Abstract
Youth prostitution is more multidimensional than one might guess from its most typical depictions. This essay is designed to raise the profile of some of its less prominent aspects – aspects which are not unknown exactly, but which are under-recognized and generally ignored in the context of legal analysis. Many of the most challenging dimensions of youth prostitution are eclipsed by an ideology which fails to grapple with the complexity of youth agency and the consequent position of youth in law. The result is that some kids are left inadequately served and others are utterly unknowable. My principal aim in this essay is to illuminate some gaps in the prevailing conception of youth prostitution and bring some different tools to bear on youth prostitution as a legal problem. The essay will view the matter from an angle not of criminal law in which offenders must be identified but of private law in which economic choices are made against identifiable background conditions.
Keywords
youth prostitution, law
Subject Categories
Prostitutes, Child prostitution, Teenage prostitution
Disciplines
Sexuality and the Law
Publisher
University of Maine School of Law
Publication Date
2002
Rights Information
Publisher retains copyright.
Rights Holder
University of Maine School of Law
Permanent URL
http://iris.lib.neu.edu/slaw_fac_pubs/40/
Recommended Citation
Maine Law Review, Vol. 55, No.1, pp. 191-209, 2002.
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Notes
Originally published in Maine Law Review, Vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 191-209, 2002.