Why do so many normal and attractive young women become prostitutes?

Supply and demand.

“They are attractive and appear to have college and career potential” Bet your bottom dollar they are on drugs too. Where else is someone going to earn a hundred dollars or more an hour and possibly score some free shit?

And some of them are trafficked. It’s not always by choice!

^^that’s very true!

From their actual appearance, these young women, who appear to be about eighteen to maybe the mid-twenties, seem well-above the league of their “clients.” They are attractive and appear to have college and career potential.

How good looking do you have to be for it to help in college?

Go back into the bible and before. Some women in any historical era have been prostitutes. This isn’t anything new. Maybe you’re noticing it now as you get older.

It’s an occupation that has no serious training required, you don’t need to be particularly intelligent. Startup costs are fairly low, and minimal capital investment.

Why wouldn’t you be a prostitute if you need cash?

And if you are attractive, you can charge more (and work less).

(Original asker here): I just can’t imagine the money would be THAT good. How much is a night with a “Ho” now? I’m not condemning the women with that label—that’s what they’re called. Anyway, the guys are ghetto trash that may get a little money from crime and drugs or maybe some of them work a little. Just can’t imagine the PEOPLE (morality aside) and what is little more than getting raped. being worth it…

So, what?? You want they should pay an ugly Chick?

My old roommate was huge and used to drive around prostitutes and wait outside the door while they did their thing. But it wasn’t a hang out on a corner gig (so maybe more of escorts without the dinner and prestige).

The last two pages of The Eugene Weekly were pretty much ads for prostitutes. There was one woman who needed a ad placed and this was back in 1998. So not a lot of people had photoshop or new how to do it. So I was tasked with making her ad. Simple job, make it the right size and toss some text over the picture. Since I have always been a bit of a asshole and was not thrilled with this gig I used Comic Sans.

Funny thing is I was there when they submitted the ad and they rejected it since the “escort” was not the one in the picture. At least The Eugene Weekly had standards.

But my friend got 25 bucks a hour driving and basically being a bodyguard for the women. At the time I was making six bucks a hour at a normal job.

So if he is making that much it is probably safe to say the women were making a lot more. This isn’t movie stuff where a hummer is 20 bucks. We are talking a couple hundred a hour.

And pretty much all the ads in the paper, even though they all used different numbers all pretty much went through the same agency.

@Yellowdog “I’m not condemning the women with that label—that’s what they’re called.”

Yes, that’s what they’re called—by people trying to condemn and/or demean them. And the very fact that you attempted to cancel the derogatory implications proves that you knew they were there. It would have required less effort and less explaining yourself to use a different word, so why didn’t you?

“Anyway, the guys are ghetto trash that may get a little money from crime and drugs or maybe some of them work a little.”

And I suppose you “know” this the same way that you “know” that the women you are talking about are prostitutes? Or the same way that you have divined the number of prostitutes in your city based on the number you think you have seen at your apartment complex (some of whom may actually be repeats)?

In any case, I would once again recommend that you stop thinking of other human beings as trash—especially in light of the fact that, for all of your observations, it’s rather unlikely that you’ve actually met most of them. But really, I’d just recommend against it regardless. It’s not an attitude that helps anyone, including yourself.

But to answer your question, I don’t think you have the evidence to support the presupposition that “so many normal and attractive young women become prostitutes.” Indeed, what you really seem to be asking is “why are so many prostitutes normal and attractive women?” Of course, this question is much easier to answer.

For one, the vast majority of women are normal (that’s what “normal” means, after all) and attractive (thanks to evolutionary pressures that keep us attracted to “normal” women, even if we might also be attracted to certain subsets of “abnormal” women). This is particularly true for women within your estimated age range.

For another, as some of the previous answers have already noted, there isn’t going to be nearly as large a market for “abnormal” and “unattractive” women (due to a lack of supply for the desired subsets of abnormal women and a lack of demand for the undesired sets of abnormal and/or unattractive women). And this is true whether the women are there voluntarily or not.

Honestly, it’s all pretty straightforward—and not to beat a dead horse, but it might not have mystified you so much had you been thinking of everyone involved as a human being and not some piece of unrelatable trash.

Maybe if you saw how they treat women, or their language or perverted/ violent behavior, you’d feel differently.

I get that you are trying to establish a moral high-ground. Its a pity that no one has done a reality T.V. documentary on how this culture lives. I don’t think you have a clue.

Everybody here seems to think that these people all do it by choice, yet the rate of women and children trafficked into sex work is outrageously high. Do your own research- you’ll be reading until next Tuesday! And this is true whether it’s in the US or other countries.

Drugs. In today’s society, so many young people get hooked on things like heroin and will do anything to get the next fix. Combine that with low self-esteem and a great ability to choose bad guys and voila! you have a prostitute.

@Yellowdog “Maybe if you saw how they treat women, or their language or perverted/ violent behavior, you’d feel differently.”

No, I wouldn’t. Just because I might disapprove of their behavior doesn’t mean I have to think of them as trash.

“I get that you are trying to establish a moral high-ground.”

Not really. My personal moral beliefs don’t really allow for moral high grounds. What I am doing is appealing to the values that you supposedly subscribe to: “judge not, lest ye be judged,” “love the sinner, hate the sin,” “whatever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me,” “God is love.”

There’s a word for people who can’t be bothered to practice what they preach: hypocrites. And the Bible has something to say about this particular form of hypocrisy: “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” (1 John 4:20).

“Its a pity that no one has done a reality T.V. documentary on how this culture lives. I don’t think you have a clue.”

I live in the same type of neighborhood you do. I just endeavor to understand people rather than hate them.

@snowberry “Everybody here seems to think that these people all do it by choice.”

Both @ARE_you_kidding_me and I explicitly acknowledged that prostitution is not always voluntary, and several of the other answers can be read in a way that does not presuppose that all prostitution is voluntary.

Easy money.

@Yellowdog In a normal looking but “more-lowlife-than-it-appears” apartment complex…

Have you considered leaving?