Early Sexual Experience and Prostitution

Am J Psychiatry 134:12, December 1977 1381

BY JENNIFER JAM ES, PH.D., AND JANE M EYERDING
The authors com pared several aspects ofearly sexual
experiencefound in two earlier studies of prostitutes
with results ofresearch on norm al wom en. The
prostitutes had in com m on m any negative experiences
notfound orfound less often in other populations of
young wom en. These include incestuous and/or coerced
sex, lack ofparental guidance, intercourse at a young
age, andfew or no m eaningful relationships with
m ales. These wom en had discovered that sex could
lead to a kind ofstatus, even though that status is
negatively labeled by the wider culture. In a society
that values wom en on the basis oftheir sexuality, a
wom an who views herself as debased m ay see
prostitution as a viable alternative-perhaps the only
alternative.
sequent relationship with first sexual partner, number
of sexual partners, number of significant relation-
ships, incest, and rape.
Both studies involved questionnaires, interviews,
and ethnographic field observation; thus, data are lim-
ited to self-report. The first study (referred to as
study 1) was conducted between 1970 and 1972 with a
sample of 72 adult prostitutes and 20 adolescent prosti-
tutes contacted on the street and injail (3). The second
study (study 2), conducted during 1974-1975, included
136 prostitutes contacted in the same way; 68 of these
subjects were also defined as addicts (4). In order to
make our data more meaningful, we will use corn-
parisons with studies of normal female sexual expe-
rience.
AGE AT FIRST INTERCOURSE
IT HAS BEEN ARGUED by prostitutes and social scien-
tists alike (1 , 2) that prostitution is an aspect rather
than a contradiction of the female sex role in our so-
ciety. W hat then determines which women will act out
the prostitution components of that role? According to
Rosenblum (2), access to prostitutes and perhaps
specific incidents in the life of the individual are the
deciding factors. One of us (J.J.) conducted studies of
streetwalkers in a large western city that seemed to
indicate a common pattern of certain sexual experi-
ences-many of them negative-among the 228 sub-
jects studied (3, 4). Although there is more to the pro-
fession of prostitution than just sex (e.g. , economics,
customer demand, a subcultural ethos), it seems clear
that a womans self-concept ofher sexuality must play
an important part in her decision to prostitute and that
sexual experiences unrelated to prostitution may have
considerable impact on the development of this self-
concept. In this article, we will present data on the
sexual experiences of subjects in these two studies
that we feel may be particularly relevant to the devel-
opment of the deviant self-image of prostitute. The
experiences we will consider are age at first inter-
course, early sources of information about sex, sub-
The authors are with the University of W ashington, Seattle, W ash.
98915, where Dr. James is Associate Professor, Department of Psy-
chiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and M s. M eyerding is Research
Analyst, Female Criminal Involvement and Narcotics Addiction
project.
This work was supported by Alcohol. Drug Abuse, and M ental
Health Administration grant DA-00918 from the National Institute
on Drug Abuse.
It is difficult to compare data from different studies
on age at first intercourse because of varying methods
ofdata presentation. For example, Sorensens data (5)
on age at first intercourse do not differ significantly
from the results in study 2 except that a larger number
of subjects in the latter study had their first intercourse
at age 12 or younger (13% versus 7% ). However, since
48% of Sorensens total sample had not had inter-
course, we can conclude only that there seems to be a
section of the general adolescent population, of which
the subjects of studies 1 and 2 are members, who are
more sexually active at an earlier age than the norm.
Other studies support the conclusion that our sub-
jects initiated sexual activity at a younger age than the
general population. Kantner and Zelnik (6) compared
age at first intercourse for the black and white mem-
bers oftheir sample. They found that 54% oftheir black
subjects experienced first coitus between the ages of
15 and 19 (74.9% ofthem by age 18), whereas only 23%
of the white subjects had their first experience at those
ages (19.9% by age 18). In the study 2 population,
56.6% reported first intercourse between the ages of 15
and 19 (36% had had intercourse before that age), and
91.9% ofthe sample had had coitus by age 18. In strik-
ing contrast is the figure of 17% nonvirgins at age 18
found by Simon and associates (7) in a sample limited
to college students. Four-fifths of the adolescents in
study 1 had their first sexual intercourse at age 14 or
younger. Although information on sexual experiences
before first intercourse was not elicited in the ques-
tionnaires in studies 1 and 2, extensive interviews re-
vealed a pattern similar to the one found by Davis (8)
EARLY SEXUAL EXPERIENCE AND PROSTITUTION
1382 Am J Psychiatry 134:12, December 1977
in her study of 30 prostitutes: The technical virgini-
ty pattern typical of the middle-class female was not
in evidence here. First sexual contacts typically in-
volved sexual intercourse, with only one girl report-
ing an initial petting experience.
