Prostitution Statistics
Prostitution is often the gateway crime for women (Chesney-Lind, 1997). It has been reported that 70% of female inmates in American prisons were initially arrested for prostitution (Boyer & James, 1983, p. 131). Currently one in three women in jails today were arrested for prostitution; 7 in 10 women imprisoned for felonies were initially arrested for prostitution (Flowers, 1998, p.8).
Street prostitution is largely an economic crime. Women who have prostituted themselves on Toledo streets do so because they are poor. Results of a recent study of women in Toledo involved in prostitution revealed that 81% hadn't earned a high school diploma. Forty-eight percent, nearly half the women interviewed, had no previous work history. All of the women were eligible for welfare benefits and all came from families where their parents lived in poverty or fluctuated from poverty to working class throughout their childhood. None of the women were currently married, nor did any of the women who were parents consistently collect child support for the children they were attempting to raise. Therefore, street prostitution is largely representative of the poor, single, and less educated. With very few skills, a limited education, and minimal, if any, work experience, these women saw prostitution as a way to succeed in otherwise blocked entrances to conventional opportunities. (Williamson, 2000).