7 Young Adulthood 197was inextricably linked to her drug use. Nicole attributes her initial drug
use to childhood molestation. She did not disclose her molestation due to
“embarrassment” and the fear that “my mom would be devastated. It was a
friend of the family. It would of killed her.” Her inability to share her story was
reinforced by the fact that this family friend was the “only one” who “could
calm [her drug-using] father down.” As she got “older, when [drug] using got
real bad, [and she] couldn’t work,” she turned to prostitution. Nicole’s sex
work was intertwined not just with drug addiction but with poverty. Nicole
had been dismissed from PDC but I met her when she accompanied with a
friend to a focus group I ran. I interviewed her again about 2 years later, when
she came to court to offer support to another friend in the program: “I wanted
to see, I know Sara’s always [at monthly PDC meetings], and I wanted to see
[the public defender] and a couple other girls I know that are still in the pro-
gram or have recently just gotten in.”
For Nicole, PDC evokes a sense of community. She speaks of the sup-
port that she found there among other women, as well as with her probation
officer, lawyers from the public defender’s office, and the judge who had been
the judge for most of her cases before, during, and after her involvement with
PDC. She described an exchange with her public defender after a recent arrest:
“I remember I called [the public defender], the one after these last 2 cases
I said, ‘Can I get back in Dawn’s Court?’ She’s like, ‘Oh, Nicole, you hated it.’
I said, ‘No I didn’t. I don’t remember hating it.’”
Description of Loss
The picture of sex work, especially street-based sex work, is one of risk and
hardship (Weitzer, 2009). This is reflected in the literature, and in the moral
approbation and pity that is conveyed in the media, which often conflates
any form of sex work with trafficking. I want to first make clear that while
elements of Nicole’s story are shared among many street-based sex work-
ers, her story does not represent all forms of sex work, or even all sex work-
ers. Neither is her story a call to continue criminalization of sex work in the
United States; indeed many of the risk attendants to sex work may be more
a product of criminalization than risk inherent in the work itself. Sex work
is a viable, if not always optimal, choice for those who face extremely lim-
ited options (Rosen & Venkatesh, 2008; Shdaimah & Wiechelt, 2012). Further,
recent research with street-based sex workers has found they exhibit strength,
resourcefulness, humor, an ethical compass, and mutual support networks
that often go unnoticed (Oselin, 2014; Shdaimah & Leon, 2014; Shdaimah &
Leon, in press). These strengths develop within communities and through life
experiences. When ties to street-based sex work end, women may experience
the disruption of their community and even the work itself as a loss.
Nicole’s story shows her continued sense of connection to the PDC
community of women. Some study respondents believe that someone who
has walked in their proverbial shoes can best understand their situation
(Shdaimah & Wiechelt, 2012). Women provide advice, mutual assistance, and
role models (Shdaimah & Leon, 2014). Women have described providing each