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Running Head: TEENAGE PROSTITUTION 1
SOWK 6361 Week 8 Assignment
Racquel Walsh
Walden University
TEENAGE PROSTITUTION 2
Teenage prostitution is a social problem that is significantly impacting society in the United
States. Despite the many laws and policies that have been put in place regarding teenage
prostitution, the problem still continues to grow. This portion of my social change project will
analyze the proposed social policy. The strengths and weaknesses of my proposed policy will be
how making changes to the policy will affect clinical social workers and his/her client(s), as well
as provide an update for advocacy activity.
My proposed policy attempt to make advancement to current laws that prohibits teenage
prostitution. The proposed policy will restrict individuals from enticing individuals who are under
the age of 18 years old from engaging in any type of sexual activity and/or buying sexual services
from children. The policy being presented has various strengths as well as identifying the issue of
consent regarding teenage prostitution. The teen would be considered a child that is protected by
the government regardless of his/her reason who engaging in sexual acts regardless if consent was
given or not. The proposed policy has the belief that the teen is not capable of being able to make a
sound decision on their own. The individual who is buying the services must make sure that the
individual they are buying sexual services from can provide proof that they are 18 years old or
older in order to prevent facing any legal action and consequences. The proposed policy would
also call for support from society and the community in order to combat the social issue, which can
also be considered as another strength. This would make every individual involved take
responsibility and in charge of making sure the cases of teenage prostitution are reduced (Baker
2019).
The concern regarding being able to identify the offender’s guilt can be considered as a
weakness of the proposed policy. Some of the teens may give their consent in order to receive
TEENAGE PROSTITUTION 3
money, gifts, or other valuables, and lie about his/her age because they know that they are doing is
wrong and that it is a crime. The proposed policy also presents some bias because it does not give
any consideration to the decision of the child, instead, all responsibility is placed on the adult
offender. Another weakness of the proposed policy is that it does not differentiate the difference
between prostitution that is forbidden and prostitution that is legal. Children that are under 18 years
old are protected by government laws. Once that distinction has been made it the distinguishment
between prostitution that is forbidden and prostitution that is legal can be made.
Social workers advocate for social change. When advocating for social change, one of the
main things social workers have to do is provide education to the community on the social problem
as well as the changes that the policy can bring. While providing education to the community on
the social problem, the social worker should also provide information that can/will promote the
well-being of the teen as well, which could bring about a new and different understanding of the
social problem of teenage prostitution. This can affect the way that social workers work being as
they would have to make consideration to certain issues that are raised in the policy in order to
increase social well-being. The various aspects of teenage prostitution must be clearly understood
in order to assist teens that are dealing with being rejected when making attempts to merge
themselves back into society and the community.
The clients of the social worker can sometimes often suffer from mental health problems as
well as suffer from societal problems. Social problems such as poverty and cause a child to engage
in a life of prostitution. The proposed policy can change this understanding being as teenage
prostitution is illegal, regardless of the circumstances regarding the situation. The proposed change
will call for the collaboration of social workers as well as other professionals
TEENAGE PROSTITUTION 4
when it comes to combating the social problem (Baker 2019).
There are multiple activities of the policy change that has been completed. The first activity
made the demand for the causes of the social problem to be clearly understood. The analysis has
been complete in stating the various causes that are all based on research, such as social factors
such as poverty, lack of education, lack of support, and policies that fail to put an end to the social
problem. Under the word-of-mouth campaign based on anti-teenage prostitution which has already
started has activities that are complete but are still progressing because continuous advocacy is still
needed, and included providing education on teenage prostitution to teenagers, parents/guardians,
and the community.
This policy has already been established, being that there is already a law that bans teenage
prostitution. The proposed policy has already been revealed and discussed with possible supports
in the community such as parents and well-respected community figures. Media coverage of the
proposed policy, which would be great when it comes to gaining more support has not been done
yet. Having a follow-up activity has also not been done yet. Monitoring after the policy has been
implemented is an essential activity to evaluate its effectiveness (Jansson 2018).
TEENAGE PROSTITUTION 5
References:
Baker, C. N. (2019). Racialized Rescue Narratives in Public Discourses on Youth Prostitution and
Sex Trafficking in the United States. Politics & Gender, 15(4), 773-800.
Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social
justice. (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.
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