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Being Outside: CONSTRUCTING A RESPONSE TO STREET PROSTITUTION
Chapter Three: DEFINITIONS
3.1 Street prostitution is virtually self-defining. As the law stands it covers the act of soliciting in a public place for purposes of initiating a sexual transaction for reward (financial or 'in kind').
At various points in the report, reference is made to the vulnerability of those involved in prostitution. This should be taken as a broad definition of the types of factors which makes a woman vulnerable whilst involved in prostitution, rather than following any statutory definition of a vulnerable person. The types of vulnerability factors referred to are:
- young age,
- experience of family breakdown and being in local authority care,
- experience of sexual and physical abuse,
- suffering from mental illness or learning disability,
- having thought and judgement impaired through intoxication from drug or alcohol use.
To this should be added the desperation arising from poverty, homelessness and lack of feelings of self worth. For these reasons the Group considers street prostitution as predominantly a survival behaviour.
Children are defined as those under the age of 16 as is the current position in Scots law, although it should be noted that the law in England and Wales has recently extended the age at which a young person can be abused through prostitution from 15 to 17, in pursuance of international treaty obligations. In Scotland young persons aged 16 or 17 may also be subject to legal duties of protection or supervision if they were subject to a statutory supervision order at the time of their sixteenth birthday.
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