STAGES OF STREET PROSTITUTION

As we discuss the stages of street prostitution from entrance to exit, the central focus for women at each stage will be highlighted. Definitions of central focus depend on the conceptualization, and the context in which a phenomenon is described. In stage analysis, central focus is used to describe one's primary motivation given a particular social context. In relation to stages in prostitution, embedded in each stage are activities that consume a large portion of both concentrated time and emotional, physical, and social energies. As women progress through the stages of street prostitution, central points of concentrated efforts are apparent and are described in detail within each stage.

Each stage consists of activities that consume a large portion of concentrated energies. Throughout stages a pronounced set of particular burdens occur that include daily hassles, acute traumas, and chronic conditions. These burdens have a cumulative effect on the individual over time. As burdens increase and accumulate, emotional and physical well-being deteriorates. Protective strategies shift from problem-focused to largely emotion-focused. Accumulating burdens overwhelm the ability to function productively and women exit prostitution.

The "why" women exit, then, is determined largely by emotional and physical burdens and reactions to these burdens. The "when" women exit is highly individualistic and includes determinants of past experiences, individual adaptability, personal resiliency, social support, and past burdens. Therefore, women may exit at any time and at any stage during their prostitution career. My focus was not to determine when, on an individual basis, particular prostitutes will exit, it was to delineate all of the stages as identified and analyzed from the data.

Therefore, outlined is the central focus for each stage and the identification of burdens and protective strategies for dealing with these burdens. This lens becomes the organizational framework used to approach the progression of street prostitution.

ENTRANCE

Central focus

As women make the decision to enter street prostitution, two activities are necessary. First, they must allow themselves to be enticed by the prospects of substantial financial gain and, second, they must learn to shed any moral objections to prostitution work.

Exposure to prostitution consists of a period of enticement that leads to first sexual contact with a customer. While the actual event of sex-for-money marks official "entrance" into prostitution, the social process of entrance into street work begins with a period of enticement. The most pervasive form of enticement is financial gain. This is consistent with other studies (Reynolds, 1986; Rosenbaum, 1982; Scambler & Scambler, 1997). Women who are enticed by the financial prospects of street prostitution perceive themselves to have few alternatives as financially promising as prostitution.

Once the desire for the money is established, women commonly develop ways to rationalize any moral issues with sex work. The value of making money is supported over the value of chastity. Helping to solidify these rationalizations, are friends who introduce them into the life. They report meeting and socializing with those involved in the prostitution lifestyle. Interestingly, most women report living, playing, or working on the periphery of street prostitution for some time, with little specific knowledge of the game, prior to entrance. Therefore, the operations of the underground economy are not new to them. However, they have a very limited understanding of prostitution upon entrance.

Overcoming Barriers to Prostitution: Meeting Financial Needs

Upon entrance, prostitution was not viewed as an additional burden, but was perceived as a necessary response to alleviate the burdens women currently faced. Common burdens at entrance included those social institutional stressors that come from the effects of poverty, structural barriers, and family dysfunctions. It was initially a response to meet financial needs.

Women perceived barriers to financial opportunity in the formal economy which included for adult women, a lack of competitive training and a subsequent paycheck to sustain a family sufficiently. Carol illustrates this point; "I was poor and couldn't go get a nice job. I always dreamed of a way of getting out and having money."

Women who entered under legal age reported being too young to work legally in conventional employment settings and sought out alternative avenues for making money. Being underage Nina saw no other alternative; "I started out prostituting for the sake of just wanting to make more money. For being a kid and everything, I couldn't just go out and get a job because of my age." These findings are consistent with other literature (Reynolds, 1986; San Francisco Task Force, 1996).

Not only is prostitution work more financially promising than current situations, for most women who entered, the prospect of sexual encounters with men for financial gain was perceived as less stressful than an abusive, neglectful, or poverty-stricken home life. Eight women in the study came from homes where they were sexually abused. Seven women left alcoholic homes. Two came from a home that had a history of prostitution in the family, where older sisters modeled prostitution behavior. Two reported being physically abused. One came from a home where a parent suffered from a severe mental illness and was both neglectful and physically abusive. All of the women lived in poverty. Those who had come from abusive homes or were homeless as a result of prior abuse saw prostitution as a step up from their previous lifestyle. When Elsie turned 15 years old, prostitution seemed a viable option.

My step-dad was raping me and my mom was [neglecting] us...passing us off to her friends so she could go out. [They] never spent no time with us. I've been in and out of foster care my whole life. My real dad's in prison, so I had a lot of problems going on....I was curious. I seen other girls doing it and they were having some fun. And they had some things I didn't have and I asked them how they got it and they would tell me, "you know, just go out and do this and this and this, and you can make this much money. And go out and buy yourself this." And you know, they worked for pimps and stuff....And as long as they're making money, the pimp takes care of them. So I was like, "oh that sounds fun." At first I thought it was fun. (Elsie).

Prior to entrance, women suffered daily struggles associated with a life in poverty. Never having enough to buy cigarettes and barely enough to pay rent, women found a way to rationalize any moral objections to their proposed work and set out to make money.

This girl asked if I would walk with her because she was scared to walk by herself....She said, "you watch the type of car I get in and try to get a look at the license plate number in case I don't come back, you know, you'll know who I went with"....So she was gone like five minutes and back and had 50 dollars, and I said, "damn!." So I said, "well shit, I'm gonna try this." Cause I was broke, living on the streets wondering how I was gonna eat (Cara).

's husband died and she was left to pay the family bills. Her desire to keep her daughter in sports and other school activities outweighed any moral objections. As her financial needs mounted, she found prostitution a viable opportunity to maintain her family's current lifestyle.

I tried to keep the bills paid and everything. I had a job, but after Joe died, the money just didn't stretch. So my girlfriend use to go out of town a lot and she told me that we could do this together and so we started working conventions. We would travel out of town and we only worked weekends at first (Brenda).

Prostitution Types

Although descriptions above illustrate the common elements of entrance for street prostitutes in the study, stories particular to the types of prostitutes found working the streets crystallize the experience of street work. Upon entrance, Conventional Pimp Controlled Prostitutes were wooed by the promise of fine food, fine clothing, and trips out of town. They were told they were beautiful and that men wanted them. Men desired them so much, they would pay hard earned money for them. They were literally "sitting on a gold mine" (Massi). Although pimps never guaranteed emotional or financial security, the potential for success inspired women to test the waters in this new life. There was a sense of belonging that women longed for, a sense of exciting hope for the future, an adventure that would take them from their meager existence into a life with a fine-looking man who smelled good, looked good, was interested in them, and told them they had special skills, intelligence and beauty. In return for his attention, protection, and love, she would be required to work to bring their dream into a reality. "These prostitutes want what comes along with a pimp, his dress, his smell, his demeanor, his power, his prestige, his respect" (Owens & Shepard, 1998). He is looking for dedication. Together they would make him a lot of money and she would be taken care of forever. Trust in him, believe in him, and she will have the type of clothes, jewelry, and lifestyle she always wanted. Sonya describes the intoxicating attraction of a pimp's seduction. "For me, it was what we said. It was wanting to be loved and I liked the words that was said and the nice things that I got" (Sonya). Debbie adds:

He progressively led up to the fact that, that's what he wanted....We didn't just meet one day and he said, "this is what you're gonna do." I think they really feel like they have to gain your trust, win you over, before they can dump something like that on you (Debbie-Conventional prostitute).

There is an intensity, confidence, and charisma about him that is alluring and if he can catch a woman's eye, he will run his game. He is looking for a woman that has had some trouble in her life and has a void to fill. He assesses her weaknesses and limitations and fills the void. He becomes her father, lover, and friend.

Elsie, the product of repeated incest and a child of the foster care system, ran away and at age 15 became involved with a pimp in Toledo:

I was walking and a guy, a pimp just pulled up along side of me and told me I was what he was looking for and like he told me some different things. And...he asked what I'm interested in and if I'm interested...he'll take care of me and buy me this and whatever I want. And he doesn't ask for much so I did it (Elsie- Conventional Prostitute).

A pimp offers hope for the future and women see this as an opportunity to be financially successful. The time a prostitute is entering street work, the pimp is said to be "turning her out" or has "turned her out" on the streets to make a profit.

I knew this guy and he brought me here and turned me out on the streets. He was a pimp....The first day I was scared, but I got the money. And once I seen the money. I mean, my first day I made $600 in a three hour period (Sonya).

Renegade Prostitutes enter with the same hopes and dreams for financial success as Conventional Prostitutes, only they enter a free agent. At this stage they are filled with an excitement that motivates them to look toward working the streets as a means to gain financial security. Most Renegades are flatbacks (as are Conventional Prostitutes). A flatback is one who does an honest days work for an honest days dollar in the world of prostitution. They are interested in a fair and even exchange as agreed upon by themselves and the customer. Renegade prostitutes have prostitution savvy and have learned from the best, often getting close to pimps or other prostitutes in the know, to learn what they need to know and then disappearing to put what they've learned into practice.

Upon entrance, Renegades are interested in building a substantial client base as they intend to be successful entrepreneurs. They can be friendly with customers, smiling, chatting, and hoping to entice their customer into returning time and time again. They will allow a customer to touch their body and fondle them in efforts to make the experience a good one. Work then is effective and efficient. In the minds of these business women, a quick and happy customer is a returning customer. Michelle explains the lure of fast and easy money; "And I was hooked, I was hooked. Cause you know, it was a good time....So I don't know, that's that's how I started" (Michelle-Renegade).

Nina began prostituting at 14 years old. Unable to find a job because of her young age, Nina describes her first prostitution experience with a 70-year-old customer:

Well as quick as he got off, I was like damn, 20 dollars for this little bit of time! That's cool! You know it took like a couple minutes....damn, I could make hundreds! So I was just out there non-stop everyday (Nina- Renegade).

Renegades during this stage, receive some emotional fulfillment from working. A narcissistic belief that numerous other men find them sexually appealing along with the adventurous nature of the lifestyle itself catches their attention and they are smitten with the idea of making fast and easy money. While they don't report finding their dates particularly sexually appealing, they enjoy the aspect of being wanted. Some report that sex work filled a void of loneliness and a void of being loved

. ...after my husband died, prostituting made me feel desired. I don't know. Men would buy me flowers and they wanted me. For me it filled a void because my husband left a hole there and I wanted to be loved and needed and desired (Brenda).

Outlaws, on the other hand, enter for financial gain with no prospects of gaining any emotional benefit from turning dates. Upon entrance, Outlaws report a sense of considerable emotional disturbance having to be sexual with strangers. It is upsetting to them and their only hope is to complete the act, get the money, and buy what they need to survive. If anything, Outlaws are seduced by the prospect of making a life with a boyfriend who may also make his living as a hustler. These women perceive blocked opportunities in other areas of work, and find street prostitution to be their only alternative. Prostitution is most often a last ditch effort to prevent homelessness and in many instances may be akin to what researchers have termed "survival sex."

