THE EFFECTS ON JUVENILES OF BEING USED

FOR PROSTITUTION AND POPNOGRAPHY

by Himi Halper Silbert

This paper concerns the sexual exploitation of juveniles.  For our purposes

h+e,  sexual exploitation  refers to pornography and prostitution, although

the paper 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 paper

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 paper focuses on the impact of such sexual exploitation on

the victim.

The paper is therefore based on self reports from young men and women, boys and

girls who have been involved in juvenile prostitution and/or pornography.   The

findings discussed here are derived from two sources:   (1) The results of

a two and one half year exploratory study of "The Sexual Assault of Prostitutes',

conducted for the National Center for the Prevention and Control of Rape,

National Institute of Mental Health, sponsored through the Delancey Street

.

I

Foundation in which the author was the principal investigator; and

1

Three volumes describe the results of the study, Grant #ROl MH 32762-01, in detail.
Silbert, Mimi,  Sexual Assault of Prostitutes, Volume I:  Phase One Final Report:
Volume II:  Phase 'Ike Final Report:   Volume III:  Summary Report.   National Center
for the Prevention and Control of Rape, NIMH, 1982.


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Page 2

(2) clinical experiences with well over a thousand prostitutes and a

hundred people who were used to make pornography as juveniles.

Delancey Street Foundation is a self-help residential center which

successfully treats prostitutes, ex-convicts, and substance abusers through

multi-dimensional services providing individual and group treatment,

vocational training, education, and the development of independent living

skills for 600 residents in four cities in the country, along with out-

reach work for juvenile prostitutes and youths involved with pornography.

The residents stay at Eelancey Street an average of four years before

graduating, completely rebuilding very shattered lives.'  As President of

Delancey Street,  I have lived and worked in depth with our residents and

the negative short and long term impact of sexual exploitation, as well

as the secondary social problems attendant to sexual victimization, for

fifteen years.  The NIMH research findings corroborate the clinical pictures

depicted by several thousand residents with whom I've worked: being used by

adults for prostitution and/or pornography is harmful to the juveniles,

not only during the distressing period of involvement, but also, and often

even moreso,  during their future development.

I.   JUVENILE PROSTITUTION

In recent workshops with people in the helping professions specializing

in juveniles, I have asked participants to list those clients whom they

found the most difficult to treat.  Juvenile prostitutes headed the list.

2

For more detailed explanation of Delancey Street, see Mimi Silbert, "A Process
of Mutual Restitution", chapter in book Mental Health and the Self-Help Revolution,
Gartner 6 Reissman, eds., Human Science Press.


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Page 3

The comments reflected those made for prostitutes in general and were

typified by the person who stated, "I hate to say once a prostitute,

always a prostitute, but it seems that way.  They say they want out, but

nothing you do to help them out works.  They run back.  They rip you off.

F

They just don't seem to want to change." 3

From clinical experience, as well as from the study results, I believe

the exasperation expressed by helpers working with juvenile prostitutes

has a great deal to do with a self-destructive pull that develops among

prostitute victims of sexual exploitation who have not dealt directly

or successfully with overcoming their victimization.  Indeed the opposite

is true for these young women.  Subjected to continuous abuse and victimization

over which they have no control, and about which they have no understanding,

these youths have developed what I term a sense of psychological paralysis

which prohibits their ability to do anything positive about further

victimization.  They believe themselves unable to change destructive behavior;

they become debilitated, self-deprecating, and entrapped in helplessness and

hopelessness.  Trapped in a self-destructive cycle, they feel themselves

to be out of control of their lives.  Essentially, they have developed a

chronic disorder as a result of their victimization and an inability to

separate themselves from the sexual exploitation in order to reestablish a

positive life.

'Mimi H. Silbert I  "The Treatment of Prostitute Victims and Sexual Assault"
in Victims of Sexual Aggression: Treatment of Children, Women and Men, Stuart
and Greer, eds.  Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York.  This chapter explores
in depth the problems of treatment of prostitutes and offers some solutions
in detail.


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The results of the NIMH study4 are based on an analysis of 200 women street

prostitutes,  the youngest of whom was 10, the oldest, 46.  Seventy percent

of those prostituting were under 21;  almost sixty percent were 16 or under,

and many were 10 or 11 years old.  Seventy-eight percent of the sample

reported starting prostitution as juveniles; and sixty-eight percent were

16 or younger when they started prostitution.

A majority of the juvenile prostitutes described family structures with the

outward appearances of stability. For example,  over three-fourths reported

having a religous upbringing; that is, going to church regularly and/or

attending a church school.  Forty percent were raised by both mother and

father.  The younger the prostitute,  the more affluent and more educated the

family.  yet, despite the religous, financial,  and other outward appearances

of success,the study revealed a number of problems occurring within the family.

More than half the prostitutes had parents involved in excessive drinking; in

over half the families the subject saw the father hit her mother violently.

Only nineteen percent of the subjects reported having any kind of positive

relationship with their mother while growing up.

In addition to witnessing violence and feeling a sense of isolation in the

family,62 percent of the subjects were themselves beaten while growing up.

Only in one third of the cases was the beating related to something she did.