EARLY SOURCES OF INFORM ATION ABOUT SEX
The first questions relating to sexual history in stud-
ies 1 and 2 attempted to elicit the subjects major
sources of early information about sex. In study 1 (3),
63.2% of the adolescent subjects-toward whom the
questions on sexual history were aimed-learned
about sexual intercourse from friends (36.9% ) or per-
sonal experiences (26.3% ). Study 2 produced more de-
tailed information (4). The role of parents as sex
educators was considerably less in study 2, the more
recent sample, than in W ittels 195 1 study (9) (15.4%
versus 34% ). Friends continue to be the major source:
W ittels found a figure of 42.7% and the study 2 figure
was 37% , Adding the study 2 category of siblings to
that of friends to produce an other children
grouping increases the figure for this category to
44.9% . The role of teachers in sex education was
somewhat smaller in study 2 than in W ittels study
(5.9% versus 9% ), as was the influence of physicians
(1.5% versus 3% ). W ittels final category, other
adults, has no counterpart in study 2. The 17% W it-
tels found in this category must balance against the
categories of books, 10.3% ; church, 0.7% ; and-
perhaps the most significant difference from W ittels
study and a possibility he apparently did not consid-
er-personal experience, 14% . Sorensen (5) found
that 3 1% of his sample had learned about birth control
and 33% about venereal disease from their parents.
These figures approximate W ittels 34% figure for the
role of parents and reemphasize the contrast with the
study 2 finding of 15.4% . The close agreement between
W ittels and Sorensens data on this point is particular-
ly striking given that the former study was conducted
in 195 1 and the latter in 1973.
This lack of parental guidance in sexual matters is
one aspect of the general weakness of the parent-child
relationship that is typical of many prostitutes (8, 10-
16). W hether the parent-child relationship is marked
by simple neglect by absence or by outright psycholog-
ical or physical abuse, the result for the child is gener-
ally considered to be alienation from the parents and
a consequent inability-the severity of which depends
on the circumstances-to adequately socialize the
conventional mores of respectable society.
SUBSEQUENT INTERCOURSE W ITH FIRST
PARTNER AND NUM BER OF SIGNIFICANT
RELATIONS
The use of different groupings (e.g., 5 to 6 times
versus 5 to 10 times) makes it difficult to do a strict
TABLE 1
Subsequent Intercourse with First Coital Partner
Eastman (17) Study 2 (4)
(N=43) (N=l33)
Frequency Number Percent Number Percent
Neveragain 6 14.0 45 33.8
l-2times 6 14.0 15 11.3
3-lOtimes 12 27.8 25 18.8
llormoretimes 19 44.2 48 36.1*
*Includes categories: 1 1-20 times, 8.3%; and regularly, 27.8%
TABLE 2
Number of Sexual Partners in Two Samples of Women*
Kinsey and Associates (18) Study (2)
(N=l220) (N=135)
Partners Number Percent Number Percent
1 647 53 4 3.0
2-5 415 34 25 18.5
6-10 85 7 37 27.4
11-20 49 4 22 16.3
2lormore 24 2 47 34.8
*Customers are excluded in figures for study 2.
statistical comparison of the number of times subjects
in various studies had intercourse with their first coital
partner. It seems obvious, however, that the most sig-
nificant difference between the results in study 2 and
those from studies of normal populations is the per-
centage reporting no further intercourse with their first
partner. In study 2, 33.8% reported they had no further
sexual relationship with their first partner, whereas
other studies found figures of l0% -l5% . Table I corn-
pares findings from study 2 with those of East-
man (17).
That the superficial, nonemotional nature of the first
sexual intercourse of many of these women initiated a
series of such encounters is supported by the fact that
the mean number of private (i.e., not for profit) sexual
partners of subjects in study 2 was 23 . Even more sig-
nificant is the fact that the mean number of persons
with whom these subjects felt they had developed a
significant relationship was only 5: 17.8% reported
more than 10 and 71 .6% reported 5 or less. Table 2
compares data from study 2 on numbers of sexual part-
ners with data from Kinsey and associates (18).