Outlaws typically don't have repeat customers. They are not interested in building a client base. They are interested in getting the maximum amount of money from a customer in one encounter as they possibly can.

A lot of girls do it for $20.00, and I've done it for $20 too, don't get me wrong. But to me, if they got 20, they got 30. And to me that's just three minutes. If you're not done in three minutes, "oh well, you want some more, you give me some more money." That's how I am. "And no, you can't touch me. If you touch me, you have to pay extra." So all in all, if you want a decent blow job from me, you gotta pay 80 bucks....Those guys hated me.....I never got no repeat customers, never (Carol-Outlaw).

Once women enter prostitution, they are required to modify their persona in order to meet their individual and social needs in conjunction with the demands of the prostitution industry. This is described in the next section.

SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT

Central Focus

Social Adjustment is the time when women are adapting to their new environment. Key elements of this stage include intense street learning that focuses on problem solving and the prevention of negative events through the use of protective strategies. In this stage, the rewarding aspects of prostitution are prominent and women focus on the benefits of the lifestyle.

After entering prostitution women learn the lifestyle and how to play the game. During this stage, the importance of being a quick study in this field is necessary. For some, this is their first work experience. However new to the game, women involved reported feeling a sense of financial security as they are able to create and sustain a steady income. More important, money is a source of power and women feel they are able to have some input in their financial lives. Even women involved with a pimp believe their contribution makes a significant difference between success and failure in the lives of the pimp and themselves. Because of the financial means to support themselves, women believe in their ability to control and influence activities in their lives in a way that they had not been able to before. Because of this, they report a sense of accomplishment and mastery over their world. It may be described as a sense of coherence, of connecting or being engaged with the world in a way that only having money can bring. It is empowering. It is in this sense that the lifestyle is valued and enjoyed.

Prostitution life is fast paced. More than ever, there is a fascination for life and while in prostitution, women surpass merely surviving. There is always something to do, whether it is working or spending the money just made. Before prostitution, women were surviving as daily efforts were focused on meeting daily needs. The life pace was slow and vacillated between waiting for a welfare check, watching daytime soaps, gathering with neighbors to socialize, struggling to pay monthly bills and keep utilities on, keep food in the refrigerator and maintain a place to live. For women who began working as an under aged minor, the psychological pressure of attempting to keep the peace in a conflict-filled family, to stabilize a transient family, or be taken care of by neglectful or perhaps abusive adults were problems too powerful for an adolescent to solve. Being able to take care of themselves through prostitution activities or partnering with a pimp appeared to at least be attainable.

The lifestyle can be socially fulfilling and psychologically addicting. Women report sharing their money with friends and family, sometimes treating loved ones to new clothes, dinner, movies, or a night out. Having established new relationships, women report being in bars more often, socializing with others and the self fulfillment that comes from buying your own drinks or occasionally treating friends.

Even though there is a focus on the benefits of the lifestyle, because of the stigma attached to work in street prostitution, women feel forced to lead two lives. This societal stigmatization does not allow for women to integrate life or even to consider themselves part-time prostitutes. It instead encourages a double life, one that dictates that the prostitution related part of their life remain separate and hidden. "Prostitution for women is not considered merely a temporal activity as it is for men who are clients, but rather a heavily stigmatized social status which in most societies remains fixed regardless of a change in behavior" (Pheterson, 1990 p. 399). Cara describes an example of this separation in the common practice of developing of a street name. "My street name was Ann or Red. I went by Red a lot because of my hair."

The lifestyle requires one to incorporate new habits and new ways of thinking. Not only have women found a way to silence those moral restraints, but now they begin to learn the value of exploitation. It becomes an issue of ignorance which justifies exploitation. "Find a fool, bump his head" (Massi) is the saying on the street. The argument follows that if one is ignorant enough to be taken, then I am justified in doing so. This philosophy is not only exclusively for customers, it is universal and can happen to the less street wise individual:

There use to be the country [bar] down there, that's where all the square white people went. There was this square white girl...and I, when I ran into this guy going into the...bar, I came back and I told her. Because she had a car, a Sierra, I said, "well let's go out here." I talked her into doing it with the guy and while she was doing it with him, I took his wallet and left. Left them both, ha ha ha (Carol).

The rule on the street is, "don't hate the player, hate the game" (Massi). With that sentiment, women are taught to take it in stride and learn from their mistakes. For some women this lesson has been felt personally as they have been the victims of exploitation themselves.

Oh, she tricked me. The game out here is like, "you give me a girl and I'll give you this," you know what I'm saying? So she said, "hey Nina, I want you to meet this guy, you know, he's really crazy and cool and everything. He'll take you to these real slick places" and all this other blasé, blasé. I'm like "well cool," you know. He pulls up in this gold Cadillac, you know, and we're getting in. I'm sittin in the back, you know, they up front talking all under their breath and stuff you know, talking to each other. And the next thing you know he's reaching and handing her something and she jumps out. And he says, "jump up front sweety." You know, so I jump up front. I'm talkin to him and the next thing you know, I'm out here....she took and actually sold me to someone and I didn't know it. You know, I'm young in the game, and she sells me to this man for an 8-ball of crack cocaine. And you know...the next thing I know, I'm down on Broadway clockin $400 a day for him (Nina).

Protective Strategies and Meeting the Demands of Daily Hassles

Bearing more directly then on a woman's ability to remain productive in the game, it is imperative that she learns strategies to protect herself. Ignorance limits her ability to handle herself and take care of business. Thus, despite the positive aspects of working and producing money, the importance of learning protective strategies to minimize risks are paramount. It has been pointed out earlier that experiences with violence, HIV, drug abuse, and poor emotional and mental health are prominent risks. The stakes can be high as women learn to navigate their terrain. In order to be successful, women are challenged to learn the code of conduct regarding prostitution, dealing with customers, and dealing with the police and the justice system. Discussed below are those most prominent rules that make up the code of conduct.

Because of the unpredictability of the streets, this stage dictates that one learns the code of conduct, defined as a process of socialization or learning the roles and rules of behavior for the context of street prostitution. The code of conduct regarding street prostitution is necessary for this industry to remain a thriving market and for women to be successful.

One of the most salient issues is dealing with customers. When engaging a first time customer four tasks are necessary, setting the price and getting the money, providing the service, assessing for police, and using protective strategies to both evaluate customer intent and to keep oneself safe from physical harm. Each of these functions is important in increasing the probability that a successful sex for money exchange will occur. While settling on a price, getting the money, and providing the agreed upon service typically describes the sexual exchange encounter as commonly understood, assessing for the police and using protective strategies become key elements in women reporting successful completion of any arranged services. Street prostitutes attempt to identify and screen for undercover police. Explanations regarding successful procedures for accomplishing this task appear idiosyncratic with no common pattern. However, methods used to screen out potentially dangerous dates are uniform and common with every woman in the study adhering to most protective strategy practices before accepting a proposition from a potential customer. These strategies consist of ritualistic behavior and intuitive assessment of customers. This complex set of intuitive feelings coupled with protective behaviors are preformed quickly in order to minimize the likelihood for arrest. The most commonly used protective strategies for customer assessment were consistent across respondents and include the use of instinct, engaging in chatting and checking rituals, sharing information, relying on God, establishing date spots, dating regulars, and escape.

The most frequently identified protective strategy in the code of conduct is what prostitutes term the use of instinct to "read" dates. The term "date" is a commonly used term to describe a customer. "Reading" a date is synonymous with using one's instinct. Instinct involves a complex set of impulses that serves as a gut-level feeling designed to predict the dangerousness or lethality of a potential exchange encounter. It is the feeling aspect of protection. Street workers are very much in tune with these gut level instincts. With a highly audible gut level voice, they listen and read their dates very quickly.

At first I'd let them do most the talking. Feel them out. Find out where their head was, what they were interested in. If I felt that things weren't right, I wouldn't do nothing. I'd get out of the car (Monica).

If you don't feel right, don't get in the car. Always be alert. Listen to their conversation. Does it seem right? Watch their hands, they might try to go for a weapon....you can even check under the seats. I've done it a million times (Carol).

Women engage in chatting and checking behaviors before agreeing to a date. Respondents in this study were specific in their description of a need to look into the eyes of their dates, to assess body movements, and to look for appropriate or inappropriate gestures in one's assessment of a customer's intentions to inflict harm. While women are instinctually assessing the potential for customer-related violence, they simultaneously engage in talking to a potential customer to assess for appropriate and inappropriate voice inflection and intonation. They are interested in seeing if their conversation and bodily gestures are representative of someone who is genuinely interested in sex for money. At the time these psychological assessments are taking place, their eyes scanned the car, checking for weapons or signs that would reveal the potential for violence. Once they agree to a date, assessment doesn't stop there but continues throughout the date. A woman must be prepared to flee the scene at the first sign of trouble.

I had him park right there because it wasn't even a block away from where I was standing at. We backed in and I was looking at him and he went in the back seat to get a gun. I said, "what are you doing?", and he said, "I need protection." So I got out and ran. I mean, I hurried up and got out and ran (Carol).

Although using one's instinct is the primary and most essential protective strategy, it is not the only one used among workers. Street prostitutes place themselves at risk whenever they enter a stranger's car. The women interviewed described strategies used to prevent violence in secluded environments. Massi describes a well choreographed oral sex encounter:

I always sit in the car with my arm up on the back of the car seat and my fist close to his head just in case I have to punch him....I keep my left foot near the hump on the car floor so if I have to push off while I getting out of the car....I keep my right foot very near the door so if I have to make a fast escape I can open the door and step right out and I keep my right hand near the door handle so I can open the door real fast and jump out if I have to (Massi).

In the event that a prostitute went to a date's home, she may ask several questions before arriving to find out who lives in the house and if there are animals in the house. Once she arrived, she would most likely go through the house and make sure it was empty and relatively safe.

Some of the women interviewed stated they would share information about a potentially dangerous date with other prostitutes, perhaps sharing particular stories about the violence or threats they suffered at the hands of a particular customer. At minimum, most would describe the car and the customer alerting other workers not to become involved. However, because of the street value of exploitation, some women would opt not to tell others about dangerous customers. Wilma explains; "Girl, my sick mind would be thinking if one of them got caught up by one of them crazy tricks or serial killers, I'd be thinking 'less girls,' more customers for me."

Monica explains how some women would lead other women into potentially dangerous situations.

If you have a girl out there that doesn't like you, she's gonna lead you to the guy. And most girls are jealous of each other. They think somebody's making more money than the next one, so they try to lead you to them. You can't trust anybody in that life. There's so many people that are out to get as much as they can.

In addition to fine-tuning instinct and mastering particular behavioral skills, most women interviewed talked about their reliance on God to protect them, keep them safe, or get them out of dangerous situations. Some of the women prayed to God as a matter of course. Others described prayers while in potentially dangerous situations.

