Paths of Violence Experienced By People Who Have Been Involved in Prostitution during Their Lives in France

To what extent have people who have turned to prostitution in the course of their lives been subjected to violence in their childhood? We propose to objectify these people's pathways to violence using the Violences et rapport de genre survey, carried out by the Institut national d'études démographiques in 2015, during which 27,000 women and men, aged between 20 and 69, representative of the population residing in metropolitan France answered an in-depth questionnaire on violence.

The question used to identify those concerned was: “In the course of your life, have you ever had sexual intercourse to get out of a difficult financial situation or to improve your daily life, or in exchange for money?” One hundred and forty-six people responded positively (0.7% of men and 0.55% of women).

What are their socio-demographic characteristics? Their parents' occupations at the age of 14 do not distinguish them from the rest of the population. They grew up in families of all socio-professional backgrounds. Among these people, those declaring themselves homo- or bi-sexual at the time of the survey are strongly over-represented: 7% of men say they are exclusively gay and 11% bisexual, while 22% of women say they are bisexual. Financially, 40% say they are “struggling to get by” or “can't manage without going into debt”, and 30% have lived on the streets or in very precarious housing.

Did they experience violence in childhood? 42% say they grew up in a family where there were “serious tensions or a climate of violence between their parents”, and 18% said they grew up in a family where there was “repeated beating and abuse of themselves or another member of the family”. 40% reported psychological violence against themselves, 28% physical violence and 15% incestuous sexual violence. Finally, 25% said their first sexual intercourse had been forced.