder victims. Unfortunately, I’ve seen for years people ASS-uming the worst about whole groups of these family/friends based on 1 news article or website that doesn’t show the FULL picture. Actually making efforts to INTERACT with Christians is a great way to get the FULL picture. It isn’t just whores this applies to. It applies to way too many groups, unfortunately.
Above post was to eddiejc1. To Sailor B: yes, you beat me to it…wink. But, you can see I expanded on what you said…wink. THANK YOU for speaking up. It’s needed badly, unfortunately. THANK YOU for being part of breaking the unfair blanket statements, etc., about Christians.
Sorry for the typos in my post…it’s early…smile.
See you later today, Baby.
And, please, break your post up into paragraphs. It makes it easier to read.
Semi-OT from Spiegel Online via google translate:
Actresses from porn films are happier than other women and psychologically at least as stable.
[…]
The researchers wanted to test whether it is a majority with porn actresses are so-called “Damaged Goods”. The term has many meanings and is always subject very negative: It refers to a person who is suffering due to traumatic experiences such as drug abuse or a mental disorder.
Critics of the porn industry write the actresses often such properties. The findings of the study provide no evidence in favor of the Damaged Goods hypothesis, Griffith and his colleagues write in the journal ” Journal of Sex Research . ”
[…]
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Fwissenschaft%2Fmensch%2Fpsychologie-pornodarstellerinnen-in-den-usa-sind-gluecklicher-a-869328.html
While the translation is somewhat rough it should be understandable.
A similar, but more dramatic reality is emerging in Japanese Adult Video (AV). There are far more aspiring actresses than there are positions available, despite the entry level wage declining to around 30,000 yen ($353) per day.
The author Atsuhiko Nakamura interviewed several women on their reasons:
“She said that she chose this path to live her own way. Further, this woman has no guilt in selling sex as the outcome in going from finance to AV involved no effective ‘change in occupation,’ so to speak.”
“She cast aside her registered nurse position to join the AV industry. She said she wanted a drastic change. Compared to the daily grind that involved substantial overtime work she is now enjoying life.”
Women today, however, are not showing reluctance in revealing employment in the biz. “To become an AV actress is considered a positive move,” says Nakamura. “These women have come of age in an environment plagued by recession, low salaries, and restructuring. In a tight job market, means of employment can vary greatly compared to a boyfriend. So these women are simply proud to be contributing to society.”
http://www.tokyoreporter.com/2012/06/07/av-actresses-porn-performances-not-mere-money-matters/
The prohibitionists are in trouble if they can’t convince people that sex workers are all forced or desperate; and if sex work regains the prestige it once had, then they are finished.
Amen.
They will be in trouble, but we won’t see the last of them. I predict they’ll drop their kind caring public face and adopt a more blatant moralist stance. We’ll see them petitioning for greater control over the internet, and other media and start to get even more hysterical over consensual sex. Think Reefer Madness.
Reefer Madness, I have been assured, is one of the every best movies to watch while you are totally baked. I suspect that the future Harlot Madness (or whatever it’s called) will become a popular flick in brothels across the land.
Porn actresses are no more “damaged goods” than accountants, or bankers.
Certainly, it’s a tough business, and that encourages the emotional upheaval and drug use, just as in Hollywood, right down the road. Or professional sports, or any field where a young person, without farther training, can make a good deal of money for a very short time.
The people who are damaged wash out fairly fast. Not all people who take drugs are incapable of performing their work. If that were true, Wall Street would have collapsed during the 1980’s.
Those who can make a career in the adult business are usually savvy, tough minded and smart.
Love the new avatar, comixchik!
Thanks. It’s from the comic series I’m working on, which will be up on the net this spring.
It does remind me of ‘Pepper Ann’, a morning kids show I used to watch when I were a lad.
This is the most thorough refutation on the subject I’ve seen.
…of course it’s also the only refutation I’ve seen, but still, I’m impressed as hell.
You would be amazed at how often that happens. When I was writing my dissertation, I frequently backtracked to original papers to make sure they said what people said they said. At least a quarter of the time they didn’t (although it was usually something similar). And that was just in astronomy where there aren’t laws, dollars and rescuer fantasies at work.