As distressing as these physical abuse situations are, the most damaging

psychologically are probably those cases in which the victims couldn't ascertain

4

A number of articles derived from the study have been published in professional
journals.  See for example, Silbert, Mimi,  "Prostitution and Sexual Assault: Riosocial:

Journal of Behavioral Exology, Winter, 81-82.  Silbert & Pines, "Juvenile Sexual
Exploitation in the Background of Street Prostitutes", Social Work, 1982, Silbert et-al.
"Substance Abuse and Prostitution", Journal of Psychoactive Drugs Vol. 14, No. 3.
Silbert and Pines, "The Endless Cycle of Victimization", Victimology, Vol. 7.


Mimi H.  Silbert
Page 5

why they were being beaten or those in which they were being beaten for

no special reason.  Two thirds of the victims who were physically abused by

their families as children stated that the beating was not related to any-

thing that they did.

Sixty-one percent of the women were sexually abused as juveniles by an

average of two people each.  Victims ranged in age from 3 to 16 with the

mean age of victimization being 10 years old.  Two-thirds of the victims

were sexually assaulted by father figures:  Thirty-three percent were abused

by their natural father;  thirty percent by a step or foster father; four

percent by a mother's common law husband.  Only ten percent were sexually

molested by strangers.

The emotional impact reported by the victims from the abuse was extremely

negative.  Only one percent felt that they had resolved the experience

positively.  All other victims reported feeling terrible about the experience,

and reported that the abuse negatively affected the way they felt about men,

about sex,  and about themselves.  Almost half of the victims overtly blamed

themselves for the abuse, despite the fact that in almost every case either

physical or emotional force was used on them.   The horror of the incidence

of sexual abuse is compounded by the fact that in most cases (91%) there was

nothing the victim felt she could do about it, either because she didn't

know what could be done or because she was afraid of the repercussions.

In about two-thirds of the cases,  the victims had never told anyone about

their sexual abuse until this study.  Of those who disclosed, fifty-eight

percent stated that disclosing the sexual abuse had a bad effect on their

relationship with the person told.  Only one percent told a professional; only

three percent reported to the police.


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Seventy percent of the women reported that the sexaul abuse affected their

decision to become a prostitute, "I was only 11 when it happened.   I felt

sick and disgusted...I wanted to die; I thought everyone could tell what he

did to me by looking at  me . ..I thought my mother would think I was crazy

if I told her or maybe she wouldn't even have cared; she's like that.   She

doesn't want to lay her trip on me...He didn't even love me: he just wanted

to try something new.  Yeh, I wasn't nothing but a new hole to my own father...

After I ran away, I tried to get a straight job, but who would hire a 12

year old drop-out who was nuts?... At first when they tried to talk me into

prostituting I said no.  Finally, I was scared and hungry and lonely. I

figured I was already ruined.  I couldn't ever go back home after what

happened,  so what did I have to lose?"  Even those who did not score the

sexual abuse as affecting their decision to become prostitutes, did reflect

the influence the abuse had in their open-ended comments. "M_u father bought

me so who cares who else does?"

The picture which emerges from the data on peer relationships is one cf

young girls of grammar school age, feeling extremely isolated, lonely,

and rejected by a group of peers to which they wanted to belong, moving

slowly out of isolation and finding friends among deviant groups, where

they do not experience rejection.  Isolation following sexual abuse was a

common experience among all those in the study.

A distressingly high percentage of the subjects (44%) seriously attempted

suicide.  In addition, 27 percent reported trying to harm themselves in

some other way, or tried to commit suicide more because they wanted someone

to know they were hurt than because they seriously wanted to die.


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The average age of juveniles starting prostitution was 13.   Almost all the

juveniles (96%) were runaways prior to starting prostitution.   Almost all

the subjects (94%) felt very negatively about themselves just prior to

starting prostitution.  The vast majority felt they had no other options

at the time they started prostituting.  Basic financial survival was the
?
reason mentioned by over ninety percent of the juveniles for prostituting.

Although there were different types of the prostitution life-style described,

one predominant pattern emerged among the juvenile prostitutes.   While a

number of juveniles were recruited for prostitution by pimps and other

prostitutes, many reported that they were recruited by middle-aged women,

nurturing in style and appearance.   These women would meet them at areas

in which they were extremely vulnerable such as bus depots and cafeterias

in the Halls of Justice after they had been picked up by the police and

released.  The women, whom I have labelled "house-mothers", would take the

young girls to a cafeteria, buy them a meal, listen to their stories, and

offer them a great deal of concern and sympathy.  They slowly encouraged

the girls into prostitution, not so much by promises of excitenent and

glamour, but through a continuous process of nurturing, concern, and an

offer to care for all their needs.  A number of the juvenile prostitutes

were working out of "gourp homes" as "sex rings ,> . in which three to five

young girls lived, their meals were provided for, and support and control

were supplied by the house-mother.  Pimps serviced the entire group, not

so much as a lover, but moreso as the business agent and ultimate

5 Although these"group homes" were not labelled as sex rings, they share many
of the factors described in the Typology of Sex Rings" in Ann Wolbert Burgess,
Editor, Child Pornography and Sex Rings, Lexington Books, Massachusetts, 1984.


