Adolescent Female Prostitutes: Criminals or Victims? 51for loitering (34,011), vagrancy (313), and suspicion (322) than for prostitution
and vice. Research shows that officers will arrest these adolescent girls under var-
ious other status offenses in order to prevent stigmatizing them as "prostitutes,^1 ' ID
addition to prostitution, these girls frequently engage in diverse criminal and delin-
quent activities. Flowers (1995) found that the crimes most typically committed by
these juvenile prostitutes include theft, robbery, drug dealing, and the use of drugs.
Greater than 80% of the arrests of both females and males were between the age
range of 15—17 years of age.
Overall, officers exercise a great deal of discretion in their decisions to arrest
or not arrest and on what charge (Flowers, 1998). The literature is consistent
in that the overwhelming majority of juvenile females arrested for prostitution
are Caucasian (Flowers, 1998; Weisberg, 1985). African Americans compose a
distant second-largest category of juvenile prostitutes (Weisberg, 1985). Juvenile
prostitutes can come from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Flowers (1998) main-
tains that studies with smaller samples have found that they are overrepresented
in lower socioeconomic classes. However, research with larger samples indicates
that the majority of juvenile prostitutes come from middle- and upper-class back-
grounds.
A number of pieces of federal legislation have been enacted since the 1970s to
crack down on the sexual exploitation of children. According to Weisberg, states
are creating "criminal statutes that fail to punish adolescent prostitutes either by
omitting any mention of sanctions or specifically excluding adolescents involved
in prostitution from any liability" (as cited in Flowers, 1998, p. 152). Weisberg
(1985) further explains that in civil legislation, many states look at adolescent pros-
titution as a form of child abuse/sexual exploitation than as a result of delinquent
behavior. In both cases, the adolescent prostitute is viewed as victim, not as an
offender.
As previously mentioned, most cases of juvenile prostitution are handled by ei-
ther a police department's vice squad or juvenile division. According to Weisberg
(1985), the various units and police officers involved in a juvenile prostitution case
create the lack of a coordinated response. He maintains that vice squad officers
perceive these juveniles as troublemakers as a result of their involvement with var-
ious types of crime and their "streetwise" demeanor. In addition, he explains that
frequently officers are unaware of the resources available in the community to help
these adolescents. Their typical response is to arrest. In contrast, Weisberg sug-
gests that the juvenile division officers are much more in tune with a rehabilitative
approach and have the capability to make the appropriate referrals to community
organizations and treatment programs. He levies the criticism that officers who sim-
ply arrest are failing to provide any long-lasting solution to the problems posed by
juveniles.
Some researchers suggest that it is not an officer's lack of knowledge about
community resources for adolescent female prostitutes but rather their belief that
these programs are not effective in making either short- or long-term changes in