DOI: 10.3886/icpsr36522.v1
title: Youth Involvement in the Sex Trade, United States, 2008-2014
title: Version 1

description: These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed. This multi-method, multi-site study aimed to increase scientific knowledge on the population size, needs, characteristics, and criminal justice experiences of youth who are involved in exchanging sex for money, food, housing, drugs, or other goods. Youth interviews were conducted in each of six geographically diverse research sites, as well as interviews with social service and law enforcement agency staff in four of the sites. In addition, state-level data on prostitution arrests of youth under the age of 18 and case-level data on prostitution arrests of youth under the age of 24 in the six research sites were obtained, but are not included in this collection. The collection includes one SPSS data file, Youth_in_the_Sex_Trade_Final_Quantitative_Dataset.sav (n=949, vars= 88). The qualitative data are not available as part of this collection at this time.
description: This study was animated by the goal of gaining a representative portrait of the lives and needs of youth who are involved in exchanging sex for money, food, housing, drugs, or other goods.
description: The youth interview component of this study occurred in six sites around the United States: Atlantic City, New Jersey; Bay Area (San Francisco and Oakland), California; Miami, Florida; Dallas, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; and Las Vegas, Nevada. Each site was initially tasked with seeking to complete 200-300 interviews with young people engaged in the sex trade. At each site, a local professor or consultant was hired as a site coordinator to oversee a team of research assistants (often local graduate students) to conduct the interviews. Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) methods were used to locate and interview eligible youth. All quantitative data were entered into databases by site staff. After all data were entered, research staff at the Center for Court Innovation merged the databases into SPSS, then cleaned and coded the data.
description: The collection includes 1 SPSS data file, Youth_in_the_Sex_Trade_Final_Quantitative_Dataset.sav (n=949), with 88 variables covering demographics, history and current experience of life in the sex trade, use of and need for social services, and experiences with law enforcement.
description: None
description: Response Rates: Not applicable.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None
description: Respondent-driven sampling (RDS). RDS begins with a convenience sample composed of several "seed" interviews and ends with a snowball sample that, after making statistical adjustments for network size, can represent the population of interest.
description: Datasets: DS1: Youth Involvement in the Sex Trade, United States, 2008-2014
description: People aged 13-24 engaged in the sex trade in six cities in the United States. Smallest Geographic Unit: City
description: face-to-face interviewThese data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.The qualitative data are not available as part of this collection at this time.The official arrest records data is not available as part of this collection.