Women felt most safe when they established particular date spots, and did not negotiate on where to date. These date spots (their term) were carefully chosen in efforts to prevent violence, have an option for escape, or be in the vicinity where others could hear screaming. These designated sites are considered by weighing safety and risk. Simply put, "don't let them take you where you don't want to go....I had my dates park right there because it wasn't even a block away from where I was standing at" (Carol). Not only was staying in the vicinity safer, but going out of the area took more time and therefore should cost customers more money.

You don't go far, that way you don't take long to go and get back. You stay within the vicinity of where you gettin picked up at, which is three or four blocks of the area that you're in. If they want to go further, it costs more (Cara).

Dating regulars is viewed as potentially risk free in terms of violence. However, regulars are described as few and far between. The women explained that they didn't make enough from regulars to meet needs. Also, over time regulars became interested in negotiating for lower prices. Given the scarce supply and availability of regulars, women were forced to continue to solicit strangers.

In the event that any of the women became involved in a dangerous situation, they tried to escape. Escape attempts most often involved injury to self, leaving the attacker unharmed. Escape patterns have involved jumping through glass windows, jumping from moving vehicles, and running from date scenes.

Some women carried protective devices with them while working. Nina described carrying a razor blade for protection:

A girl I knew taught me how to flip a blade in my mouth....I could keep it in my mouth. She showed me how to give a blow job without cutting the man, without cutting myself, and when I need it, just flip my tongue and it was there to do my thing (Nina).

However, even with the possession and use of weapons, women typically fared worse than their assailants;

Me and my friend went to this motel room to date these two guys. My friend brought a gun because she was scared that something might happen .....My friend ended up getting killed with her own gun by one of the dates ....I was the only one that walked out of that hotel room that night that wasn't shot. She shot both the customers before one of them got a hold to the gun and shot her (Brenda).

Despite the sometimes deadly outcomes attached to this type of work, the protective strategies above may be described as active problem-focused activities directed toward direct intervention and purposeful action and are developed to protect women from physical harm. In the absence of conventional protections of society, these strategies may be considered necessary ways then of dealing with the daily hassles of prostitution and to decrease the risk of violence. They are necessary responses to an otherwise unprotected and unregulated activity and women worked hard to apply these strategies when working. The belief that these strategies are somewhat effective is key to continued work in prostitution. Protective strategies then are specific acts that address potentially dangerous situations and at this stage are not associated with apathy or learned helplessness.

Women also practice strategies to protect them emotionally. Those most common emotion-focused responses at this stage are denial and dissociation.

Through the use of denial as a strategic emotional tool, women minimized the dangers of street prostitution. At this stage, women believe in their ability to control an event and depend heavily on what they learned in terms of protecting themselves. It is interesting to note, that in their perception, men were not in control. It was the women who governed what actually occurred during a customer-prostitute exchange. However, women find out much later that what they believed was only an illusion of control and that men could abuse and assault them in any event they desired to inflict harm.

During the act of prostitution, dissociation assumed a functional purpose as women learned to dissociate where they were from the sexual act they were performing. When dissociation is described in psychological terms, it is described as:

....The psyche's normal reaction to a traumatic experience....If withdrawal is not possible, then a part of the self must be withdrawn, and for this to happen the otherwise integrated ego must split into fragments to dissociate ....It allows life to go on by dividing up the unbearable experience and distributing it to different compartments of the mind and body. This means that the normally unified elements of consciousness (i.e., cognitive awareness, affect, sensation, imagery) are not allowed to integrate. Experience itself becomes discontinuous. Mental image may be split from affect, or both affect and image may be dissociated from conscious knowledge (Kalsched, 1996 p.13).

Since childhood trauma and dissociation have been inextricably linked, it is reasonable to assume that women who use dissociation may have had practice in childhood. The use of dissociation as a protective strategy may not be new, but may be related to a history of childhood emotional traumas. Whatever the case, dissociation serves as a functional tool of work that maintains emotional distancing between the customer and the sex worker.

In terms of protection from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, women reported using various protective strategies all which involved condom use. Among the largest barriers that confronted women in terms of disease risk, included money to buy condoms and getting men to wear them. One woman reported using the plastic cellophane cover from a cigarette pack when she ran out of money and needed to turn a date. However most women could and did supply condoms for their dates. The biggest obstacle then was getting some men to wear them. The solution? To avoid asking them and simply slipping the condom on the man without his knowledge. Women were very creative in ways to accomplish this task. Some women would hold condoms in the side of their cheek while talking and negotiating for the date. She may slip it on him during oral sex and slide it off with her hand, him never being the wiser. Intercourse required even more skill.

There's plenty of ways to get a condom on a man and they don't know nothin about it. And even if you're having sex. If you're having foreplay before you have sex. It's very easy. While a man is sucking on your breasts or whatever, you could be stroking him and slippin on a rubber. And don't give him time to get up or whatever, to climb on top of you. You just roll em over....You don't want to get beat up. You don't want them to take the money back....But if your slick about it, you have the tissue next to you, so when the man is ready. Let's say he thinks he ejaculated inside you, you tell him "oh wait a minute, let me get this tissue so it don't run down the crack of my butt." And you put the tissue down there and when he's gettin off, you take the rubber off, you know you hold it and let him slide out, and the rubber comes right off of it. Cause the rubber stays inside you. If you hold the ring part of a man, and he's coming out of you and your holding that ring, that condom aint going nowhere, it stays right there, he's the only thing moving, you know....And then you wipe yourself and pull it out in the tissue.....There are so many ways. I aint lying, so many different ways (Cara).

For men that agree to wear a condom, some women may choose to place a condom containing nonoxynol-9 on and another condom on top that is flavored so they can give oral sex and still have the protection of the nonoxynol-9 at work for them.

Like there's a kiss-of-mint condoms for blowjobs, but they got a powdery, it's like puttin on one of them gloves from the doctors office and you get that powder all over your hand. Well the rubbers that you use for blowjobs have powder on them. And they're very dry, they catch your teeth and I mean, you could easily poke a hole in em. So you double up if you want to, you know. You put a laytex condom on first and then you put the kiss- a-mint condom on cause then the lubricated rubber will slide up and down on him to where the powder one doesn't (Cara).

After hours of discussion in my interviews with women, it soon became obvious that what public health professionals had termed "the barrier method" had a much larger meaning to women in prostitution, other than protection from HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, and pregnancy. For women in the study, condoms were used to inhibit emotional intimacy and to separate from customers using several emotional and physical strategies. Physically of course, the condom is used to prevent genital contact. Prostitutes reported typically using condoms with customers. However, with lovers prostitutes reported not using a condom. Emotionally, the barrier method meant the difference between dissociation and being emotionally present. With lovers, women reported being emotionally present.

...when you're doing it like 3,4,5,7, times a night, you kinda just go somewhere else...you know, you're mind aint there. I mean it's happening to you physically...and I'm not saying I have two personalities or something like that, but you kinda just like...the same way with incest... your body's there, but your mind is in Hawaii somewhere, or your mind is at Walt Disney World buying T-shirts. You know...but with someone you love and care about you're there physically, mentally, emotionally, all that. So it's different (Debbie, 1998).

Being someone's pimp however did not automatically mean one did not use a condom. Some pimp-prostitute relationships still required the use of a condom. In some cases very little or no sexual relationship was involved. For some, occasional fellatio was involved. For special women, the pimp reserved access to her vagina for himself and this woman was only required to use her mouth and hands with customers. In these cases a condom wasn't used.

Another form of separation common among this study group was separation by racial division. By in large, both black and white women commercially dated white men and emotionally dated black men. This is not to say that there was never a merging or blurring of this division, but this was the most common scenario. Massi has created a clear separation in her mind. "When I see a white man, I see a trick....I could never like a white man seriously" (Massi).

At this stage it appeared that daily hassles were the most common source of pressure. Those most common daily hassles, in particular, included police interactions, efforts to anticipate and prevent violence, general stigmatization and societal hypocrisy.

Police interactions involve detainment and arrest along with the daily conscious efforts to prevent arrest. Arrest avoidance involved questioning customers in efforts to detect police. Although there was little consensus in this area, one woman reportedly would ask to see a customer's genitalia before proceeding with a date. The idiosyncratic means women used to detect police and avoid arrest was ineffective, as several women described being involved in an undercover sting at some point during their career.

Whereas the first experience with arrest may be quite traumatic, repeated arrest appeared to be more of a hassle:

...he said, "how much for a blow job?," and I told him 30 dollars. And he said, "how much for a half and half," and I said, "50." And I said, "if you don't have any condoms then we have to go to the store." He said, "no problem, I'll take you anywhere you wanna go." So we went down Huron Street. He took me up Chestnut...and cut over to Summit Street. He turned off of Summit onto Cherry, and that's when I knew I was going to jail. I said, "alright, I know I'm busted." He said, "what do you mean?" And I said, "dates don't come down here by the court house, by the jail where all the police are sittin. So, I know I'm going to jail" (Cara).

Since prostitution is not a priority crime requiring stiff sentences and strong enforcement, arrest typically served to detain and temporarily interrupt prostitution activities. Women are at risk of getting robbed by a crack-addicted prostitute or someone in the vicinity needing money and knowing she has just completed a date. This can be a source of daily pressure as women must be aware of their surroundings while exiting a customer's car.

Well you can get robbed just as much as anybody, especially if they know you're working the streets. Like they can see you getting out of a car and come knock you upside the back of your head and take the money....one day this one bitch come up in my face and thought well, "you got some money?" And I said, "naw, I aint got no money." "Well you just got out of that tricks car. I know you got some money cause I dated him before. He's a 50 dollar trick."....She tried to get in my face....She was gonna take my money out of my pockets. She got close enough and I punched her in her face and laid her out. She left me alone. Never fucked with me again (Cara).

The stigmatization from a society that ignores conditions and denies opportunity to acceptable employment and degrades work in the sex industry creates internal turmoil for a woman who knows she must work in order to survive. It's the daily hassle that comes from the perception of being between a rock and a hard place. Elaine explained; "I am ashamed of being a prostitute. I hate it but I'm not ashamed of getting the money for my kids, because I knew it was going to my kids" (Elaine).

Finally, there are daily hassles from societal hypocrisy in action. Women experience gender discrimination in arrest rates. Despite the lack of discrimination in the letter of the law between those who buy sex and those who sell sex, according to James (1976), two customers are arrested for every eight prostitutes. In addition, women see the contradiction between word and deed for those that fall on the moral right side of the law. Renee discussed her companion who worked in the field of corrections. "I was dating a probation officer and smoking drugs with him" (Renee). Dot accommodated some members of a local church. "I've seen people from church as dates, which is really bad" (Dot). Drug counselors were another source of walking contradiction for one of these women.