Mimi H.  Silbert
Page 8

protector of the group.  Over three-quarters of the juveniles stated that

they had a pimp at the time of the study, despite the fact that forty-one

percent stated that there were no advantages they could name in having

the pimp.

Although the pimp's primary function is seen as protecting the prostitute,

two-thirds of the youths have been physically abused or beaten by their pimps

many times.   Indeed, victimization as part of their work is very high.

Seventy percent were victimized by customer rape or clients similarly going

beyond the work contract.  The passivity and helplessness experienced by

the victims became evident in the fact that in more than three

quarters of the cases of physical abuse by the customers, the women felt

there was absolutely nothing they could do about the abuse.  Similarly,

in over half the cases of those who were beaten by the pimps, they accepted

it as a way of life,  felt they deserved it, or understood it as a sign of

caring.  One young 14 year old girl explained, "It made him feel like mOre

of a man, and I felt it was my duty...I'm used to it by now.  They can't

hurt me no more."

Aside from the sexual assault related to their work, well over half of the

prostitutes reported that they had been raped since becoming prostitutes,

but completely unrelated to their jobs.  In the majority of cases, the rapist

was a stranger to the victim, the rape involved physical force, and in many

cases the victims sustained physical injury.  Every single rape victim reported

fear, guilt, rage, shock, hurt, depression, relief to be alive, overwhelming

helplessness at the time of the rape, and feeling out of control of her own life.


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Page 9

Emotional trauma experienced by sexual assault victims in general appears

to be compounded for these victims by two factors: 1) The informal street

code of prostitutes precludes the display of hurt or emotional upset or

leaning on personal or social support for assistance-in resisting such

qiotional trauma.  Most prostitutes felt they could not break that code and

therefore dealt with their feelings alone and/or attempted to suppress

them.  2) The helplessness generally experienced as a result of rape is

exacerbated by a general feeling of powerlessness over their lives.   With

no options or control over other areas of their lives, they place a

disproportionate  amount of energy on the ability to control their sexual

activities.  The negative impact of rape is thus intensified by the fact

that it takes this important sense of control from them.

Therefore, despite the violence, and the serious negative physical and

emotional impact of the rapes, significantly more than half of those

victims never told anyone about the rape until this study.  Of those who did

seek help, the majority stated that they felt that the treatment that they

received was indifferent or not helpful,  and that being a prostitute

negatively affected the way they were treated.

When asked the advantages of being a prostitute, they mentioned an average

of one advantage; with almost everyone citing money for survival as the

primary advantage.  When asked what the disadvantages are, the respondents

cited an average of a little over six disadvantages.  For example,   "It is

degrading... you develop a total hatred for yourself for being so low,

filthy, and dirty.  You're like a slave, but like most slaves you don't know

how to get out.  The horror of opening your eyes and finding someone on top


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Page 10

of you... it's hard to forget the faces and the smells.  Especially the

smells.. . The only thing to do is not feel anything and pretend you don't

care.  By now I don't think I'm even pretending.  I don't think I care about

anything."  (13 years old)  Yet, a sense of entrapment in a hopeless situation

emerged when the subjects discussed their options and plans for leaving

prostitution at the time of the interview.  Although most saw themselves

as remaining in prostitution only for a limited period of time, they were

unable to set a specific time.  They saw no other options, particularly

because they were runaways, uneducated, unskilled, and saw adequate

employment as the major enabler to leave prostitution.   Even when asked

to state their hopes,  rather than expectations,  the juvenile prostitutes,

feeling trapped in a degrading life, were simply afraid to hope. As

one of them said,  "Ive learned not to expect nothing.  I just hope I don't

end up nuts."  (16 years old)

The patterns reported by the women street prostitutes in the study reflect

a picture of both male and female prostitution treated at Delancey Street

both through its residential program and through the outreach services

offered.  Prostitution among boys differs from female prostitution in the

portrait of their life on the street.  For example,  while the females are

generally involved with a pimp,  the males generally operate independently.

While female prostitution has tended to include a higher proportion of

minorities in the past, in recent years in the San Francisco Bay Area, the
                    .;

numbers of white girls are increasing and appear to be a majority. Similarly

in a reverse way, male hustlers have been predominantly white; recently,

more minorities are entering hustling, particularly as more and more street


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Page 11

youths,  those in crisis,  and those preteens who are experimenting with

drugs are also experimenting with hustling.

Because they work without pimps,  the male youths tend to be more peer

imolved,  are less professionally organized than the young women, and

engage in a more sexually abusive lifestyle although a less physically

battered one than the women.

The males described significant amounts of violence and sado-masochistic sex.

While there seems to be a great deal of physical violence done to the female

prostitute, the males talked more about their being violent in return.  Again,

this generally focused on sexual violence.

The males, moreso than the females,  seem to maintain a constant search for

the "sugar daddy" or trick who would become a long-term relationship.  While

a number of the females are looking for a love relationship to pull them out

of prostitution, a large number of the males are looking for a lonely man

with a lot of money.  "You can play one of those suckers for a pretty long

time.  They need you.  Especially when they're old and they feel pretty

desperate,  they like us.   The like me 'cause I'm real young.  They act like

it's all this love shit, and you just let them do it as long as they pay.

They pay real good.  And you can keep it up for a pretty long time.  I got

a friend who has been playing this one out with a guy for a long time.

