Abstract
The view that college students have about prostitution is poorly known, and the little research that is available has been done in the USA and Spain. To study the perceptions and knowledge of college students about prostitution in Costa Rica, we interviewed sex workers, directors of foundations and 200 students from San José and Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Most students have a fairly realistic view of the phenomenon; most believe that people enter sex work through a combination of need and choice, that sex abuse is not inherent, that most sex workers have families to take care of with limited education. In regards to the clients most students believe the majority are varied in age, tend to have families and often become regulars. Our results are similar to those reported for Spain.
Highlights
RESUMEN: En Costa Rica, la mayoría de los periodistas que escriben sobre el trabajo sexual son hombres que lo ven como algo criminal y inmoral, y por lo general no entrevistan a los trabajadores del sexo
To study the perceptions and knowledge of college students about prostitution in Costa Rica, we interviewed sex workers, directors of foundations and 200 students from San José and Puntarenas, Costa Rica
In a small sample of American college students, Basow and Campanile (1990) found that the students had a generally negative view of sex work and that this negative view was even stronger among female students
Summary
RESUMEN: En Costa Rica, la mayoría de los periodistas que escriben sobre el trabajo sexual son hombres que lo ven como algo criminal y inmoral, y por lo general no entrevistan a los trabajadores del sexo. Palabras clave: Trabajo sexual, tráfico sexual, cómo presentan los medios la prostitución, realidad frente a la ficción, estudiantes universitarios. The lack of attention and societal assumptions create dangerous working conditions for voluntary sex workers. These women are forced by society into harsh economic conditions, resort to sex work and end up getting stigmatized without considering that society put them there in the first place (Ramírez-Sánchez, Monge-Nájera, RojasCampos & Morales, 2009). Several studies have reported that most female and male sex workers freely choose this line of activity and work as independent contractors (Rivers-Moore, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014)
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