INCEST AND RAPE
In their 1953 report on female sexuality, Kinsey and
associates (18) found that 24% oftheir sample had ex-
perienced at least one sexual advance by an older male
(defined as being at least 5 years older than the sub-
ject); they stated that the percentage would have been
greater if the sample population had included more
JENNIFERJAM ES ANDJANE M EYERDING
Am J Psychiatry 134:12, December 1977 1383
TABLE 3
Adult Perpetrators of Sexual Advances Toward Children
Adult
Kinsey and
Associates (18)
N %
Gagn
N
on (19)
% N
Study 2 (4)
%
Dc Fran
N
cis (20)
%
Stranger 559 48.7 195 58.5 13 20.6 63 25.0
Friend or acquaintance* 344 29.9 88 26.5 27 42.8 93 37.0
Father 43 3.7 5 1.5 4 6.4 33 13.0
Stepfather** - - - - 9 14.3 35 14.0
Fosterfather - - - - 3 4.8 - -
Otherrelative*** 204 17.7 45 13.5 7 11.1 28 11.0
Total 1150 333 63 252
*In Study 2, the category was family friend.
**D e Francis category was parent surrogate. Offenders were virtually all male.
***Kinseys categories included uncles. 9% ; brothers, 3% ; grandfathers, 2% ; other relatives. 5% .
lower-class respondents. This figure and Gagnons lat-
er figure of28% (19), contrast sharply with the findings
in study 2: 46% responded affirmatively to the question
Prior to your first intercourse, did any older person
[defined as more than ten years older] attempt sexual
play or intercourse with you?
Kinsey and associates (18), Gagnon (19), and De
Francis (20) attempted to ascertain the relative in-
cidence of participation by various categories of males
in such sexual advances (see table 3). Comparing data
from study 2 with those of Kinsey and associates and
Gagnon, it is apparent that the findings in the cate-
gories of strangers and father figures are very
different: 3.7% of the perpetrators in Kinseys study
and 1.5% in Gagnons work were fathers, whereas
study 2 found that 25.5% were fathers, stepfathers, or
foster fathers. Combining the percentages of fathers
and other relatives in these three studies gives the
following totals for sexual experiences with an in-
cestuous character: Kinsey and associates, 21.4% ;
Gagnon, 15% ; and study 2, 36.6% .
De Francis data more closely approximate those
from study 1 . He found that 27% of such offenders
were father figures; 38% were relatives. In study 1, 13
of the 20 adolescent subjects reported having had a
forced/bad sexual 2 the majority of
which (II of 13) occurred when the subject was 15 or
younger. In many cases the men responsible were fa-
thers (23. 1% ) or other relatives (15.4% ). Of the total
sample of 20, one-fourth had experienced a negative
sexual relationship with a relative. Sgroi (21) also re-
ported that The most frequently named perpetrator
in cases of sexual abuse (of children) is the father or a
male relative or [mothers] boyfriend.
None of the studies of normal female sexual ex-
perience available for comparison included statistics
It should be noted that De Francis sample population is strongly
biased in the opposite direction from those of Kinsey and asso-
ciates and Gagnon. i.e. . toward the lower class, and his sample
consisted of cases serious enough to come to the attention of
police or child protection agencies.
Sexual experience is defined as intercourse. The force involved in-
cluded both physical and emotional coercion in which the subjects
self-report indicated she was sexually used against her will.
on the number of subjects who experienced the use of
force in their first intercourse. In study 2, 23% of the
subjects reported that they had been subjected to
physical force in their first intercourse, and 7.4% felt
they had been victims of emotional coercion. M ore
than half (57.4% ) of the study 2 sample reported that
they had been raped at least once in their lives. Of
these, 36.2% had been raped more than once, and
7.5% had been raped by multiple assailants.
DISCUSSION
Societal reactions to juvenile female sexual activity
may influence the entrance of some young women into
prostitution, especially those who are more sexually
active and less discreet than the majority of their
peers, as seems to have been the case with the subjects
in studies 1 and 2. Choisy (I 1) asked, At what num-
ber of lovers is a girl supposed to lose the status of a
decent person? Cams (22) stated that A womans
decision to enter coitus . . . implies that she is creating
for herself a sexual status which will have a relatively
pervasive distribution . . . she will be evaluated down-
wardly. Such is the nature of the male bond. Girls
learn early societys moral valuation of their sexuality.