I have had some drug counselors as dates a few times, which don't make no sense cause if you're a drug counselor, then you're contributing to the problem by giving a prostitute money to go buy drugs. That just doesn't make sense (Maureen).

While these women understand and respect the value of having individual morals and ethics, they do not respect those societal keepers of morality. Police are another source of concern. The women speak from experience, as not only have they dated those most respected citizens in the community, ten of the twenty-one women interviewed discussed dating police officers during their careers.

Prostitution Types

Aside from common experiences of all these women involved in prostitution, daily hassles, specific to Conventional Pimp Controlled Prostitutes, are apparent. Conventional Prostitutes are often pressured by quotas.

Different pimps have different rules. I mean some of 'em set quotas with the girls. You have to make a certain amount of money before you can go home....When I started, I was bringing $1000 a day. But then that [pimp] didn't last long. But then this one I've been with for five years he, I mean at first it was like that, but then it wasn't because I mean he wasn't involved in drugs so I mean I was bringing him maybe $600-700 a night (Sonya).

For those not placed on a quota system, there is competition from other women in the pimp's family of prostitutes to bring in enough money in order to earn the respect of the pimp. His success as a pimp is dependent on fueling two emotions in a woman, love and fear. By giving his attention to more than one woman at the same time, he heightens both the love each woman desires all to herself, and fear that she may lose any part of it. These situations create jealousy and promote rivalry for his affections.

..."[I'm] just tired of it...cheating on me and you know, the wife-in-law stuff, where you know the wife-in-law is another girl that is working for him....I just couldn't handle all that. It made me crazy" (Sonya).

Some women will not tolerate competition and move on, while other women welcome the prestige of being with a successful pimp and willingly take on the challenge and responsibilities (Milner & Milner, 1972). While they are said to be "turned out" by a pimp, ongoing job training is often the task of other prostitutes, known as wife-in-laws, also involved in the pimp family. The availability of wife-in-law training depends on how large the stable is and how corporate the pimp.

Renegades are true entrepreneurs and are interested in working for themselves. However in order to be effective, they need to learn the tricks of the trade. At this stage, Renegades often attempt to get close to key players who are veterans in the game and learn what they know. They may accomplish this by choosing a pimp, listening to his rap, accepting his gifts, hanging out with him while he talks and attempts to woo them into his stable. When they have gathered what they can get from him, both tangible and intangible knowledge, they disappear and begin putting what they know into practice. Renegades would consider maintaining a partnership with a pimp if it were to be an equitable partnership in which they would pay him a percentage for protection. Unfortunately, the game does not function in that manner, leaving Renegades to opt for independent work. Other Renegades get close to other prostitutes and learn what they know about the game. Periodically, they may team up with a girlfriend to work the bars or the streets, but if and when they engage in partnership, it is understood that each earns and keeps her own profits.

Outlaws, having never liked the idea of sex with unappealing strangers, focus on learning to talk their way out of a sexual encounter with the money. In the event they can't talk their way out, their goal is to walk away with more than the customer expected to pay by attempting to manipulate him. This is evident, even from Carol's first experience in commercial sex.

I don't date old men anyway, so I'm like "damn, how am I gonna get out of this?".... So I talked the man into giving me more.... I got forty dollars....I told him my stomach hurt. I told him I just had had a baby and I never really had a baby. I made him feel sorry for me. So we ended up not doing anything because I made him feel bad for me and he let me keep the money. The other girl, she fucked [her] old man and sucked his dick. I even ended up talking them into taking us to get something to eat too at Wendy's (Carol).

Outlaws may feel justified in performing manipulative schemes on unsuspecting customers:

I never treated them guys nice....I'm gonna tell you about the point where I started getting into taking their money. After a couple of times of getting taken advantage of, raped, which I though was unfair, I felt dirty and nasty so I was like, "this is crazy." I was about 17 (Carol-Outlaw).

Most times the women report being successful. At this stage, Outlaws will go through with a sex for money exchange as planned, but do so grudgingly.

I would say 90% of the time I didn't [have sex], 10% of the time I did. There's some people you can't rob. I'm not gonna lie and say you can rob everybody, because you can't. Some mother fuckers are not going to let you rob them. They will die for theirs. Some take precautions, because they been through that. Ten percent of the time I had to actually go through with it the whole time I was out there doing it (Carol).

With the exception of Outlaws, then, prostitution is seen as fast money and easy money during this stage. Indeed, this is the definable difference between Renegades and Outlaws; both are independent workers but Renegades report making fast and easy money that was necessary, while Outlaws reported rarely thinking the money was easy. All women initially believed the money was necessary to their eventual success in life and became immersed progressively into a life of street prostitution.

SOCIAL IMMERSION

Central Focus

Social Immersion is defined as intensive involvement in the lifestyle of street prostitution in which the prostitute assumes the full persona of a professionalized street worker. This has been supported by others who determined that women at this stage were "entrenched" (Mathews, 1986) or "professionalized" (N. J. Davis, 1971) into the role and activities of prostitution. At this stage, the sex worker views herself as a full-time prostitute and establishes congruency with that community of others involved in underground social networks.

To get at the central focus within this stage, we must first examine the emotional attachment to street work. Having the ability to make money continues to be appealing and women are willing to concentrate significant time and energy toward prostitution activities. Women immersed in the lifestyle work and earn a substantial amount of money compared to a pre-prostitution lifestyle. However, as fast as money is earned, it is quickly spent. Being able to spend well-earned money on those things beyond one's basic needs places women in a position not only to attend to those basic needs but, for the first time for many, also to acquire ample clothing and shoes for themselves, their children and other family members. They are able to meet monthly bills and have funds left over for entertainment. The amount of money that can be acquired is only limited by their efforts. Here is tangible proof of their accomplishments. This can be personally satisfying and a source of positive reinforcement to continue. This feeling of empowerment through financial success helps to keep women involved in the prostitution game. During this stage, women report being addicted to the lifestyle.

A lot of the lifestyle is money. The money is real hard to give up. You can make a lot of money, but you don't keep it, but it's the idea you're making all this money...and you always have access to money (Debbie).... and you can spend it on what you want and get more (Nina)....Once you know that, it's addicting and hard to stop (Debbie)....But it's also about being out late....traveling and having fun....and being with who you wanna be with....and living like you rich...like you got credit cards (Carol).

As a result, they chose to distance themselves from conventional connections and formal economic attachments such as school, church, and other political and social institutions. Logistically, the more women associated with those in the prostitution lifestyle, the more difficult it became to maintain ties in both. The illegality and social stigma attached to prostitution activities encourage the need for this division. As efforts to maintain two lives grow increasingly difficult, it becomes a matter of course to eventually let go of the conventional foothold in favor of underground social networks. Unfortunately this creates a lack of conventional role models and encourages underground role models.

The most prominent feature of this stage concerns increased time spent in prostitution. This includes time spent working and time spent socializing with others in the lifestyle. Three distinct activities result from immersion into the lifestyle. First, increased socialization with underground social networks encourages increased drug use. Second, women experience a broader range of customer encounters. Third, because of increased customer contact, women experience more customer-related violence.

While women report becoming more immersed in social networks, they also report increasing both the frequency and duration of drug use with the introduction of harder drugs stemming from these social contacts. This is the point in time when those who haven't begun to use drugs begin using, and those previously using move from episodic recreational use to more frequent drug use. There is a shift in the intensity of drug use from recreational, gateway drugs including marijuana and/or alcohol to harder drugs.

I met up with some people, you know, and they was doing drugs and I wanted to try it. So I tried it.....I had smoked marijuana for a long time, since I was twelve but not with cocaine in it, I had never tried it and when I did, I liked it. So I just kept doing it....At first it was marijuana with cocaine in it....I was smoking it for awhile, and then it progressed....after that I started with the pipe and I was sniffing cocaine and it just kept progressing....I went from coco puffing1 to the [crack] pipe. (Nina)

Although the predominant drug of choice was crack cocaine, one woman reported shooting heroin.

Because women are working more during this stage, they come into contact with a broader range of clients and are willing to fulfill a broader range of sexual requests. A graphic illustration of such is told by Cara, who by this stage was a seasoned worker who was professionalized the game and has been sensitized to diverse sexual requests:

Well those are freaks. When you get somebody, I mean, it's weird, it's not normal...when you get a man wanting you to slice him very gently, just so he can see the driplets of blood come out of his penis....And they come prepared with their own razor blades? You know they got to have more than one razor blade and if I accidently happen to cut to deep or whatever, I aint getting cut too. You know what I'm saying. I don't wanna bleed. But this one man wanted me to cut him, real gently on his penis, close to the vein so he could see the driplets. And that got him off. But I didn't do it that way. Instead I put the razor blade between three fingers, so in other words, between all four of my fingers, between three of the gaps there was a razor blade, and you jack em off to where they can feel that sharp edge scrapin on him. He got off. For $150.00, I did it..... There's another man. First time I met him, he wanted me to shit in his mouth. I got $300.00 for that.

(1. Coco Puffing is smoking a marijuana cigarette that is laced with cocaine.)

An amateur in the entrance or social adjustment phase would typically shy away from such requests.

Facing Sterner Realities: Experiencing Acute Traumas

Although the prostitution lifestyle is valued and enjoyed, sterner realities must be addressed. Women are spending more time working during this stage, and therefore place themselves at higher risk for violence. By now work is no longer seen as "easy money". Negative occurrences at this stage include daily hassles and acute traumas. Acute traumas such as rape or other forms of customer-related or pimp-related violence are more prevalent as a result of more time spent engaged in street work. By this stage, there are issues of morale and apprehension as most women suffered some form of victimization. From what previously seemed like a beneficial lifestyle, now subtle strains of emotional deterioration such as depression become apparent. Imperfections in the profession are now evident.

Conventional pimp-controlled prostitutes also fall victim to pimp-related violence. Monica sums up her experience with her pimp Mingo. "He got me to work truck stops, telling me that we could have beautiful things together. He beat me up three different times" (Monica). Carol tells of her short stay with a pimp-in-training named Julius.

He really wasn't a pimp. He was a dope dealer trying to be a pimp. I could go shopping every weekend and I didn't have to go sell my body at the time.....And I started liking him and getting jealous....One time, he did get him a girl, a prostitute....He didn't want me to do it. He wanted her to do it. But he was spending his time with her so I got mad. She use to bring her money to the house and give it to me. I took the money that she brought to the house and all the jewelry he bought me and some of his jewelry, a whole bunch of it, and a leather coat that he bought me, and I took off.... He had heard I was with this guy. He said he was going to kill us both. So when he caught me he was like, "I got you now," and he jumped out. We was in the projects. We were high as fuck off crack, me and Tony was. We were like, "oh fuck." He had a baseball bat and Tony ran and left me. So yes, I got the baseball bat. He beat me in my legs and told me, "if you fall bitch, I'm a hit you in your head and kill you." So I didn't fall. I just stood there and screamed and took it. Finally, he hid me out at somebody's house....My face was all swollen. I looked like a cabbage patch. I was horrible....I was just very fucked up.....So I called his house, the guy that did it, I said, "well somebody's got to take care of me"....and I went home with him (Carol).

