ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the sexual exploitation of juveniles. For our purposes here, sexual exploitation refers to pornography and prostitution, although the chapter also includes some discussion of incest and other sexual abuse of juveniles because they were factors in the backgrounds of many of the youths interviewed. Prostitution is defined as the exchange of sex for money; juvenile pornography refers to films, videos, magazines, books, or pictures that depict juvenile boys and girls in sexually explicit acts. This chapter does not focus on the investigation of pornography, the collector, the distributor, or the viewer of pornography, nor on the pimps, customers, or law enforcement aspect of prostitution. Neither does it concern itself with the controversial issues of prosecution, legalization, or decriminalization. Rather, it focuses on the perspective of the youths and their experiences in being used by adults sexually for commercial and pornographic purposes. Specifically, the chapter focuses on the impact of such sexual exploitation on the victim.
