Adolescence, Sexuality, and the Criminal Law by Bullough Vern L.;Graupner Helmet;

Author:Bullough, Vern L.;Graupner, Helmet;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1702102
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Prostitution of Young Persons: A Topic of Social Work and/or Penal Legislation

Thomas Moebius, MA

Thomas Moebius has academic degrees in Psychology (Diplom) and Special Education (MA) and is experienced in outreach programmes for male prostitutes and streetkids. He is Director of a sociological institution in Hamburg, Germany, and has done research work about delinquent adolescents/streetkids and methods of welfare work. In 1992 he served as an expert heard by the second chamber of German parliament (“Bundesrat”) on the issue of youth-prostitution and the criminal law.

Address correspondence to: Institut des Rauhen Hauses für Soziale Praxis (isp), D–20148 Hamburg, Germany (E-mail: [email protected]).

SUMMARY. Juvenile prostitution in the German welfare work is being interpreted as a peculiar behaviour which cannot be influenced by criminal law but by psychodynamic and social condition factors and motives. The public prostitution of adolescents largely takes place unaffected by criminal persecution. In view of the legislation in Germany, the regulations of criminal law have not had any decisive influence at juvenile prostitution. In Germany there exists a sufficient protection of children and adolescents. The current discussion about the expansion of the childhood definition of young people up to 18 years, and a de-legalization of agreed sexual actions between people under and over 18 years ignores a typical juvenile behaviour. A change in the situation of life of juvenile prostitutes by a legal intensification, as well as a change in behaviour through an anonymous sanction system like that of legislation, cannot be expected. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Youth protection, youth rights, sexual offences, age of consent, sexual consent, sexual violence, sexual abuse, paedophilia, ephebophilia, child prostitution, youth prostitution, juvenile prostitution, homosexuality, criminal law, social work, street work

Young people of both sexes prostitute themselves in different sociocultural and economic contexts and out of a variety of reasons. In the following under ‘prostitution’ shall not be understood the sexual exploitation of children (in Germany the age limit lies at 14 years) nor the sexual abuse of young persons under use or threat of bodily or mental violence. The subject is rather the prostitution of adolescents and young adults, which occurs in public–mostly in the station districts of the big cities–on the basis of a barter deal “sex against money.”

The extent and the consequences of the prostitution, as well as the reactions of the societal authorities, differ in dependency above all from the economic and social conditions under which prostitution of young people takes place. Adolescents “in the street” prostitute themselves in Latin America or in East Europe above all out of material need, in order to safe-guard their own survival or also the existence of whole families. To the contrary, adolescents in Germany prostitute themselves in order to satisfy their desires of consumer goods, for the procurement of drugs, or even on quest for social and emotional closeness and recognition. An additional motive for male youths is the experimenting with their own more or less accepted homosexuality (Bader/Moebius, 1991).

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