For example, in discussing her childhood sex educa-
tion, one streetwalker stated, I think the basic theme
of the whole thing was that it was a dirty thing but that
it was a duty for a woman to perform , and if you fooled
around, you were a prostitute. Female promiscuity,
real or imputed, virtually guarantees loss of status in
our majority culture: one hears such statements as I
got pregnant and was kicked out of the house and
school or I was accused ofbeing promiscuous while
I was still a virgin. They did that because I used to run
around with a lot of guys. The labeling implied by
such loss of status may be an important step in the
process by which a woman comes to identify with a
deviant lifestyle such as prostitution and thus begins to
see it as a viable alternative. Davis (8) described this
process in her discussion on the effects of institution-
alization:
EARLY SEXUAL EXPERIENCE AND PROSTITUTION
1384 Am J Psychiatry 134:12, December 1977
The adolescent girl who is labeled a sex offender for
promiscuity . . . may initially experience a conflict about
her identity. Intimate association with sophisticated
deviants. however, may provide an incentive to learn the
hustler role . . . and thus resolve the status anxiety by
gaining prestige through association with deviants, and
later, experimentation in the deviant role. (8, p. 305)
Even in noninstitutionalized women, the labeling
impact of status loss must have a strong effect on self-
image. The woman may attempt to rebuild her self-
image by moving into a subculture where the wider
societys negative labeling will not impede her efforts
toward a higher status-although that status itself will
be perceived as negative by the wider society. Of the
prostitutes in study 2, 44.9% reported that they had
gotten into trouble because of their sexual activity
while they were juveniles.
No matter how negative the long-term effects of ju-
venile promiscuity on a womans social status are, the
short-term effects may often seem quite positive to
her. Young women who suffer from parental abuse or
neglect, a common pattern for prostitutes, may be es-
pecially susceptible to the advantages of what Green-
wald (15) called early rewarded sex . . . engaging in
some form of sexual activity with an adult for which
they were rewarded. [These women] discovered at an
early age that they could get some measure of af-
fection, of interest, by giving sexual gratification.
This type of positive reinforcement for sexual behav-
ior, particularly when coupled with the cultural stereo-
type of women as primarily sexual beings, may cause
some women to perceive their sexuality as their prima-
ry means for gaining status. Davis noted that Sex as a
status tool is exploited to gain male attention (8). All
women in our culture must in some way come to terms
with the fact that their personal value is often consid-
ered inseparable from their sexual value.
W hile men are also concerned with their sexual desir-
ability. their opinion ofthemselves is not founded primari-
ly on that desirability, for occupational achievement pro-
vides an important alternative to a self-identification
based on sexual desirability. The alternatives available to
females are fewer and generally carry lower social esteem.
resulting in an inordinately high value being placed on
sexual desirability. (2. p. 180)
The effect of incest on the child involved is virtually
unknown. Some researchers, e.g. , Jaffe and asso-
ciates (23), preferred not to make a judgment, noting
that Little is known of the physical and emotional
effects ofincest. Ferracuti (24) stated that it is hard-
ly proved that participation in incest . . . results in
psychological disturbances. He noted, however, that
Frequently [victims of incest] become sexually
promiscuous after the end of the incestuous conduct.
De Francis (20) found guilt, shame, and loss of self-
esteem to be the usual reactions of the child victims of
both incestuous and nonincestuous sex offenses.
These feelings often led to disruptive, rebellious be-
havior, and some older (i.e. , adolescent) victims later
become prostitutes. Sexual abuse that continues over
a long period oftime, as is usual with incest, was found
by Gagnon (19) to be extremely disorganizing in its
impact on the victim. W einer (25) echoed Ferracuti
in stating that girls who begin incest in adolescence
frequently become prostitutes following termination of
the incest.
The incidence of rape experiences among the study
I and study 2 populations, especially among the ado-
lescents in study I , is so high that these samples pre-
sent the characteristics of an especially victimized
group. Although the subjects identities as rape vic-
tims or nonrape victims were not in any way consid-
ered in the sampling procedures, 65% of the adoles-
cent prostitutes had been the victims ofcoerced sexual
activities. The 57.4% of the study 2 sample who had
experienced rape, including 36.2% who were multiple
rape victims, is also disproportionate compared with
wider samples of women. W hen the societal stereo-
typing of women as primarily sexual beings is ex-
pressed through the violence of rape, the psychologi-
cal effect on the victim may be one of reinforcing
her self-concept as a sexual object and further isolating
her emotions from her sexuality.
