Women who work in the sex industry as prostitutes face many challenges and come from a variety of different backgrounds. Their lives can leave them with numerous mental disorders – some of which they may never recover from.
Rossler Koch a Swiss psychologist has worked on in-depth studies that looked at the mental state of 192 prostitutes.
I produced a study on the psychology and mental health of sex workers in 2010 – not much has changed with regards to the conditions the prostitutes find themselves. The social and economic environment remains a breeding ground for desperate women to turn to prostitution.
The study found that the average age of the prostitutes is 32. Over half are native to the country they work in – although there is strong representation for Eastern European countries such as Russia and Romania.
More often than not the women had a typical school education and only a small percentage have no education.
In the study it was found that a number of women had boyfriends or partners – a large proportion had told their partners about their profession. This is not to say that their partners accepted what they did but a study into the partners of prostitutes needs to be done. It is interesting to consider the mindset of these men and women.
The majority of the women had either a person to trust or felt supported by the family. More than half of the sex workers felt at least sometimes excluded from their circle of acquaintances because of their profession, and as many – felt that they were excluded from society. The feeling of detachment from society is common among sex workers – usually due to working outside the rules of law. Society does not accept them and this can add to the detachment from communities.
Many reasons for doing sex work were reported – perhaps surprisingly a large number of women declared to like their work. Whilst other prominent reasons were: not being able to find another job, the need to give financial support to families, paying debts and buying drugs.
Out of the sample of our study, only 1.6% actually stated to be forced to do sex work, while 10.9% announced that they previously had been forced to do sex work. Some women (4.1%) had been deceived about the kind of work they were supposed to do (mainly when they came from abroad). This would appear to challenge the common perception that the majority of sex workers are forced into it.
The interviewed women started to work in the sex business on average, at the age of 24 and more than a third stated that they worked at more than one location. Often the women move around for protection and to stay away from police detection – it is common for the workers to struggle to feel safe in one location for long periods of time due to anxiety.
A third of the women offer their services outdoors, this is usually in a car or a secluded public place. What we found with these women was that a quarter would do this for drugs. Addiction for the prostitutes can offer them an escape from their life, it is often seen as a form of escapism.
Financial dependence is a key factor in the decision making of these women with 46% saying that it was a driving factor. It is typical in any system that human beings are driven by survival instincts – prostitution is a form of that. They are desperate for money – they need it to survive. Prostitution may be the only source of money that they can find.
A large number of the women in our study group were diagnosed with anxiety disorders (73.3%), depression (46.7%) and PTSD (40.0%). It is very common for mental disorders to develop during a woman’s life as a prostitute – however some disorders are also discovered to have existed in women before they become a sex worker. In fact anxiety disorders and depression can be a driving force in pushing women into that life.
Depression is also quite salient in the groups of women that work outdoors (45%). As they are in the lower spectrum of sex workers it is not surprising to see that they tend to be more desperate and more depressed. The life as a street worker can be considerably harder than in other areas of the sex industry – it is why drugs and crime are more common.
Studies have shown that a large number of street prostitutes suffered from sexual abuse when they were young. The sexual abuse is commonly accepted as being the number 1 underlying reason for entering or even considering prostitution.
Be First to Comment