For women who are prostitutes, rape is every bit as traumatic as it is for women who are not sex workers. It may even be more painful, as the act reopens old wounds and buried memories of unbearable abuse. In fact, prostitutes demonstrate many of the same characteristics as soldiers returning from the battlefield.

In the 1990s, researchers Melissa Farley and Howard Barkan conducted a study on prostitution, violence against women and post-traumatic stress disorder, interviewing 130 San Francisco prostitutes. Their findings indicate assault and rape are all too commonplace:

Eighty-two percent of these respondents reported having been physically assaulted since entering prostitution. Of those who had been physically assaulted, 55% had been assaulted by customers. Eighty-eight percent had been physically threatened while in prostitution, and 83% had been physically threatened with a weapon....Sixty-eight percent...reported having been raped since entering prostitution. Forty-eight percent had been raped more than five times. Forty-six percent of those who reported rapes stated that they had been raped by customers.

PAINFUL PAST

As the researchers note, other studies have proven again and again that most women who work as prostitutes have been physically or sexually abused as children. Farley and Barkan’s findings not only confirm this fact but also highlight that for some, abuse begins so early that the child is not able to comprehend what is happening to her:

Unfair Game

Writing in the Criminal Practice Law Report, Dr. Phyllis Chesler, Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at City University of New York, describes the violence that permeates the life of a prostitute and why it’s rare for her to report a rape:

The 1990 Florida Supreme Court Gender Bias Report states that "prostitution is not a victimless crime... Prostitute rape is rarely reported, investigated, prosecuted or taken seriously."

SERIAL KILLER...OR SELF DEFENSE?

Chesler cites these statistics as she reviews the 1992 trial of Aileen Wuornos, a woman who the media dubbed "the first female serial killer." A prostitute accused of killing five men in Florida, Wuornos' crimes - as Chesler argues - were mitigated by her past history and the situation surrounding her first murder, committed in self-defense.