Child Prostitution Reforms, Childhood and Sexuality

Child prostitution literature and law from the late§nineteenth century has theorised power as an§interpersonal force which is exercised by strong§members of society against the weaker members with§law posited as the child s saviour. Whilst this is a§conceptually valid theorisation of power within child§prostitution discourse it is not the only possible§theorisation. The focus on theorising young people as§sexually vulnerable to the exploitation of adults has§had the effect of omitting analysis which questions§the nature of power in contemporary society. This§work challenges the theories of power evidenced in§the child prostitution literature to provide a§Foucauldian analysis of the role of power within the§child prostitution discourse from the late nineteenth§century to the Scottish reforms in 2005. This work§argues that the conceptualisation of power evidenced§in the child prostitution discourse from the late§nineteenth century is based on the inter-related§discourses of childhood, sexuality, child and human§rights which combine at this point in history to§produce the sexually vulnerable victim. This work§will be of interest to those working in the fields of§sociology and law.