The image of the prostitute has been often times portrayed as the skinny, pale, disoriented-looking female who uses her body parts as a mean to finance her drug habits. In fact, many campaigns for the push of new anti-drug policies, have advanced the image of a “pathway” from needle to prostitution. Research has however found different results every time an attempt has been to determine the exact role of drug use in prostitution. Is the use of drugs a causal factor or a consequence of the profession?
In this paper, my intent is to try to show that though there exists undeniable link between drug use and prostitution, there simply is not enough evidence to generally explain the use of drugs by prostitutes whether it be pre or post prostitution. …show more content…
Wanting to, includes weighing the pros and cons of such behaviors but taking part in them anyway. Theories such as social control or bonding theory have attempted to further decorticate the issue of drug use and prostitution, but the majority of people taking part in these behaviors fall into very few categories – financially unstable, family or household instability, mental inferiority/ mental health issues, or uneducated. In the Relationship between prostitution and substance use, Goldstein (1978), found that there is indeed a relationship between substance use and prostitution (p.105). The study went further by determining what kinds of drugs were associated to the different classes of prostitution – low-level prostitutes or high class prostitutes. Another finding of this research was that in the case of low-level prostitutes, substance addiction predated prostitution with a causal linkage being economic necessity, while high class prostitutes tended to succumb to substance addiction post prostitution, the causal linkage being psychoactive reactions to the drug. The facts of this research do one important thing, which is to show an escalation from one deviant behavior to another. Even more troubling perhaps, is the adaptation to a new deviant behavior in order to maintain an old deviant behavior. As …show more content…
One of those reasons happens to be that adolescents take drugs to numb away the pain they encounter in their daily lives, whether it be from bullying or other environmental factors. This same reasoning can be applied to women who are prostitutes. Life as a prostitute is not necessarily an easy one. Women who are in this line of work, put themselves at risk for very grave and irreversible consequences, oftentimes for lack of better options. The nature of this work, revolves around meeting strangers, having sexual dealings with them, in the hopes that they do in fact remunerate you for the “services” you provided. If you are remunerated, another fear is that they will not assault you or ask you for more than you are comfortable with. Then comes the fear of being raped, as patrons would assume a prostitute is even less likely to report such a crime in fear of retribution for breaking the law in the first place. Lastly, the health risks grow substantially when one has to lay with a high amount of men who may be carriers of diseases. All of these factors can bring one to use drugs to simply forget avoid or mask the truth for however little a period of time, how terribly risky and unsafe prostitution and the use of drugs are. In A piece of cake, the author says “I smoked and drank every I got. I loved being loaded. Everything looked and felt good
In this paper, my intent is to try to show that though there exists undeniable link between drug use and prostitution, there simply is not enough evidence to generally explain the use of drugs by prostitutes whether it be pre or post prostitution. …show more content…
Wanting to, includes weighing the pros and cons of such behaviors but taking part in them anyway. Theories such as social control or bonding theory have attempted to further decorticate the issue of drug use and prostitution, but the majority of people taking part in these behaviors fall into very few categories – financially unstable, family or household instability, mental inferiority/ mental health issues, or uneducated. In the Relationship between prostitution and substance use, Goldstein (1978), found that there is indeed a relationship between substance use and prostitution (p.105). The study went further by determining what kinds of drugs were associated to the different classes of prostitution – low-level prostitutes or high class prostitutes. Another finding of this research was that in the case of low-level prostitutes, substance addiction predated prostitution with a causal linkage being economic necessity, while high class prostitutes tended to succumb to substance addiction post prostitution, the causal linkage being psychoactive reactions to the drug. The facts of this research do one important thing, which is to show an escalation from one deviant behavior to another. Even more troubling perhaps, is the adaptation to a new deviant behavior in order to maintain an old deviant behavior. As …show more content…
One of those reasons happens to be that adolescents take drugs to numb away the pain they encounter in their daily lives, whether it be from bullying or other environmental factors. This same reasoning can be applied to women who are prostitutes. Life as a prostitute is not necessarily an easy one. Women who are in this line of work, put themselves at risk for very grave and irreversible consequences, oftentimes for lack of better options. The nature of this work, revolves around meeting strangers, having sexual dealings with them, in the hopes that they do in fact remunerate you for the “services” you provided. If you are remunerated, another fear is that they will not assault you or ask you for more than you are comfortable with. Then comes the fear of being raped, as patrons would assume a prostitute is even less likely to report such a crime in fear of retribution for breaking the law in the first place. Lastly, the health risks grow substantially when one has to lay with a high amount of men who may be carriers of diseases. All of these factors can bring one to use drugs to simply forget avoid or mask the truth for however little a period of time, how terribly risky and unsafe prostitution and the use of drugs are. In A piece of cake, the author says “I smoked and drank every I got. I loved being loaded. Everything looked and felt good