Sex trading in neighbourhood context: Facilitation, violence, and the spectrum of young women’s exploitation

This chapter explores the lives of young women aged 24 and under who are involved in the sex trade in the Northside neighbourhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, a medium-sized US city. It confers with key people in the neighbourhood who have lifelong and deep contextual knowledge of the sex trade to fact check and see how this data resonates with their experiences. These conversations helped to fine tune the analysis. This cyclical process of analysis is part of community-based research and the recognition of multiple forms of expertise. Young people and others described many small block areas in the Northside as “hot spots” for young people in the sex trade that are nearby but distinct from several known strolls for street-based prostitution primarily with adults trading sex, although some youth work there too. Survival sex or trading sex for basic needs such as a place to stay, food, and clothes was described as common in the smuts.