Foa & Rothbaum (1998) have shown us that emotional strategies used to protect the psyche during and after a violent acute trauma, such as rape and other physical assaults, are necessary for survival of a vicious attack, but work against healthy emotional functioning. For instance, an emotional response such as dissociation protects the woman at the time trauma is occurring, but is not a useful tool for long-term coping. A laundry list of long term emotional responses as a result of acute traumatic episodes includes recurring dissociation, depression, anxiety, panic, phobias, anger and rage, low self-esteem, shame, somatic pain, self-destructive thoughts and/or behavior, substance abuse, eating disorders, and relationship or intimacy difficulties (Foa & Rothbaum, 1998; Harvey & Herman, 1992). Although many of the above responses may be evident in a prostitute population, depression is a universal occurrence among these respondents by this stage. Depression is the emotion-focused response to both daily hassles and acute traumas. In an attempt to respond to the emotional pain associated with depression, drug use begins to shift from recreational use to functional use. Women use drugs in order to be able to counter recurring depression and continue working. Of course the genesis for such depression may be rooted in childhood traumas, chemical imbalances and many other variables that may have been dormant or perhaps intermittently under control, but what is known is that degrading and violent experiences in prostitution contribute to depression.

The current drug of choice for street workers is crack cocaine. It is cheap, available, but more importantly it gives its victim a euphoric high. However, the dysfunctional aspect of crack cocaine is that it creates paranoia. Women typically did not work the streets immediately following the ingestion of crack cocaine. Crack cocaine makes women hypervigilent to the point of paranoia. They are said to be "tweaking" or "geeked up" and unable to work. They prefer to wait until the high dissipates before pursuing their next date.

You do the date, go find the drugs, you go smoke your drugs, you calm down a little bit. Cause you don't wanna go out. You don't wanna smoke a rock and then run outside....The sunlight hurts your eyes plus you get a little bit of paranoia to where, you know, you always wanna come down a little bit before you go outside and catch another date. You wanna know the full concept of what you're doing with that person. You don't want to get in that car and be tweaking. You know, worried about this guy and what he's gonna do (Cara).

All of the women report being involved with the police by this stage. Police-prostitute relationships are known to vary. In this study, I identified six types of police involvement scenarios. The "cop as paying customer" is common along with the "fringe benefits cop." Both kinds of officers engage the prostitute sexually despite their societal responsibility to uphold the law, but one considers pay for services and the other expects free sexual services in exchange for continued freedom. Women described the "police as protector" and the "police as perpetrator." One officer would reportedly go by the book, respond to calls, document violent incidents, search for assailants, and follow up on incidents as reported by prostitutes. Another type of officer has been described as a violent perpetrator with a badge. Not only does he coerce women into sexual situations, but he engages in abuses that, given the circumstances, are rarely reported. Finally, women made references to what is termed the "non-response officer" and the "nice cop." The nice cop has been described as one who buys diapers and food for women he sees standing on the corner, desperate for money. Upon arrest, they allow the woman to dispose of any drug paraphernalia prior to arriving in the booking department at the local jail. The non-response officer is one who is annoyed at the possibility that he must serve and protect a population so undeserving. Women talked of instances when they called and needed the aid of the police only to find a general lack of concern for the issue at hand. Short of checking the victim for warrants before leaving the scene, they rarely took prostitution complaints seriously, seldom filed a report or took the necessary steps to resolve the problem. With police protection viewed as the luck of the draw, women had little else to rely on except themselves and their protective strategies.

However, if there was any doubt that protective strategies learned were not foolproof, it is acknowledged by this stage. In order to cope, women are forced to concede the limited capabilities of their protective strategies and begin to deal with the presence of "chance" that is embedded in any customer-prostitute exchange. "Chance" is the uncontrollable and unpredictable probability that an encounter with a customer may turn violent and even deadly. "Skill" represents the knowledge and use of one's protective strategies. In street prostitution there is a substantial amount of uncertainty regarding customers that represents skill and chance conditions. During the social adjustment period, these "chance conditions" seemed minimal, something that with more skill training, experience and effort, the women believed could be minimized. Now, due to extended duration in the field and repeated assaults, the element of "chance" has to be acknowledged.

I been raped. I was kidnapped and they put a pillow case over my head and raped me. They would walk by and put a gun to my head. I remember I could hear the clicks. There wasn't any bullets in the gun (Renee).

I was walking outside of a bar and I was drunk and high....I told [this guy] I had a place where we could go date. And he took me over to a truck terminal....He ripped my clothes off. He beat me. He threw me out for dead and drove off. A truck came in and that's what made him stop. He left me for dead. I think he thought he killed me. The police couldn't find him. They said there was only one entrance and they didn't know how he got away. I ended up in intensive care (Monica).

He took me up on the hill behind the sports arena. At gun point, he made me take off my clothes, fold them nice and neat and put them in a pile....He's sitting in the drivers seat and I'm in the passenger seat. He told me "very slowly take off your top and fold it, fold it nice and neat. Then take off your bra. You start at the top, take off your clothes and fold them neatly and sit them in front of you at the bottom of your feet. Then your bra".... [This is] at gun point. I don't know if the gun's loaded or the gun's not loaded.... I got completely naked. And he told me what I was gonna do to him. "You slowly start kissing me on my forehead and work your lips around my eyebrows, both sides. Then you kiss my eye lids, both sides. Then you work your way around, put your tongue in this ear." He's telling me how to do the shit. He was really weird. And then finally, he wasn't comfortable being behind the steering wheel, cause it's only about this much space (holds fingers slightly apart). If he wanted me to give him some head, there's no way. He'd have to adjust the seat to where he's layin back and I could have elbowed him up the nose or whatever. They don't take that chance. So he made me back out. He got out of his side and stood there with the gun down far enough to where nobody could see if the, you know, the light comes on inside the car. He's holding the gun in the car, pointed at me. He told me, "Turn around. Face the passenger's door, put your feet out first, and then crawl out through the driver's side, and stay sideways on my knees facing the passenger side." So then he went around the car. He got in on the passenger side. And just as he was gettin comfortable, I snatched a shirt out the back and opened the door and ran down to the gas station. The only thing I had on was his shirt. Barefoot, I ran through broken glass. I ran through stones. I ran through everything. When your heart is pumping and just thinking about gettin away so you don't get shot, you don't care about your feet. He could have shot me as I was runnin (Cara).

Skill and Chance conditions are described as strategies that may be effective in one instance, but not effective in another instance. The extent to which a strategy is effective depends on a number of factors, namely the customer's motivation and intent for an encounter and the worker's judgements about the customer's intent. The customer's true motivation is unknown to the sex worker until after the exchange encounter has occurred. Therefore, each exchange encounter involves the skill of the sex worker both to read the potentiality of a date and make critical judgements regarding the customer's intent, and at the same time to ultimately accept the element of chance from not knowing the customer's true intent. A mismatch between a worker's fundamental appraisal and the customer's true intent may result in a violent encounter. Threat, harm, loss, assault, and murder may become a reality of any prostitute-customer encounter. Because a worker can never with all certainty know a customer's intentions, a level of vulnerability is apparent. Skill and chance conditions are such that a sex worker can never have a feeling of total control and personal safety on the job.

Vulnerability creates apprehension. The more vulnerable one feels, the more apprehensive one will be about engaging customers. Strangely enough, at the same time apprehension is at the forefront, women are increasing their time spent in prostitution. Because the amount of time working in prostitution increases, so does the risk for acute traumas.

Up to this point, women appear to focus on active problem-focused protective strategies. However, in response to the acknowledgment of chance as a contributing factor and because women have not fared well in violent encounters with men, there is a shift during this stage to using predominately emotion-focused strategies to deal with prostitution-related hassles and traumas. In street work, effective problem-focused solutions as a result of an acute trauma may involve quitting prostitution or perhaps managing prostitution activities by dating regulars who are thought to exhibit no violent intent. However, for women who stay involved in street prostitution for economic reasons, quitting is not an option and regulars "don't come around enough" (Dot) to make financial ends meet. Street prostitutes are therefore more likely to adopt emotion-focused strategies in response to trauma. Common emotion focused responses at this stage are depression and drug use.

Therefore this stage is identified by the amount of social immersion that takes place in street prostitution networks, but also in street drug networks. Drugs take on a functional use during this stage. Whereas previously women used drugs to socialize, now women increasingly use drugs to decrease depression.

Prostitution Types

Because of the increased time in which women engage in a prostitution lifestyle, reinforcement to the particular prostitution types is apparent. Professionalization at this stage is noted in Conventional Pimp-Controlled Prostitute types.

A Conventional Prostitute attempts to impress her man by working the hours he suggests she work in order to bring him the money he needs to dress well and be content with the type of lifestyle to which he is accustomed. Her identity is defined through him. For fear she may lose him or lose his love, she works longer and harder to bring him the money he needs. She is hoping to show her loyalty and her love more than the other girls in his stable (Flowers, 1998).

Now that she has learned "the game" and is proficient in playing, she is known as a thoroughbred. Thoroughbreds are professionals in the prostitution industry and they maintain the market rates in the profession. A thoroughbred is able to handle customers, command money, and conduct business effectively and efficiently in order to maximize profits.

When you're turned out, you're just out there. You don't know what you're doing. You're just being turned out for a new job. You're being trained for it. And then once you get down the steps, you know, you become a thoroughbred. You don't let the guy take control of you, you take control of it. You take control of tricks. You know what you gotta do to make your man happy (Sonya- Conventional Prostitute).

There is now little question as to the appropriateness of handing one's money over to a pimp.

Like if I gave him 500 dollars one night, he might give me like you know, five dollars for living money. And like for my kids' birthday, he'd give me 50 dollars. I never got back what I gave him, but I'd have access to money. If I needed something, I could call him and get it you know....I made him money. It's like I'm his employee or he's my employee, because I have to pay him. And some girls...they'll walk around dirty, you know, dirty because they think that that's making him respect them more because they don't ask shit (Debbie- Conventional Prostitute).

In a more corporate pimp family, meaning a pimp with many prostitutes, one woman is usually afforded more power than the others and is considered his number one lady or "bottom bitch" as it is called in the streets (Massi). She may be required to work, but to only use her mouth or hands when dating and to save intercourse for her pimp. She may live with him and may be required to train the new women joining his stable. They may even drop off money to her after work in the event that their pimp is otherwise occupied.

