Teen prostitution. The words usually conjure up images of young girls walking the streets. But a new study, the first in the city to extensively interview sexually exploited children, suggests that many of the conventional stereotypes are wrong.
"The most surprising is the amount of boys that are doing this,” says Meredith Dank.
Dank is one of a group of researchers charged with conducting the first ever large-scale count of sexually exploited youth, or child prostitutes, in the city. She's been interviewing teens and children since last August.
“Our goal was 200, and we currently have about 330 interviews, that range from females, males, trans-genders, 18 and under,” says Dank.
That's at least ten times what other studies have done. And two out of every three young people they've talked to have been male or transgender. Part of that may be due to the fact that they're not going into bars or clubs, where many exploited girls end up.
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