He's set and that's what I want to be." (14 years old)

Those male prostitutes who are also part of the gay sub-culture noted that

for them,  in addition to making money, prostitution offered a sexual outlet.

In the last few years, a high percentage of those who are gay and prostituting


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Page 12

primarily to a gay market, have tested positive to exposure to the AIDS

virus,  and several I have worked with have in fact come down with the disease.

Recently the subject of AIDS has increased thenumbers of young male gay

prostitutes seeking to leave the prostitution life style and is a pervasive

fear with which many are dealing.

On the other hand, while their lifestyles as prostitutes may be different,

the backgrounds of the males tend to be quite similar to those of the females.

Young male prostitutes report similarly troubled family histories.  They

describe a great deal of parental fighting, drinking, and emotional abuse or

neglect.  Their relationships with their families are poor, and they describe

themselves,  as did the women, as isolated among their peers.  Although they

come from families which appear less stable on the outside than the women did,

they show similar and even greater victimization, both physical and sexual.

Over three quarters of the males involved in hustling reported that they were

victims of juvenile sexual abuse.   Half of these were involved in incest.

Again, disclosure was almost non-existent.  The incest was reported by the

child in only one case,  and in that situation the disclosure proved to have

a negative impact on the relationship with the person told.

II.   PORNOGRAPHIC INVOLVEMENT

The NIMH study did not attempt to research either the effects of violent

pornography on sexual assailants or the use of juveniles in child pornography.

Yet, as happens in every large research project, especially exploratory research,

some unexpected information emerged, important information, that unfortunately

was not studied in a systematic manner, but which was significant enough to

report.  Such was the case in  this study with regard to the relationship


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between sexual abuse and pornography. 6 From the detailed descriptions the

subjects provided to open-ended questions in regard to incidents of juvenile

sexual assault in their childhood and to incidents of rape following entrance

into prostitution,  it became clear that there was a relationship between

violent pornography and sexual abuse in the experience of women street

prostitutes.  Since the relationship between sexual abuse and pornography

was unexpected,  no questions addressed it directly.  Only after the data

collection was completed, was the content from all the cases of rape in

juvenile sexual abuse analysed for any mentioned relationship between these

incidents and pornography.

Out of 193 cases of rape,  24% made unsolicited comments that the rapist

alluded to pornographic material.  'Ihe comments followed the same pattern:

the assailant referred to pornographic materials he had seen or read and

then insisted that the victims not only enjoyed the rape but also the extreme

violence.  For example, the following is a typical victim's comments transcribed

from the interview describing how the assailant made reference to his prior

use of pornography, "I know all about you bitches, you're no different: you're

like all of them.  I seen it in all the movies.  You love being beaten." (He

then began punching the victim violently.)  "I just seen it again in that flick.

He beat the shit out of her while he raped her and she told him she loved it;

you know you loviz it; tell me you love it."  The assailant continued to beat

and slap the woman while raping her, repeating his demand that she say that

she loved it,  just like the woman he saw in the movies.  In the majority of

cases, there were no distinctive features about the victims, their situations,

or the factors of the rape, which could account for the assailants' mentioning

6 The results reported, along with a review of the literature and discussion.
in Silbert and Pines, "Pornography and Sexual Abuse of Women", Sex Roles
vol.  10, Nos. 11/12, 1984.


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Page 14

their involvement with pornography.  In 12% of the 193 cases of rape, the

assailant mentioned his involvement with pornography as a response to the

victim's telling the assailant she was a prostitute.

In 19% of the rape cases,  the victims tried to stop the violence of the

rape by telling the assailant that they were prostitutes.  For example, "Calm

dam.  I'm a hooker. Relax, and I'll turn you a free trick without all this

fighting."  Rather than assuage the violence,this assertion only exacerbated

the problem;  the assailants increased the amount of violence in every single

case.  They became furious at hearing the woman say she was a prostitute.   Most

started screaming, demanding that she take back what she had said, insisting

on taking her by force.  In order to reassert their own control, assailants

then became extremely violent.   In all these cases,  the victim sustained

even more serious injuries than those victims who did not disclose their

prostitution status.  This finding supports the contention that rape is an

aggressive act motivated by a desire to establish the rapist's power over his

victim,  rather than a sexual act.

In 12% of the 193 cases, the victims who told the rapist that they were

prostitutes not only received more violent abuse than those who didn't tell,

but also elicited overt comments from the assailants related to pornography.

An analysis reveals that there is a pattern of response among the assailants to

the disclosure, characterized by the following four elements: (1) their

language became more abusive,  (2) they became significantly more violent, beating

and punching the women excessively, often using weapons they had shown the women,

(3) they mentioned having seen prostitutes in pornographic films, the majority

of them mentioning specific pornographic literature, and (4) after completing

the forced vaginal penetration, they continued to assault the women sexually in


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ways they claimed they had seen prostitutes enjoy in the pornographic literature

cited.  For example,  "After I told him I'd turn him d free trick if only he'd

calm down and stop hurting me, then he just really blew his mind.   He started

calling me all kinds of names, and then started screaming and shrieking like

nothing I'd ever heard.  He sounded like a wailing animal.  Instead of just
*
slapping me to keep me quiet, he really went crazy and began punching me all over.

