Experiences of Youth in the Sex Trade in the Bay Area

This study in San Francisco and Oakland, Calif. included 136 interviews with youth engaged in the sex trade. Findings show that young people’s involvement in the sex trade mostly fell into three categories: pimps, renegades, and street kids. Although the Bay Area site saw the highest percentage of youth working with pimps (29%) as compared to the other five sites in the study, the large majority of those interviewed were identified as “renegades”—a term used to describe individuals who work on their own without anyone to facilitate their involvement in the sex trade. The third group, “street kids,” typically reported engaging in sex work sporadically, as necessary to meet immediate needs for money or shelter, and understood their involvement in sexual exchanges as one among a range of “hustles” they use to get by.

The following are the multi-site report and the other site-specific reports in the study:

March 2016