If a woman becomes unhappy with her current pimp, she may "choose up". More than likely, little acts of defiance against a pimp are sometimes initiated when a woman gets jealous or is unhappy with her current arrangement. She may create a situation in which she is "out of pockets" by withholding money, talking to other pimps, or leaving work early. This is sometimes done to get the attention of the pimp or may be an activity leading to an eventual severance between the pimp and prostitute. It almost always leads to pimp initiated retaliation. Because each woman watches to see if a violation of the pimp rules will result in violence, pimps believe they must adhere to this rule to keep order. Being "out of pockets" most assuredly, then, leads to a violent beating. As a measure of protection against acts of defiance, some pimps will beat a woman for little reason other than to remind her not to try and defy him. This is most poignantly described by Massi.

I wouldn't say to much to him, but when he pissed me off, I would take off and be gone for three days or maybe three weeks. He would find me, bring me back. But this time I didn't take off....I was living in a hotel and sometimes working out of the hotel and Mason (her pimp) came by and when he came in, he told me "I'm here to beat your ass, and the funny thing about it is, you didn't even do nothing." And I didn't. I didn't do a damn thing. He told me he was gonna do it because I hadn't had an ass whoopin in a long time and he had some extra time. And he did. He beat my ass. My body was sore. My eye was black. And for nothing. Just because he had more time on his hands (Massi).

Since women are free to choose up, a pimp's particular style of pimping and control must be almost flawless, as he must walk a fine line between creating fear and instilling the type of trust that promotes and sustains loyalty.

All relationships require a degree of vulnerability and pimp-prostitute relationships are no different. Trust determines how vulnerable the person is willing to be. Without some degree of trust, interactions are limited to explicit contracts (Holmes, 1991), which is what prostitutes have with customers. On the surface, pimp-prostitute relationships appear to consist primarily of financial connections. However, a deeper look into these relationships reveals strong issues of trust. A pimp-prostitute trust scenario may be described as such; "by giving you this money, I trust you will take care of me, in turn, I am taking care of you. We trust each other in that way." Trust incorporates many components, including issues of faith trust, "emotional trust," and "dependability trust" (Holmes, 1991). As a prostitute, a woman has faith that a pimp will take care of her and she is forced to depend on that as part of the arrangement. "If I needed something, I could call him and get it you know...." (Sonya).

A pimp controls the movements of a prostitute, her finances, her ability to buy clothes, food, and pay rent. He controls her time and ability to form and sustain relationships with others. Women begin to rely on this control, they build a reliance on it and feel a certain amount of comfort and security in this type of arrangement. Often women who have experienced heavy emotional costs in their upbringing are prepared to remedy the imbalance of a harsh world by the security of a pimp. All of the women in the study who were involved with pimps reported being sexually abused as children. Attachment to the relationship then becomes more a sense of control and security than an expression of mutual love and equality. Therefore, more than any traditional expressions of love that outsiders looking in would determine as essential to a relationship, the feelings of security, protection, and control become a blanket that prostitutes believe insulates them and becomes their refuge from a world of unpredictable abuses. The trade off for fulfilling needs for security and protection has consequences which, in this case, involve aspects of control and abuse.

...he ended up getting mad at me one day and punched me in my chest and cracked my rib. That was cracked and all I could remember is that I couldn't breathe. I mean, I passed out. I was knocked out all day. I was unconscious (Debbie).

"Trust involves coming to terms with the negative aspects of a partner, accepting or perhaps tolerating issues by buffering them in the broader context of the lifestyle" (Holmes, 1991 p. 79). Therefore, women take these abuses in stride and learn to cope with this relationship by not focusing on the abusive aspects for what they are, but by instead encapsulating those aspects of their pimp that serve their needs for security and protection. Therefore, a pimp-prostitute relationship often lacks cognitive and behavioral consistency. What is believed and what actually happens in the relationship do not correspond and often require repeated leaps of faith on the part of the prostitute.

Women involved with a pimp are typically not engaged in drug use. Professional pimps do not allow their women to indulge in crack cocaine. They realize that crack is the competition and frown upon any substance abuse in their stable.

Because prostitutes are working more during this stage, any or all of them are at higher risk of becoming a victim of rape, robbery, assault or murder. When this occurs to Renegades, the usual response is to get high more often and cover the emotional scars of a previous attack and the fear that it will happen again.

Renegades are resilient in that they are determined to develop this career into the fantasy life they have dreamed about. However their dream is a "whores dream" (Milner & Milner, 1972 p.81). A whore's dream never comes true. Nevertheless, they continue to work in order to create the life they've envisioned for themselves. Renegades who stay the course are unwavering. Determined that they may increase their odds of safety by being even more careful, they hold true to protective strategies. To address apparent risks, some women find it necessary to hire the services of "watchers," who are often low income friends, to look out for them on the streets and in bars as they leave and return with customers.

I was always by myself. I never had anybody watch my back. That's probably why a lot of times, I got robbed and shit. Because now there's a lot of guys out there that will walk around with you. But you walk maybe a block and a half ahead of them. Or they'll ride their bike up and down the street or whatever, you know, just to keep an eye on you, make sure nothing happens to you; make sure nobody snatches you up (Cara).

Some watchers may even help recruit customers for a small fee.

There's been a couple of times where I would tell Douglas, "if you see any dates in the bar, let me know." You know, "I'll throw you a couple dollars." Say if I made 50 dollars, I'd give him 10 for letting me know the man is in there. Don't introduce me to him, don't do that. Just show me who he is and I'll go over....But if I didn't make nothing, he wasn't gettin nothin (Cara).

Outlaws become immersed because they require more money to buy the things that make life interesting while maintaining those basic necessities they worked hard to finally achieve. They begin to work more, but remain consistent in their disdain for customers.

I would be like, "I'll be back"....I'll leave go get drunk and [my friend] be like, "let's go get a rock," and I'll be like, "okay, fuck it." We had everything we needed at the time. Not saying we lived in no nice house or nothing, but the kids had everything. We had food. Lights and gas was included with the rent, so we was cool. I felt like I wasn't jeopardizing nothing. So I went out, did my thing, you know robbing people, hustling people, and then had fun (Carol).

Hustling refers to "any activity that utilizes guile or deceit to gain money. This may be legal or illegal, but most often is illegal" (Waldolf, 1973 p.50). Outlaws become increasingly more interested in developing ways to get a customer's money without providing services. Their motivation is to make the money as quickly and painlessly as possible and to get back to living the type of lifestyle they enjoy. They feel justified in using these tactics on customers since they have been robbed, raped, and assaulted in the past. They do not desire an honest exchange, nor do they ever trust there can truly be one. In their perception, someone is attempting to "get over" on someone and they are just hoping the odds are in their favor.

Well I'm the type of person, I would charge anything you wanted me to because you wasn't gettin nothin no way. I would just get the money and jump out. That's what I did for years. Even before I was jumping out of cars, I wasn't giving them what they wanted. I wasn't satisfying them. I might tell you, "yeah, you can have sex for 50 bucks," but I'm not gonna really give you none. I might try to jack you off. I might try and get you off and if you don't like that, oh well, that's your fault (Carol).

Women developed creative hustles to manipulate customers and get their money. Some have included having a partner hide under the bed, while the prostitute undresses her customer. She lays him on the bed and his pants on the floor in reach of her stowaway partner. As she is getting him ready, her partner takes the money out of the wallet, scoots across the floor and out of the room. She then tells her customer she has to go to the bathroom and leaves the scene. Other schemes have included jumping out of cars with the money, or taking him to a designated scene and robbing him point blank.

Because of previous assaults to women who are characterized as Outlaws, these women attempt to balance skill and chance conditions in their favor. Their goal is to decrease chance by creating a situation in which they will walk away with more money by providing few or no services. Some women will work with a partner who is close by to protect them, who participates in customer robberies or who assists in the getaway. However meticulous, the plan is to decrease chance. Albeit often well planned, the level of vulnerability and personal risk remain during the time she is alone with a customer.

I snatched the money and tried to jump out of the car. He grabbed my arm before I could get out and was calling me a bitch and stuff. My dude heard it and saw that I couldn't get out of the car so he ran over and punched the dude in the face and he let go of me (Carol).

CAUGHT UP

Central Focus

Much of the interaction prior to exit involves what women describe as being "caught up." Although not intentional, women eventually find themselves "caught up" in a wave of chronic depression, drug abuse, and learned helplessness. Indeed, these three elements comprise the essence of this stage. Throughout the course of both the social immersion stage and the caught up stage, the person is heavily involved in the prostitution lifestyle. However, these two stages are divided by central focus. In the social immersion stage, women feel as though they are in control and are choosing to immerse themselves in the life. In the caught up stage, they believe they are not in control. They are ruled by depression and reactions to depression. The most common reaction to depression was drug abuse. For most women by this stage life consists of two activities, drug taking and drug seeking. During this stage, associational patterns shift with most social networks consisting of drug users and drug dealers. Friends, family or customers are often targets of exploitation, manipulation, and deceit. Immediate gain is the goal in almost every opportunity. These activities provoke deep remorse and shame when the drug-addicted prostitute is sober. "When you start remembering everything you know, people that you hurt that comes along with prostitution, because you tend to rip people off a lot. It makes you feel bad" (Maureen).

I have ran off with people's money. They done sent me to get a twenty cent piece [drugs] and I don't come back. I have took from my family a couple of times. I have took from friends that trusted me. One time I was so high, I cleaned this guys whole apartment out. I took everything (Renee).

Women did not engage in drug abuse to be able to work in any direct sense, as evidenced by their resistance to work while high. Depression was, instead, a mediating factor between prostitution and drugs. Women would get high in order to fight the depression that stemmed from prostitution activities.

Well I use to hide from depression by getting high. Bought more drugs, got high again. But it seemed like the higher I got, the more money I spent, the more depressed I got. I'm spending all this money trying to fight my depression, and I was more depressed after the fact.... I got so bad, I was smoking $500 a day (Cara).

Life consists of movement from one hit to the next, day in and day out with no serious thought about next week or next year. In moments of sobriety, when she is remorseful and considering the terrible things done in the past to friends and family, she thinks of quitting. Soon the next date comes by and she is off chasing the next high.

I didn't care. I wanted to get high so bad, I would suck a man's dick for any type of money he would give me...I wouldn't tell them that at first. But before I let them drive off, I would drop the price to whatever he would pay me (Patrice).

I got to the point where I wasn't even paying rent. No one was. They were just living in this apartment building, all crack heads....no lights, no gas....They had bathrooms on every floor and kitchens on two floors (Carol).

Safety becomes a vital issue during this stage as women place themselves at increased risk in order to obtain money to buy drugs. At this stage women not only acknowledge the probability of "chance" conditions in any exchange encounter with a customer, but they accept the element of chance and what little control they have over any customer-prostitute encounter. By this stage drug-addicted women are willing to get into the car of almost any customer regardless of chance. Protective strategies once used to decrease "chance" conditions are now strategies without substance. Women at this stage report still using protective strategies such as chatting and checking and using one's instinct to "read" dates, but report following through with dates regardless of the conclusion of their assessment regarding the potential dangerousness and lethality of the encounter.