Then he told me he had seen whores just like me in (three pornographic films

mentioned by name),  and told me he knew how to do it to whores like me.   He

knew what whores like me wanted -.-After he finished raping me, he started

beating me with his gun all over.  Then he said,  'You were in that movie.

You were in that movie. You know you wanted to die after you were raped.

That's what you want; you want me to kill you after this rape just like

(specific pornography film) did.'"  This particular women suffered, in addition

to forced vaginal penetration, forced anal penetration with a gun, excessive

bodily injuries,  including several broken bones: and a period of time in which

the rapist held a loaded pistol at her vagina, threatening to shoot, insisting

this was the way she had died in the film he had seen.  He did not, in fact,

shoot after all.

Similarly, 22% of the 178 cases of juvenile sexual abuse mentioned in

unsolicited comments, the use of pornographic materials by the adult prior to

the sexual act.  The particular manner in which the adult used the pornographic

materials varied.  For a few, they used the materials to try to persuade the

children with comments such as, "Now doesn't that look like something that you

and I would have a good time doing together?  Come on look at that.   Doesn't that

make you want to come with me?"  Others used pornographic materials to attempt to

legitimize their actions.  Several victims report that the abuser showed them

pictures depicting children involved in sexual acts with adults to convince them thz


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Page 16

it was acceptable behavior and that it was something they wanted to do.

These abusers for example, "See the expression on her face; that's exactly how

you look at me."  Others used the pornographic materials to arouse themselves

prior to abusing the child.  For example, one of the subjects in the study

described a primitive movie projector her father had set up in the garage.
He used to show himself and his friends pornographic movies to get them

sexually aroused before they would rape her.   (She was 9 at the time.)

Thirty-eight percent of the 200 women prostitutes interviewed reported that

sexually explicit photographs had been taken of them when they were children

for commercial purposes, and/or the personal gratification of the photographer.

Twenty percent were under the age of 13 when this occurred;the rest of the

subjects were under the age of 16 years old.   It should be noted that while

many of the descriptions were open-ended comments included in their stories.

some were responses given to questions of how they earned a living once

they ran away from home and before they began prostituting.

It is likely, given the numbers who spontaneously described their involvement

with pornography, that the cases of pornographic abuse of children would

be significantly higher among the prostitute population if studied overtly. /

7 Indeed, there is already some evidence indirectly supporting this contention.
For example, Baker (1978) mentioned that several authorities have found a close
relationship between child pornography and the practice of child prostitution.
Rush (1980) mentioned that most runaways can survive only as prostitutes or by
posing for pornography.
Baker, C.D. "Preying on Playgrounds: The Exploitation of Children in Pornography
and Prostitution*.  Pevoerdine Law Review. Vol. 5. No. 3. 1978.

Rush, F.  "Chi Id Pornography" in Take Back the Night, Lederer, Ed., William Morrow

Co., N-Y., 1980.


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Page 17

III.   IMPACT OF POl?NOGFW'HY ON JUVENILE: VICTIMS

The following discussion is based on self reports and clinical observation

of one hundred (100) males and females who, as juveniles, have been used

to make pornography, including hard-core and simulated sexual films, videos,

?
magazines,  and photographs.  The subjects ranged in age from 6 years to 21;

the median age was 14.

Clinical data indicate that being a subject in pornography is disturbing and

damaging to the juveniles used.  Short and long-term negative effects were

apparent in terms of physical, behavioral, attitudinal, and emotional impact

on the subjects.  The effects of being used to make pornography will be explored

in this section during three periods of the victims' involvement:  1) At

the time of the exploitation;  2) At the time of disclosure for those who told;

3) Years later, as these people were trying to rebuild their lives.   Some

few of the juveniles counseled were still involved with pornography.

1)  At the Time of the Exploitation

During the exploitation itself, several patterns emerged.   Those who were

involved with the pornography on a short term basis and had stopped their

involvement by the time of the interview, recalled primarily physical and

somatic impacts.,  For example they talked about a great deal of soreness and

irritation in genital, vaginal and anal areas.  They remembered feeling

generally flu-like during the period.  They described symptoms such as

vomiting,  a lot of headaches,  a loss of appetite and sleeplessness.

Fmotionally, most described themselves as extremely moody and unable to

continue on with the friendships they had had before because they felt they


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Page 18

were now so different.  Those used by adults to make pornography over a

longer time described more intense emotional isolation as time passed.

They also talked of growing feelings of anxiety, and many experienced

direct fear.  Clinical observations of those still involved with

pornography at the time of the counseling underscored these descriptions.

Although the physical symptoms were similar, the emotional withdrawals,

isolation, moodiness, daydreaming, and complete sense of hopelessness

were far greater when observed clinically than when described by those

recalling their own past involvement.  That is,  a typical emotional

description included such comments as "I remember not paying a lot of

attention to teachers and people like that sometimes'.  Clinical observation

of youths of similar age and similar type of pornographic involvement showed

them extremely noncommunicative, very withdrawn,seriously inattentive, and,

highly fearful and/or anxious.

