ABSTRACT
A third discourse has been adopted by criminal justice and children’s campaigning organisations, which seeks to reclaim the welfare needs of bad girls by reconstructing them as innocent victims. This is reflected in changing police practices towards very young prostitutes47 and is also demonstrated in reports on child prostitution, such as those by The Children’s Society and Barnardo’s.48 In the latter, Sara Swann argues powerfully for a model of understanding which reconstructs the ‘young prostitute’ as the ‘abused girl’, the ‘pimp’ as an ‘abusing adult’ and the ‘punter’ as a ‘sex offender’. Her tightly structured argument identifies a common process of developing control by a young adult man over a young teenage girl, through four distinct stages of ensnaring, creating dependency, taking control and total dominance. Throughout this process, the girl is the helpless victim, misperceiving her abuser as her ‘boyfriend’ and deceived into a belief that this intense relationship is uniquely ‘special’.
