Dissertation Abstract: Celia Williamson

ENTRANCE, MAINTENANCE, AND EXIT: THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC INFLUENCES AND CUMULATIVE BURDENS OF FEMALE STREET PROSTITUTION

This study examined the process of street prostitution from entrance to exit. Based on a series of in-depth interviews, findings identified stages of street prostitution from entrance through exit using grounded theory methodology. Data revealed a series of progressive stages including entrance, social adjustment, social immersion, being "caught up," and evaluation and exit among women involved in street prostitution. Prostitution here is viewed as a series of environmental influences and cumulative interpersonal burdens. Those environmental influences involved multiple layers of socio-economic phenomena such as the nature of the pimping game, the lifestyle of street prostitution, and the workings of the formal and informal economies. Cumulative interpersonal burdens were defined as daily hassles, acute traumas, and chronic conditions experienced by women over time. In addition, this study identified three types of women involved in street level sex work, namely, "Renegade Prostitutes," "Outlaw Prostitutes," and "Conventional Pimp-Controlled Prostitutes.” The cumulative experiences of environmental influences and interpersonal burdens increasingly overwhelm women's abilities to meet the demands posed by street work, and they eventually exited prostitution.