2.   At the Time of Disclosure

One of the most destructive impacts on juveniles of their participation in

pornography is the silent conspiracy  into which they feel bound by the

offenders.  Whether they were paid or not,  the participants in the

juvenile pornography all expressed an overwhelming pressure to cooperate

with the adult, never to tell, that disclosure would not only discredit the

offender, but would totally shame and discredit the juvenile, and leave him

or her completely isolated.  Since many of the victims were already vulnerable

because of their need to be included, feel wanted, and cared for, even for

those who participated simply for survival money,  the pressure of the silent

conspiracy had a long term highly negative affect on them, particularly on


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tbair ability to trust others or to feel trustworthy themselves.   This

conspiracy, coupled in some cases with family backgrounds which left

the victims isolated from an adult they could trust with their "secret",

accounted for most of the victims' not telling anyone about the exploitation.

Although the majority of the victims never told anyone of their involvement

with pornography, disclosureoccurred in four cases through law enforcement

intervention, and in one case where a young woman told her mother of her

involvement in an attempt to have her mother intervene.   In two of the

cases, although the period immediately following the disclosure was

extremely traumatic and stressful, the situation was ultimately resolved in a

generally healthy manner.  There was a successful prosecution of the offender,

and the victims, who were 6 and 8 years old at the time, were provided with

treatment.  In the other three cases, the period following the disclosure

included social pressure on the victims and their having to deal with

the negative reactions of others.  In one case there was a great deal of fear

of retaliation, particularly because the offender was violent and was  ultimate

not sentenced for the offense.  In the fifth case,  where disclosure was

initiated not by law enforcement but by the victim herself, the mother

blamed the girl.

The girl, Audie, was 12 years old when she disclosed her involvement in

pornography. Audie had been avictim of incest from ages 9 to 11. and had

begun to show severe signs of withdrawal and depression around age 11.   The

family placed her in a psychiatric ward for observation.  One of the psychiatric


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technicians in the hospital began taking pictures of the girl, telling

her that she could make enough  money from the pictures to not have

to return home.  Initially Audie was terrified of going back to the home

not only because she feared further abuse by her father, but also because

she feared her mother,  the dominant one in the home, would discover what

had occurred.  She allowed the technician to take the pictures thinking

"it didn't matter anyway since I'd already been ruined", and was anxious

to go out on her own.   However, after he took well over 100 pictures and

did not provide her with any money, she began to feel trapped. He

then began posing her being tied up using sexual devices, and with the

suggestions of violence and beatings,  she really became panicked. In

a momentary awareness that she was getting herself more deeply involved

rather than using the pictures as a way to break free from sexual exploitation,

she turned to her mother for help.  At first, particularly because she

was in a psychiatric ward, her mother insisted that she was delusional.

Her mother was extremely angry with her, blamed her, called her "oversexed",

and yelled at her for having continual sexual fantasies.   The mother

reported her upset to the psychiatrist in charge of the case who met with

Audie.  Because she felt completely boxed in a corner at this point, Audie

was able to overcome her fear of retribution by the technician and told

the psychiatrist of the incident.  As it turned out,  the psychiatrist was

able to discover the truth of the case, and found that the technician

had taken pictures not only of this young girl,  but also of a number of


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other youngsters in the ward, many involving bizarre, violent,

sadomasochistic sexual situations.   When the mother was told that the

situation was in fact a true one, she was outraged at the hospital,

then continued her feelings of shame and disappointment in her daughter

9
and the belief that the daughter was "oversexed".  Her mother's

response increased her secrecy, withdrawal, and self-blame.  Although

she was released fromthe hospital, Audie ran away from home and

spent eight years on the street.  She entered Delancey Street when she

was twenty.  She was completely desperate, hopeless, homeless, very

awry r and very guilty.  Indeed.  she had attempted suicide twice, was

a heroin addict, felt completely out of control both of her life and of

her current compulsive thoughts and behavior, had an extremely low

self-concept,  and was violent.  Although she used sex for money, for

attention, and as a way to get what she wanted, she had no emotional

involvement with any of her sex partners and, aside from tremendous

rages and swings to incredible quilt and self blaming, she had little

or no affect.

3.   Years Later

The long term impact of participating in pornography appears to be even

more debilitating than the immediate effects.  The initial negative responses

of shame, fear, or anxiety develop into extremely negative self-concepts,


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sustained shame and anxiety, deep despair, inability to feel, hopelessness,

and psychological paralysis.

For example, Mike had participated in making hard-core pornography films

for profit beginning at the age of 16.  Mike had been in and out of juvenile

halls since he was 12, for being incorrigible at home and for other minor

juvenile offenses, and he was using drugs by age 15.   He had had one

girlfriend from age 14 to 16.  At 16, while he was in juvenile hall,

the girl  left him for their drug dealer and began turning tricks on the

street.  In response, when released from the hall, Mike headed to a

commercial pornographer known to the qanghe ran with on the streets.

He made films for the company for a one year period.  During that time

his drug problem increased greatly, and he felt the money he was making

from the pornography was not enough to sustain his drug habit.   He left

pornography and became involved in a series of burglaries and armed

robberies which had him in and out of prison for ten years.   Mike came to

Delancey Street at 27, functionally illiterate, unskilled, alone, and

wanting to die.

