Area study says female teen prostitution 'common'

By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer | Tuesday, November 1, 2005 10:40 PM PST ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- The number of teenage girls who sell themselves as prostitutes is a serious problem in San Diego County that needs further research and action, according to an area report released Tuesday.

The nine-page study on female teen prostitution by the San Diego Association of Governments, a regional planning organization, is the agency's first attempt to document what most of the adults surveyed thought was a "common" to "very common" problem.

The information was provided by 87 professionals who work with teenage girls, not the girls themselves, said Sandy Keaton of the association's Criminal Justice Research Unit.

"It was brought to our attention from various perspectives that this was a growing concern," Keaton said. "This is the first step in what we hope will be a series of studies to help policymakers make some decisions."

Those surveyed included people in law enforcement, such as officers in the field; staff at agencies that provide services for girls; probation agents and deputy district attorneys; and school employees, primarily counselors.

Based on their experiences, the report said, most of the girls, 86 percent, engage in prostitution at least once a week, and almost two-thirds of the girls have pimps over the age of 18.

"A lot of these girls are runaways," said sheriff's Deputy Rick Castro, a former Vista deputy who wasn't interviewed for the study. "They (pimps) promise them a nice place and nice clothes."

The professionals split on whether the problem is most common in the San Diego city area or throughout the county. However, 3 percent of them thought there was a North County teen prostitution problem, the study said.

Detective Lt. David Mankin, Escondido police spokesman, said officers seldom encounter prostitutes under the age of 18 in the blue-collar inland community.

"Actually most of the prostitution we've dealt with are females 40 to 60 years old," Mankin said.

One of the problems, Keaton said, is that the teen prostitution arrest figures don't accurately reflect the situation.

Countywide, 76 girls were arrested last year, a 27 percent increase over the 60 reported arrests in 2003.

However, the girls often get picked up for other charges, such as petty theft or substance abuse, instead of prostitution, Keaton said. She said case workers then discover that those girls are sometimes also prostitutes.

The survey said that most of the girls meet a customer or "john" primarily by walking the streets, in addition to through a pimp and through friends or family.

The majority of the professionals, 81 percent, felt that female teen prostitutes only practice safe sex some of the time, the study said.

It said about half of the professionals described most of the girls as 13 to 15 years old, while the other half said they were between 16 and 17.

About 59 percent of the girls are coerced into prostitution, while two of the most common reasons the girls become prostitutes are to have personal spending money and to buy drugs and alcohol, the survey said.

The study's recommendations included better documentation of regional teen female prostitution, creating a regional task force, special programming to help the girls who often have sexual and substance abuse problems, educational programs about sexually transmitted diseases, and comprehensive treatment and intervention.

Keaton said the study didn't address boys because it was developed through the Girls Issues Group, a support group for teenage girls, so additional resources weren't needed to do this survey.

"It doesn't mean that boys are not involved in prostitution," and a future study may be done for boys if more resources become available, she said.

Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com.