ABSTRACT
Many people think of prostitution as a ‘career’ or even a ‘profession’, but for most of those who become involved in prostitution the intention is often to be involved for a limited period of time. Research carried out in London, for example, in the mid 1980s found that the majority of women involved in street prostitution worked on a short term or sporadic basis, normally to meet pressing financial needs. The second largest group involved mainly women who had come to London for an anticipated two or three year period to make some money in order to make their lives more financially stable. Many of these ‘away day’ women, however, remained involved in prostitution for five or six years. The third group involved what might be referred to as the ‘career’ women. This group involved less than 10 per cent of the total (Matthews 1986a). Similar typologies have been developed by American researchers. Potterat et al. (1998) have divided women involved in prostitution into ‘evanescent’ workers who engage a few days or weeks annually, ‘shortterm’ workers who work intermittently for weeks or even months, and ‘long term’ workers who work for a number of years.