CONCLUSIONS
The prostitutes in the two studies we have consid-
ered shared a range of negative sexual experiences
that-in conjunction with other circumstances and ex-
periences-may have influenced them toward accept-
ing prostitution as a lifestyle. The pattern that emerges
includes I) lack of parental guidance that leads to
early, casual sexual intercourse to the exclusion of the
more usual noncoital sociosexual experimentation; 2)
the discovery that sex can be used to gain a kind of
social status, coupled with the subsequent discovery
that this status is perceived by others as negative,
making the individual unacceptable to the majority
culture; and 3) the emotionally destructive experi-
ences of incest and rape. Because the range of accept-
able sexual behaviors is much narrower for women
than for men, and because women more than men are
judged (by themselves and by others) on the basis of
their sexual desirability and behavior, sexual experi-
ences may be a more important factor in a womans
development of self-identity. A woman who views her-
self as sexually debased or whose sexuality is more
than normally objectified may see prostitution as a
natural -or as the only-alternative.
REFERENCES
I. Davis K: The sociology of prostitution. Am Sociol Rev 2:722-
755, 1937
2. Rosenblum KE: Female deviance and the female sex role: a pre-
liminary investigation. Br J Sociol 25: 169-185, 1975
3. James J: A Formal Analysis of Prostitution: Final Report to the
JENNIFER JAMES AND JANE MEYERDING
Am J Psvchiatr 134:12, December 1977 1385
Division of Research. Olympia. W ash, Department of Social
and Health Services, 1971
4. James J, Gosho C: Early sexual history offour groups of female
offenders (unpublished manuscript)
5. Sorensen R: Adolescent Sexuality in Contemporary America.
New York, W orld Publishing Co. 1973
6. Kantner J, Zelnik M : Sexual experience of young unmarried
women in the United States. Fam Plann Perspect 4:9-18. 1972
7. Simon W , Berger A, Gagnon J: Beyond anxiety and fan-
tasy: the coital experiences of college youth. J Youth Adolesc
3:203-22. 1972
8. Davis NJ: The prostitute: developing a deviant identity, in Studies
in The Sociology of Sex. Edited by Henslin J. New York, Ap-
pleton-Century-Crofts. 197 1 , pp 297-322
9. W ittels F: Sex Habits of American W omen. New York. Eton.
1951
10. Kemp T: Prostitution: An Investigation of Its Causes, Espe-
cially with Regard to Hereditary Factors. Copenhagen, Levin
and Munskgaard. 1936
I I . Choisy M : Psychoanalysis of the Prostitute. New York, Philo-
sophical Library. 1961
12. M aerov AS: Prostitution: a survey and review of 20 cases: the
Pate report. Psychiatr Q 39:675-701, 1965
13. Jackman NR, OToole R. Geis G: The self-image of the prosti-
tute, in Sexual Deviance. Edited by Gagnon J, Simon W . New
York, Harper& Row. 1967. pp 133-146
14. Esselstyn TC: Prostitution in the United States. Annals of the
American Academy ofPolitical and Social Sciences 376:123-135,
1968
15. Greenwald H: The Elegant Prostitute. New York, Ballantine
Books, 1970
16. Gray D: Turning-out: a study of teen-age prostitution. Urban
Life and Culture 1:401-425, 1973
17. Eastman W : First intercourse: some statistics on who, where,
when, and why. Sexual Behavior 2:22-27, 1972
18. Kinsey A, Pomeroy W , M artin C, et al: Sexual Behavior in the
Human Female. Philadelphia. W B Saunders Co, 1953
19. Gagnon J: Female child victims ofsex offenses. Social Problems
13:176-192, 1965
20. Dc Francis V: Protecting the Child Victim of Sex Crimes Com-
mitted by Adults: Final Report. Denver. Cob, American Hu-
mane Association, Childrens Division, 1969
21 . Sgroi 5: Sexual molestation of children: the last frontier in child
abuse. Child Today 4:18-21, 1975
22. Carns D: Talking about sex: notes on first coitus and the double
sexual standard. Journal of M arriage and Family 35:677-688,
1973
23. Jaffe A. Dynneson L, Ten Bensel R: Sexual abuse of children.
Am J Dis Child 129:689-692, 1975
24. Ferracuti F: Incest between father and daughter, in Sexual Be-
haviors: Social, Clinical, and Legal Aspects. Edited by Resnik
H, W olfgang E. Boston, Little Brown & Co. 1972, pp 169-183
25. W einer I: On incest: a survey. Excerpta Criminologica 4: 137-
155, 1964