The acceptance of chance then leaves women to rely on God or luck to see them through any exchange encounter. Cara gives a chilling account of proceeding on with a date that gave off all the signs for potential violence. A customer, unknown to her, asked her to allow him to bind and blindfolded her. She agreed for a sum of $50.00.

He scared me because I didn't know this man. He tied me up one time in his truck and put duct tape on my eyes, my mouth, and around my ankles and wrists and rubbed his dick on my leg and got off and untied me. But the first time I ever went with him, I was scared to death. But I didn't have no drugs that day. And that's when I was in it real bad. And I needed the money just to fix myself you know (Cara).

Acceptance of skill and chance conditions are akin to conditions of learned helplessness. Crucial to understanding learned helplessness as it relates to street work is to view the effects of a repeated lack of consistency between action and outcome. Repeated attempts to use protective strategies to screen out potentially dangerous dates has worked in some instances and failed in others. "One cannot control a situation that is not predictable" (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984 p.86). Therefore, individuals become conditioned to believe that they lack control over the outcome and are therefore helpless to produce the outcome they desire consistently. Women act accordingly, placing their hope of a safe customer encounter on probabilities, percentages, luck, and God. This, coupled with persistent depression and a strong desire for drugs, is the essence of being "caught up." Nina, a seasoned worker, throws caution to the wind in her remarks:

What would make me not get into the car with somebody? Really nothing. I would just get in there. I wouldn't even care if they were the police or if they were a mass murderer or something you know. I'm gonna get in that car and I'm gonna try it because if it's some money that I need then I'm gonna do anything for it (Nina).

Women addicted to crack cocaine, prior to entrance into street prostitution, view sex work as a means to finance a habit. Drug-addicted women enter already "caught up" in a wave of drug addicting behaviors and drug addiction needs. In order to serve the addiction, addicts new to prostitution engage in a substantial amount of customer contact. Never having had the opportunity to establish a safe core of customers and with no knowledge or training regarding protective strategies, these new prostitutes increase the odds that they will encounter a dangerous customer. The probability that they would employ protective strategies is slim, having never taken the initial time to enter, learn, and adjust to the mores of the lifestyle. By eliminating the "skill" portion of skill and chance conditions, women leave prostitution encounters largely to chance and report many incidents of violence, rape, and occurrences of torture. Monica entered prostitution addicted to crack cocaine. She recounts a near fatal mistake of taking a trick to her house:

I got raped. One time I had a drug dealer pick me up as a date. He was taking me home, got me in my apartment and asked me if he could use my bathroom. I let him use my bathroom and he hit me in the mouth, busted my nose and took what he wanted. He raped me twice. He threw a 20 dollar bill on me and told me if I ever told the police he'd kill me or have me killed (Monica).

The prostitution market is driven by two capitalistic mechanisms, supply & demand. Crack cocaine has been said to create an imbalance on the supply side of prostitution, contributing to greater competition on the streets, thus creating lower pricing (Maher & Curtis, 1992). As I have noted, historically, the lowest price for oral sex equals the lowest price for the most desired street drug. The 1970s and the 1990s are two time periods in which this sex-for-drug exchange rule was visible. In the 70s the lowest price for heroin was $25, making the lowest cost for oral sex the same. Today, a hit of crack cocaine may cost as low as $5 (Maher, 1996). Without regulating bodies establishing minimum standards for pricing, drug-addicted women are exploited by their customers and are often forced to accept $5 for their services. These small compensations may add to feelings of an already diminished self worth.

A diminished self worth is further wounded by the stigma from society. However even more devastating is the depreciated social standing acquired in underground street networks. "Crack head" is a degrading term used by those in a higher social position within the underground economy to depict those addicted to crack cocaine. Crack heads have a social identity distinct from others who get high. Since they don't follow the social order or the code of conduct regarding safety, pricing, and self respect, they are not trusted and lose respect from others. Unfortunately the sum of one's worth is often equated with the pay an individual receives. They ultimately fall to the bottom of the pecking order and become a sub-stratified group in the underground economy, the lowest in power, prestige, respect, and most important, worth. Because of this depreciated social standing, and the conscious choice not to follow safety protocol, women in this group shift into a vulnerable position where the risk of murder is hypothesized to be high.

To reiterate, being "Caught Up" is a time when women are caught up in a wave of chronic depression, learned helplessness, and drug addiction. It is also a time when internal processes needed to deal with these conditions are deteriorating.

However, it is important to acknowledge that not all women turn to drugs. Five of the twenty-one women did not involve themselves in crack cocaine. However three were restricted from usage by pimps and two were interviewed prior to the caught up stage. Those three women not involved in drug abuse nonetheless reportedly felt the same emotional and physical paralysis from depression that they summed up as being "caught up" in something bigger than they were. Debbie never indulged in drugs, but finally sank so low, she admitted herself into the psychiatric ward. "I ended up in a psychiatric hospital, in this crazy ward....I was diagnosed with major depression" (Debbie, Conventional Prostitute).

For the majority of the respondents, physical deterioration accompanies depression and drug abuse. Because of excessive drug use, many respondents suffer substantial weight loss. In the event that women became ill, they were unlikely to visit a doctor at the first sign of physical symptoms. Women were not prone to seek professional help for illnesses until they became chronic. When physical conditions became chronic, women were more likely to visit emergency rooms than doctors offices. Prescribed care was not typically followed and follow-up visits were rare. As a result, medical conditions took longer to heal and persistent medical conditions without proper care worsened.

I have rheumatoid arthritis in my hip. I've had it so long that the stuff in between the bone has grinded down and now it's like bone on bone. It hurts like a mother fucker, and I'm supposed to have a plastic hip made. I take pills for the pain (Cara).

At the time of this interview Cara had been walking with a cane for over a year attempting to secure governmental aid and subsequent medical coverage. By the time Cara's surgery was scheduled, she was arrested on an old warrant and spent the next five months serving time in jail. She is once again attempting to schedule her surgery.

Aside from one's general physical condition, devaluation of a woman's physical assets can be emotionally costly. Beauty is a defining characteristic in the U.S., one that is accompanied by social pressures to remain young and beautiful. As the average woman matures and sees her physical assets fade, she can look onto her accomplishments, her emotional growth, her wisdom, and her worldly possessions to maintain her self esteem and worthiness in her eyes and the eyes of others. She can shift her thoughts to what she has contributed and the meaningful relationships she has built and nurtured over the years. Street women can take no such solace in their accomplishments, contributions, or even their relationships. What is left is a weakened emotional state and deteriorated physical body. Their very will to want something better in life is all they have and even that has been damaged by low self esteem and severe depression. By this stage, it is a struggle against oneself to seek help.

The day I decided I wanted to get out of prostitution, I got on the bus and I wanted to go to Genesis House. I knew if I could get to Genesis House that I would be ok. I just turned a trick and I had money. It was so hard. I had money to buy more drugs. I felt so bad inside. And when I feel bad, I get high. It took everything I had to stay on that bus and take myself to Genesis House. So many times I started to get off and go buy some dope. I kept telling myself, "if I get to Genesis House, I'll be ok" (Patrice-Outlaw).

By this stage family members are emotionally drained from worry and have grown tired of covering the void evident by a missing parent. They have grown leery of allowing the drug-addicted prostitute into the house only to have her steal and sell family items to feed her addiction. They often have lost patience with a woman who says she will be there for her children and repeatedly lets them down. Women at this stage report losing any social support they may have had from informal social networks and all have lost most meaningful connections with family. Indeed, even the strong ties that Stack (1974) claims are often able to see black families through hard times in the ghetto, namely inner family strengths, strong kinships, and intergenerational relations, have been stretched and seriously undermined by crack cocaine abuse (as cited in Maher & Curtis, 1992).

Not wealthy, these family members are financially strapped having to feed and clothe additional children. A graphic illustration of such is told by Patrice who had three children prior to entrance into street prostitution and two subsequent children as a result of sexual encounters with customers. She describes her sister, the mother now of seven, adding five of Patrice's children to her original two.

My sister has lost boyfriends because of me. Every time I go by there she is doing laundry. She has about 14 dirty uniforms to wash and iron just to keep the kids clean and ready for school. If she isn't doing laundry, she is cooking or helping somebody with their homework. My sister use to be pretty, but she doesn't have time to worry about herself. She is always screaming up the stairs for one of the kids to come and eat or do something. I feel real bad about that. It's hard to go over there (Patrice).

Addicted prostitutes with children leave a trail of broken trusts and broken hearts:

First of all, Steven caught me smokin one time, after I promised and swore up and down that I wasn't smoking. I was letting people sell out of my house and he said, "mom, please promise me that you aren't doing it. Please promise me that you'll never do it." I said, "don't worry, I'm making money. That's how we're getting our bills paid"....But then I'd get my welfare check and my foodstamps and I'd blow it with the dope man in my own house....I was using my foodstamps to buy it and everything else. But I didn't see how bad I was myself. And then the kids kept saying, "mom, I'm hungry," and I'd cry and shit, but I'd still hit the pipe. I'd hide in my bedroom and hit the pipe, tell em I was changing clothes or something. And I'd sit in there for like 20 minutes to an hour. "Ma, it don't take you that long to change your clothes. What are you doing in there?" That's when my kids started hating me....And then there's other times working these streets where I'd be high or I'd just get out of a car from a date and I'd see my kid. Or I'd just come out of the dope house, buying dope and I see my kids. And I'd be trying to hurry up and turn around and go the other way. There's plenty of years I hid from my kids. And I think that's why they hated me so much....They weren't angry. They despised me (Cara).

I have full intentions on going home to the children, but somehow none of that matters. Before I get home I say that I'm going straight home, but the first person I see was the dope man. Ok, I say I'm taking the rest of the money home. I take the first blast-dope man end up having it all. He's in the store buying his kids something (Beth).

Shame and guilt are pervasive among seasoned workers. The difference between shame and guilt is one feels guilty for doing something wrong. One feels shame for being something wrong (Whitfield, 1989). Shame is evidenced in these women's experience:

I get into relationships and I know I love the guy and I knew they loved me, but I couldn't do it because I knew that I was a prostitute and I couldn't be with somebody. I was scared that they would find out what I was....I use to be afraid you know, that they would hold it against me....I have always been ashamed. I am ashamed of being a prostitute (Elaine).

There's been some things I've done that I'm very ashamed of, because I felt I should have been a better mother and a better person not to do the things I did....I cry at night asking God to forgive me (Carol).

This stage is summed up in a blur of experiences consisting of physical abuses and emotional pain. The physical deterioration from life on the streets and chronic mental and emotional exhaustion from the hurt women have endured and the hurt they have caused their children, their parents, and siblings become overwhelming. The women are brought to the brink to contemplate life and face the fundamental choice: freedom from prostitution or eventual death. They realize that their demise is near, through their own devices or at the hands of another.