In working through his past to build a new life during his stay at Delancey

Street, Mike found his involvement in pornography to be the hardest part of

his life to admit.  He concealed it for a long time, and when he finally

disclosed it, although he experienced an initial relief from its being out
                  .;

in the open, he began having repeated nightmares, and became extremely

paranoid, despite the fact that he had had no real problems with paranoia

since coming to Delancey Street.  He was unable to get into a relationship


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for several years, and was obsessed with the fact that everyone scorned

him and wanted nothing to do with him because of his "debasing myself,

making myself so low, doing disgusting sex thing after sex thing.   I

didn't care what or who I put it in.  I have no right to touch any decent

girl.  I mean like I feel bad about what I did to my family and everything
r

and I ripped off an awful lot of people and I know I was a real scumbay

for a lot of years.  But at least with that I feel like now that I'm

helping people and doing good things, a lot of the rest of me can be a

person who can hold his head up again one day.  But somehow the stuff

that I did for (name of pornographer) and that I let them film and that

I know people saw, I just don't think I can touch any girl.  I don't even

mean sex.  I mean I can't love anyone good.  I'm like an animal.  why

would she want to have anything to do with me?"  It took over two years

of intensely working with Mike to bring him to separate the acts from

himself and the past from his future.  When he finally entered his first

relationship, he had a great deal of difficulty.  However, he at least

was able to feel some hope and investment in the future of his life.  Now,

five years after entering Delancey Street, Mike has earned a G.E.D., is a

licensed electrician and a diesel truck driver, and has been in a healthy

relationship for a year.

Like Mike, mostof those who were used as juveniles to make pornography,
particularly hard-core pornography,' expressed deep humiliation, extremely

'The impact on participants in juvenile pornography may differ in accordance with
various categories of pornography.  Those involved in hard-core pornography in
which sex acts, bizarre or violent varieties of sexual intercourse are photographe
or filmed, seem to have the most intensive and extensive damage.   Those who were
used to pose for nudist materials with sexual simulations and implications appear
to have somewhat less extensive damage.  Because no real study was conducted to
differentiate the extent of the negative emotional and attitudinal impact of the
pornography on the juvenile victims, these are merely suppositions.


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Page 24

long term and very negative impacts on their attitudes toward themselves,

towards sex, towards their intimate relationships with others. An

overwhelming sense of unworthiness and dirtiness pervaded virtually all

of their pictures of themselves.

Julia came to Delancey Street for help at age 21; she had prostituted in

massage parlors for 3 years;  she had been used to make pornographic films

commercially, but primarily underground pictures and videos for 4 years

prior to that.

Julia grew up in a middle-class area in a small city in the Southwest

where she attended parochial school until she was 14 years old, when she

dropped out of school.  Shortly thereafter she ran away from home. Up

to that time she had lived at home with her step-father, mother, and three

step-brothers.  Her step-father drank excessively while she was growing

up; her mother worked and was not at home a lot.   There was some violence

in the home, in which her step-father hit her mother while drunk on numerous

occasions and also beat her randomly throughout the years she lived at home.

Julia was sexually abused by one of her step-brothers from the time she

was 12 until she left home.  "He and my step-father and one of the other

brothers used to watch these pornographic movies out at my Dad's workshop.

They were always laughing and making loud noises when they watched it and

I wanted to be included.  I was in a weird position in the house anyway.

I'd call my father my step-father because he isn't really ny father.   But


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he was the father of the boys and two of them were older then me.

Even the younger one was his.  I don't know what happened with me. I

don't know if I was a bastard or what.  I only know he wasn't my father

and I used to have to call him step-father and no one would tell me

"who my real dad was.  Anyway, I wanted to see what the movies were that

they'd always be watching.  SO one day my oldest brother took me in and

showed me.  To tell the truth I could hardly make out what was going on,

but as he was watching he became more excited.  He started showing the

movie a second time and started masturbating and making all kinds of

disgusting comments.  I wanted to get out of there by then but the workshop

door was locked and no one came home in the afternoons until dinnertime.

At the end of the second time, he pushed me down and tied my hands with

his belt and raped me... He told me that if I told my mom I would be kicked

out of the family because I was only there because he and his father and

brother agreed that I could stay.  I was sobbing and begging him but he

told me that we'd do this whenever he wanted and that I better not tell

anyone... I didn't tell and that's just what happened.  I did what he

said and never asked any questions and I never told anyone and I kept

feeling sicker and sicker.

One day I was making trouble at school and the nun started screaming at

me and saying 'everyone knows what's wrong with you girl'.   IkneWI

hadn't told but I thought everyone must know.  I-ran home that day and

decided I didn't care what anyone did to me.  They could kill me but I was

never going back to that school...Anyway, with things getting worse at home

and having no real friends anymore, I decided torunaway to (the nearest

big city)...


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I was having a hard time surviving, SO when he offered to pay me

and feed me and buy me some clothes just for letting him take pictures

of me, I really thought I had a good deal.  After a few months I really

thought everything was going to be great.  I was sleeping with him, and

I didn't care that the cameras rolled and took pictures of us while we

made love, because he was the first guy who really seemed to want me.

After a while he told me that I was the best he'd ever seen, and he thought

I could probably take two or three guys on whereas most girls couldn't do

that.. .I really didn't want to, but it seemed real important to him and

I wanted him to be proud of me.  He was 33 years old and I knew he had

lots of women and I thought if I was the only one who could do this, then

I must be really something special to him...

