US teens often forced to trade sex work for food, study finds | US news

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  • US teens often forced to trade sex work for food, study finds
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/12/teens-america-hunger-food-poverty

    Teenagers in America are resorting to sex work because they cannot afford food, according to a study that suggests widespread hunger in the world’s wealthiest country.

    Focus groups in all 10 communities analysed by the Urban Institute, a Washington-based thinktank, described girls “selling their body” or “sex for money” as a strategy to make ends meet. Boys desperate for food were said to go to extremes such as shoplifting and selling drugs.

    The findings raise questions over the legacy of Bill Clinton’s landmark welfare-reform legislation 20 years ago as well as the spending priorities of Congress and the impact of slow wage growth. Evidence of teenage girls turning to “transactional dating” with older men is likely to cause particular alarm.

    #Etats-Unis #pauvreté #lamentable