By Charlotta Holmström (Editor), Jeanett Bjønness, Mie Birk Jensen, Minna Seikkula, Hildur Fjóla Antonsdóttir, May-Len Skilbrei, Tara Søderholm, Charlotta Holmström and Ylva Grönvall

What do we know about the extent of young people’s experiences of sex for compensation in the Nordic countries? Are such experiences addressed by social initiatives and how do legal measures affect them? This report is based on country studies focusing on knowledge about sex for compensation among young people in the Nordic countries. The five country studies show how research on the extent of, and the motivations and conditions for, young people selling sex in the Nordic countries is rather scarce and that there are few social initiatives that target young people specifically. The interviews with service providers and the literature reviewed point to individual vulnerabilities related to young people’s experiences of compensational sex. In order to develop preventive measures more knowledge on structural factors related to experiences of compensational sex is needed.

Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers, 2019. 206p.

Edited by Ronald Weitzer

Money, Sex, Danger and Power, it's all in a day's work for the typical sex worker. Sex for Sale provides a window into the world of sex workers, their customers, and the growing sex industry--in America and abroad. A major contribution to our understanding of the sex industry, Sex for Sale is a collection of original essays on sex work, its risks, and its political implications. Covering areas not commonly researched, the book includes studies on telephone sex workers, gay pornography, Nevada's legal brothels, prostitute's customers, police vice squads, actors in the porn industry, lap dancing in strip clubs, and street prostitution. It includes discussion of violence, HIV infection, and drug addiction, as well as legalization, commercialization and criminalization. A unique addition to the literature, Sex for Sale examones all sides of the sex industry--both positive and negative--and will change the way we understand the sex industry.

New York: Routledge, 2009. 384p.

By R. Barri Flowers

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, we are confronted with a number of serious social issues that have carried over from the past century. One of these relates to the growing phenomenon of runaway prostitution involved children and the implications. Each year in the United States, as many as 2 million children leave home for whereabouts unknown by the parents or caretakers. Tens of thousands of other children are pushed out of the house or abandoned by parents or guardians. These caretakers may be aware of where these youths are located, but do not want to find them and bring them back home. This only exacerbates the problem of homeless street kids who must not only search for survival but also search for love in all the wrong places. However, not all runaways leave home due to intolerable conditions or family dysfunction. Some find they prefer to be on their own for various reasons including independence, sex, problems at school, rebellion, drug addiction, and adventure. Rarely do they find a better life away from home. The correlation between running away from home and harsh street life such as exposure to prostitution, substance abuse, AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, violence, criminality, and victimization has been well documented, as have findings that many children who run away from home were victims of child sexual abuse, neglect, family violence, broken homes, impoverishment, mental illness, and other familial and personal conflicts. Given the convergence of past, present, and future abuses and traumas the runaway is typically exposed to, it is obvious that most are caught up in a horrible cycle for which there seems no escape. Of course, there is a way out, but only if we as a society come to better understand how and why children leave home in the first place, and how their needs can most effectively be addressed and acted upon.

Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001. 232p.