[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Jucheol In] “It’s cold. You’ll catch a cold. Dress warmly.”
A, who went out for a conditional meeting, posted on SNS that she was “at the Han River on a cold dawn,” but her heart was shaken after seeing an unexpected comment from her father. “If he knew why I’m awake at this hour, what would he think... That affected me a lot.”
When A was in elementary school, her father, who was raising the children alone, often couldn’t come home due to night work, so she and her younger sibling had to endure scary nights alone.
She also suffered sexual assault by a friend of her father. At school, she was bullied for reasons such as not having a mother and not washing well, and she even stole things to attract others’ attention.
The reason A started prostitution was a friend. A friend she barely made one day suggested, “If you have sex with a man, you get paid. Would you like to try it?” A accepted the proposal thinking, “If I want to stay with this friend, I have to do this.”
A, who continued conditional meetings from her teenage years into her twenties, also stopped prostitution decisively because of a friend. She said, “I was very concerned about how people saw me, but one day I overheard a friend saying behind my back, ‘If you just let her be a little loose, she’s a sucker who spends all the money herself,’ and I realized that everything I was doing was all in vain.”
This content is included in the recently published report by the Jeju Women and Family Research Institute (hereafter referred to as the Institute) titled “The Actual Condition and Support Measures for Juvenile Victims of Prostitution in Jeju Area” (Research Director: Researcher Lee Hwajin). The Institute conducted in-depth interviews with 10 juvenile victims of prostitution and 10 related institution workers, covering the background of entry into prostitution, damage status, response and impact, victim support, and policy demands for awareness improvement.
According to the Institute on the 11th, the reasons juveniles engage in prostitution were found to be diverse, including child abuse, sexual abuse, maintaining peer relationships, and economic hardship. In the case of A, who was thirsty for relationships and affection from an early age, she chose prostitution to maintain friendships.
Among juvenile victims of prostitution, some attempted extreme acts such as self-harm and suicide to the extent that they envied patients lying in intensive care units.
B confessed, “I self-harmed on my thighs and banged my head against the wall,” adding, “It was only at that time, but I felt like someone recognized my pain (around me).”
C said that the fear of having no one come after her death is greater than dying itself. C said, “I went up to the veranda and thought, even if I die, who would say anything to me? When a person dies, everyone is sad. But if I die, who will come? I’m so scared and miserable that no one will come after I die. How nice it would have been to have a mom and dad who listened to me.”
Economic problems account for a large proportion of the reasons juveniles engage in prostitution. However, experts point out that there are limits to economic support from public institutions. One juvenile with prostitution experience wanted to become a social worker and sought help at a community service center but gave up after hearing that they could support 500,000 won but would stop if she earned more than 800,000 won.
This juvenile said, “I wanted to become a social worker and applied for the credit bank system, but I needed 4,000 won to issue an ID. But I didn’t even have that money. When I asked a welfare facility staff, ‘What should I do?’ they said, ‘Why are you asking me that?’ I cried a lot. I was so sad. I didn’t know such a small amount of money would have such a big impact.”
The Institute diagnosed, “While economic factors are important, a significant part of the initial entry into prostitution is related to maintaining peer relationships,” and “there is a need for policies focusing on improving interpersonal relationships such as with parents and friends to prevent re-entry and enable proper decisions.”
A said, “In my case, it wasn’t about money but about relationships with friends that led me to prostitution,” adding, “If there are friends who want to engage in prostitution now, I think it’s more important to teach them how to build and maintain relationships with people. This is just my opinion, but I think everyone comes because they are lonely.”
The Institute stated, “To discover and support juvenile victims of prostitution, institutions that understand youth culture and communication methods different from adults are necessary,” and “Since most victimized juveniles engage in prostitution due to living expenses, various forms of self-reliance support and cooperation among related institutions are important.”
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