Chronic Conditions and Accumulating Burdens

The most prominent characteristics of this stage concern accumulating burdens as a result of persistent daily hassles, repeated acute traumas, and the development of chronic depression and drug abuse. Daily hassles continue, acute traumas remain episodic, but during this stage, chronic depression and drug abuse become the most salient issue. Chronic conditions consist of intermittent emotional burdens that are conflict filled events which may occur weekly, daily, or several times a day and persist for a long period of time (Lazurus & Folkman, 1984). Depression is the most common chronic condition for women at this stage. Drug use, initially used as a protective strategy and intended solution to depression, now becomes the source of chronic stress in and of itself. Whereas crack cocaine was a "means to a particular end, now is an end in itself" (Waldolf, 1973 p.17). For most women, drugs and prostitution become enmeshed by this stage.

Drugs and prostitution go hand in hand....There's ones that spend it on drugs, because they want to cover up what their feeling and that's the only way they go do what they want to do out there, is to be high. So it's like a big cycle- drugs, work, get high, drugs, work, get high (Michelle).

The result is a constant need to serve the addiction. Regular risk taking and forgoing protective strategies are common and women become non-selective about with which men they will engage. During this stage, there is a lack of meaningful attention to daily hassles and minimal, if any, efforts to prevent trauma. Equipped with the belief that neither problem-focused nor emotion-focused strategies are effective, women seek to focus their efforts on that which is of immediate importance, depression and drugs. That is, women seek to alleviate the pain of depression and to satisfy the craving for drugs. All else is left to chance.

Optimism and opportunity for material pleasures do not enter into a crack addicted woman's life. Women at this stage have few expectations for a better life and few interests in any future success. Whereas in the Social Immersion Stage, they distance themselves from conventional family and friends because they are committed to street life, here they practice distancing through avoidance because of shame felt in what they have become. The goal is to work, get high, and work again in an incessant attempt to alleviate the pain from abandoning one's children, disappointment in oneself, the violence and degradation endured, and society's persistent rejection. The cure for this chronic persistent pain was the drug, but now the drug has become the source of pain. Life becomes a desperate plea to turn more dates, get more drugs, and feed the addiction. Soon the need for drugs becomes the driving force and the reason to get up in the morning.

...if I made 50 dollars, I ate...and then bought cigarettes and go to the dope house. Ya eat on the way to the dope house. By the time you get to the dope house, you done eatin...that was the consistency of my day (Cara).

More often than not, women at this stage neglect basic hygiene care.

One of my regular tricks picked me up. He took one look at me and told me I didn't look good. When I got in the car to where I was close enough to him, he told me I smelled. He ended up taking me to a motel and letting me take a shower. He didn't even want to have sex with me that's how bad I was. I hadn't combed my hair, brushed my teeth in awhile. I stunk from not having nowhere to live and um not being able to wash, really not wanting to wash or take care of myself (Patrice).

Prostitute Types

Most drug addicted women at this stage, when given the opportunity, report manipulating and robbing customers. The key to understanding women at this stage is to understand the role of addiction in the lives of street prostitutes. At this stage, the central focus for all women was to alleviate depression. For those who used drugs, getting the money to get high was their only interest.

When I first started out, I wanted to keep good customers. So I would always turn a date. Then when I got on drugs something changed real quick. I was robbing them. I was "money up front." I didn't want to do prostituting. They would hand me the money and I would dive out of the car (Nina- Renegade).

From this perspective, the appearance of prostitution types becomes enmeshed. This can be confusing and appears to dilute the appearance of the different types of street prostitutes. As was pointed out, Outlaw prostitutes entered prostitution manipulating, exploiting, and robbing customers whenever possible, the other types begin using these strategies during this stage more often than providing the agreed upon service at the agreed upon price. Outlaws, by this stage, report using robbery techniques more often than previously reported and more often than did other types. They were also more apt to use strong arm tactics when necessary.

That's when I started robbing people all the time. Every time I seen a person, I robbed them....I would say 90 percent of the time....I tried everybody, some worked out some didn't....we was into drugs so hard, you would be surprised what your body can take. I had bricks thrown at me, I've been beat down. It's just your body can take so much as a drug addict, you just don't know. It's like you're a walking zombie. It's weird. I been shot at. I've had guns pulled on me. I've had my kids' father take guns from [customers]....He shot a guy in the face one time....We ran, took his money and ran (Carol-Outlaw).

In addition to violence from customers, Conventional Prostitutes suffered the periodic wrath of pimps. Over time, the pain began to outweigh pleasure as women report severe and persistent depression from working very hard and seeing little reward.

I was in the game for eight years....I never did drugs...but after awhile.... when I would work the streets, I would be walking or standing what seemed like forever and all I would be thinking is "I wish someone would pick me up. I don't want to be standing out here." And then someone would pick me up and the whole time I'm doing the date I'm thinking, "I wish this was over with, I don't want to be here." And then when he would drop me off, I would think, "man, I wish I wasn't out here. I hate this." So then I found out I didn't want to really be anywhere. I didn't want to be (Massi, Conventional Prostitute).

When asked to explain to me why a woman, not addicted to drugs, would continue to prostitute and give her money away to a pimp, it was explained as a circumstance of being "caught up" in something that was bigger than the single decision to leave.

I don't know why. I mean, thinking about it, it sounds crazy....I'm the kind of person, I get caught up into something. I get caught up and don't know how to get out....You know, there was a point I said, "well maybe I shouldn't do it," but I was already caught up into it. And I think being already caught up in the whole game...it's hard to get out. Once you get caught up in it, it's real hard to get out. Drinking, sober, smoking crack, however, it's real hard to get out (Tracy- Conventional Prostitute).

At this stage, Renegades and Outlaws go from being independent entrepreneurs to being dependent on drugs with little or no money to buy essential items like clothes and food.

When I was on the verge of craziness, every single cent that I got, I was spending it on drugs. I was staying here and there. Sometimes all night I would be on the street....Walking or sitting or whatever. Sometimes I would get lucky and a date would come by and they would take me to a hotel and I would get it for the night. They would buy me food and stuff too (Nina-Renegade).

No longer obtaining enjoyment from the drug, excitement from the lifestyle, or easy money from working the streets, she finds she has to give up more and more to get the drug. She must give up her dream of sending money home to her children. She must give up her dignity as she is asked by dates to do things that are degrading and demeaning. She must endure the stigma of society and the depreciated social standing in her own community. She must contend with the way she is treated by the police. Even when not incarcerated her freedom is limited, as her only mission becomes to feed her addiction. There are windows of time when she longs for the freedom to move about attending to life. Sometimes homeless and unable to attend to basic necessities, she dreams of a normal life in which basic needs are met and concerns lie in acquiring and maintaining the comforts of life. At this stage most family members have given up and the crack-addicted female alone must decide to continue in prostitution or to reach out and try something else. She is aware that the next car she steps into may be her last.

RE-EVALUATION & EXIT

Central Focus

The Re-Evaluation & Exit period consists of an intense re-evaluation of the women's lives and what they have become. At this stage they are disillusioned with a lifestyle that now consists of chronic depression. They remember taking a prospective view of their lives, and now contemplate what will happen to them if they continue to live as a crack-addicted prostitute or a prostitute with chronic depression. They report reviewing their lives retrospectively and concluding that they have wasted their years. Women realize that what they have accumulated as a result of their financial dream amounted to little but a collection of arrest records, a blur of experiences, and a path of abandonment by those they cared about. They realize that the skills they have learned while in prostitution aren't marketable anywhere.

Finally, women make a decision that they can no longer hurt themselves and their family. They experience intense remorse that their prostitution activities have hurt their children and other loved ones, and they set out to repair broken and abandoned relationships. Working the streets has become too dangerous and degrading to them and they can no longer tolerate their lives, nor themselves. Some develop a disdain for customers. All develop a disdain for themselves and what they have become. Accounts of feelings at the end of a life in street prostitution are no clearer than Sonya's thoughts after only six days as an ex-prostitute:

My daughter...they took her from me. I started into drugs and now I'm tired. I'm tired of living this life. I'm tired of being a piece of meat and men slobberin all over me. It's nice money, but it's not worth losing my life over. And you know I mainly gotta do it for myself, because I'm my worse nightmare. I turned into someone I always told myself I would not be....I mean I was totally against drugs. I was strictly against drugs you know. And I mean I totally turned into somebody that I told myself I would never turn into (Sonya).

Women know they have to leave three major components of their lives behind, sex for money, the use of drugs, and the prostitution lifestyle (Mansson & Hedin, 1998; Mathews, 1986; National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 1992).

Exit Factors

Analysis of the data pertaining to exit revealed three factors that precipitated the emotional and cognitive decisions to exit prostitution. These include cumulative burdens, restrictive factors, and relational factors.

A fundamental theoretical claim of the experience of street prostitution over time is the accumulation of emotional and physical burdens to explain emotional and physical deterioration leading to exit. In prostitution, it is the sum total of daily hassles, acute traumas, and chronic conditions. These experiences precipitate a woman's decision to exit prostitution. Over time, the accumulations of emotional burdens are such that they exceed a woman's ability to successfully endure. The process is additive. Cumulative burdens come to a head and women decide they must choose a different path in life. For Maureen, this process took place in a psychiatric ward.

I worked for three years. I been shot at, tried to be stabbed, choked, was kidnaped for three days. I got tied up and stuffed in a trunk. They kept me there for about 12-13 hours. I've been raped. I've had customers take their money back. I've been beat in the head to where they just keep hitting you. I had to put my head through a window to get out the car because the door won't open or the window wouldn't roll down. So I literally had to throw myself through a car window and shatter it. I have stitches in my lip for that. I just had a lot of traumatic experiences. I've got acute, no, it's called Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Because of it, I have flashbacks. But they say, that eventually I'll start coming back to myself. It's just I had so many bad experiences....I stay depressed.

In addition to the cumulative effects these burdens produce and sustain, there is some evidence that structural pressures have an effect on women's decisions to leave prostitution. The two most common structural pressures include law enforcement and child protective services. A combination of arrests, time in jail, and probation mandates such as dropping urine and reporting to the probation office on a regular basis puts pressure on women to consider exiting the life. "Nowhere is the gendered relation between women and the law more apparent in America at the moment than with respect to the current 'war on drugs'" (Maher & Curtis, 1992 p.221). This pressure is successful when it is tempered with a desire to exit the life. However, without her desire to quit, these restrictive measures serve only to be temporary and when these restrictions lift, the individual returns to business as usual. The second form of structural pressure is the involvement of child protective services which threatens to gain temporary or permanent custody of the prostitute's children. According to Binion (1979), women drug abusers tend to have fewer supports and greater familial responsibil