They began to film with with several guys... Then came all the disgusting

things; they would just put anything up me, stalks of celery-.-then it

started with the Coke bottles.  It became a big deal, how I could get

bigger bottles up me than anyone that had worked for them...

By this time I had been with (name) for about three years.  He was still

supporting me, but he was now beating me a lot, and was spending most of

his time with other girls.  I was getting completely broken and desperate.

I started using drugs about two years into being with him, and now he is

no longer asking me to do anything to make him proud.  Now he would just

withhold my drugs and tell me if I wanted them I'd have to do these things.

I needed that dope just to get through the day.  I was strung out pretty

bad and I didn't care what they put up me and I didn't care how many

of them took pictures of it.  I really didn't care about nothing...

The thing I guess that finally got me out of there is when he brought


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Page 27

another woman he'd been with and told me I had to do it with her for the

pictures.. .I don't know why that was worse than bottles or celery or

maybe it was just all of it combined but anyway, I had just had it.

So I took off . ..I was just about 18.
?

I survived for a couple months although hekeptcoming after me.  The

people at the place I was staying at told me not to worry, that they'd

protect me.  I guess it wasn't so much that I was afraid but more that

I thought that he really must want me badly because he kept coming after

me.  I thought maybe he found out I really was special and would stop

beating me up and stop playing around with all those other women.    I

don't know, anyway I went back with him.  Then the same stuff started all

over again.

Finally I took off for good.  I ripped off one of the guys and had enough

money to get myself to (another state).  I decided I'd straighten out some.

I was still shooting dope,  but not as much as I had been.   And I swore I'd

never let anyone take no pictures of me again... I ended up working in a

massage parlor.. -It wasn't as bad as what I'd been doing.   A lot of them

were old, you know, kind of disgusting, but at least I didn't have to do

all that weird stuff . ..By then I was so sick of myself and being used by

old men.. .I decided to come to Delancey Street to try to get my life back."

After three years of intensive counseling and work developing her strengths

at Delancey Street, Julia still found herself choosing men who did not treat

her well, and rejecting men who were good to her.  Even after several years

of a successful career in interior design,  and success and confidence in all


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Page 20

areas of her life,  Julia still felt she was "almost compulsively attracted

to self-centered guys who used me, and bored by the nice guys."   She is

still working on feeling worthy of a mutually caring relationship.

These case studies typify many of the adolescents who have been used to

make pornography.  Over time their self-concepts are eroded. The

problems which occurred during the time of the exploitation were made worse

as the years passed, particularly because most were unable to disclose the

exploitation or to resolve it in any healthy fashion.  As a result, they

feel horrible, not only about themselves, but about the people around

them.  They describe feeling desperate about their lives, out of control of
both their thoughts and their behaviors, unable to make it in society, and

unable to separate the acts they had been involved with from themselves.

It is important to understand how large a role secrecy played for most

of these youths.  The same feelings reported by victims of physical and

sexual abuse were described by juveniles about their being used for

pornography.  They felt there was absolutely nothing they could do about

the victimization.  I suggest here that when excessive victimization is

coupled with the lack of understanding of the causes of the abuse, as

well as a sense of impotence to do anything to change the situation, then

a sense of psychological paralysis develops.

Psychological paralysis is characterized by immobility, acceptance of

victimization, feeling trapped and hopeless, and the inability to take


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Page 29

the opportunity to change.  As I define it, psychological paralysis seems

to occur as   an outgrowth of extended and repeated situations which

lead to "learned helplessness".  A growing body of literature in social

science has shown that when people (and animals) undergo a series of

'negative events over which they have no control, the result is learned

helplessness. 9  The research on learned helplessness is focused generally

on animals and task performance of people.  Some literature has explored

the relationship between learned helplessness and clinical depression,

with a focus on particular groups such as autistic children or battered

wives.  Learned helplessness has been found to be related to depression and

ineffective ways of dealing with events, even positive ones.  After people

have developed learned helplessness they are less likely to believe that

they have control over the success and failure of their experiences,

assuming that they are going to fail at tasks that would otherwise have

been within their ability.

It is my contention that a sense of psychological paralysis pervades those

juveniles who havebeen used as juvenile prostitutes and to make pornography

who claim that they hate what they are doing, who feel that they did not

choose to do that, yet who seem to be completely unable to leave the life-

style, sometimes even when other opportunities are offered.  They maintain

a belief that bad consequences would occur to them no matter what new steps

they would take.  They have lost any sense of control over their lives

and have accepted feeling trapped and victimized.

9 Seliqman, M. Helplessness "Cm Depression, Development and Death", Freeman
Press,  San Francisco, 1979.
Walker, L.E., "Battered Women and Learned Helplessness", Victimology, 2, 3-4,
1977-78.


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Therefore, whatever other controversial issues surround the subject of

pornography, it clearly behooves us to make available to juveniles used

by adults to make pornography intervention services to help them gain

control over their lives.  While not all appear to be seriously traumatized

at the time that they are involved, the long term effects seem to be

extremely damaging for so many, particularly when compounded by other abuses

and/or secondary problems.