It’s possible this is an accident; that someone skimmed the paper and took 13. But, given past behavior, I would bet that this was deliberate. The question is: why didn’t Silbert and Pines speak up on this?
Because they’re morally retarded prohibitionists for whom the end justifies the means. And that’s also the answer to Gorbachev’s question below.
One wonders how Farley can continue to be quoted or can garner the tiniest smidgen of respect in her own field, given how thoroughly dishonest and deliberately misleading her work is.
[…] what people said they said. At least a quarter of the time, they didn’t. Maggie McNeill just dug up a 30-year-old bit of Mathematical Malpractice that’s been cited incorrectly in support of […]
The word “average” always rings alarm bells for me. What exactly is meant? The arithmetical mean, the median (middle value) or the mode (commonest value)?
It’s just possible — though unlikely — that the commonest age to enter the profession is 13, so it’s correct to say this is the “average”. But it’s at best misleading, and usually it’s dissembling.
It’s not remotely common; 13 is a distant statistical outlier. But it sure sounds good if you’re a prohibitionist because THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!111!1!!11!
Where did you get the “teen hookers” pick? They look cute. Worth saving up for.
Google image search; I believe it’s from a made-for-TV movie.
Ah. Then these teenagers were probably pushing thirty.
I’m sorry, but I think we’re splitting hairs here. I think underage girls having sex at 9 or 12 or 13 is INCREDIBLY significant and whether they call it force, fraud or coersion or not dies not really matter. You are pushing for rights 13 year olds should not have and should not have to think about.
And I think it’s fair to say there is a correlation.
Whom are you addressing, and to what are you replying? This column is not about the morality of underage sex; it’s about falsification of statistics and misrepresentation of sources.
As much I tend to be pro when it comes to youthful sexuality, even I think nine is a bit young to be doing the deed. Even thirteen. But “some girls are having intercourse at thirteen” is a lot different than “the average prostitute starts hooking at the age of thirteen.”
Does anybody has access to the Silbert and Pines papers?? I have thoroughly searched for them but they are not available anywhere.
Maybe it´s not a coincidence that Farley decided to cite such a difficult access source….
I’m sure it isn’t at all coincidental; they’re terribly biased and say something she can use, yet are hard to access so nobody can see where she distorted them.
[…] will often read that the average sex worker enters the trade at 13, a mathematical impossibility which appears to have originated as a misrepresentation of the average age of first noncommercial sexual contact (which could […]
Great article on the subject! I will cheer the day that the US finally sets aside its puritanical roots and really starts to create laws and regulations based on sound scientific research (I guess I will be waiting over several lifetimes?). Study after study has show that if you want to regulate and control anything, it must 1st be made legal in some capacity. If we want to protect young boys and girls under the age of 18 from pimps and traffickers, legalization and regulation in the same way that cities do stripper permits (I can only speak for Atlanta, GA as getting a permit to dance here involves ALOT of work and $500 for the license) is the way to go. Plus STOP ARRESTING THEM AND TREATING THE LIKE CRIMMINALS when it is discovered they were indeed forced into prostitution or trafficked!
Thank you for the article, because it speaks to my own personal observations about the profession: Most enter willingly and most are over the age of 21 upon entry. As long as those who have a vested (read: religious) interest in the continued promulgation of the “Entry at 13” rule, we will never make any legal or social progress surrounding prostitution and sex trafficking.
[…] few years ago, Craigslist shut down its erotic-services section after Melissa Farley lied to Congress about the average age of entry into prostitution being 13 and the Women’s Funding […]
[…] will often read that the average sex worker enters the trade at 13, a mathematical impossibility which appears to have originated as a misrepresentation of the average age of first noncommercial sexual contact (which could […]
[…] will often read that the average sex worker enters the trade at 13, a mathematical impossibility which appears to have originated as a misrepresentation of the average age of first noncommercial sexual contact (which could […]
[…] que entrar na prostituição antes dos 10 para esse dado ser válido. Esse achismo aparentemente se originou a partir de uma pesquisa em 1982 que disse que a idade média para relações íntimas não […]
I really must keep this post bookmarked. I’m so tired of seeing that age myth repeated so frequently.