Pathways to prostitution in Latin american underage girls

Abstract

This article, based on interviews with 106 women from Mexico and Central America, aims to analyze the factors that lead to forced and non-forced forms of juvenile prostitution. This research was descrip-tive-correlational based on their goals and quantitative by its analytical approach and type of data analysis used. The type of instrument utilized was the individual interview and a purposeful sampling was used. We conclude that an earlier age at entry into prostitution is associated with forced forms, whereas having a larger number of absent parents is associated with non-forced forms. The number of siblings, the age at which the first child was born and the order of birth were independent of the form of entry into prostitution. On the other hand, living in a home from which the parents are present was associated with a forcedinitiationin prostitution.

Keywords

• underage girls
• prostitution
• sex trafficking
• mexico
• central america
• united states