Backstreets

“Backstreets is a major breakthrough that takes us into the daily, lived experiences of prostitution to reveal its harsh and brutal realities. Nowhere else have we seen the violation that prostitution is to women so fully and sensitively revealed. From women’s lives Backstreets exposes the lies of liberal romanticization of prostitution. The unavoidable conclusion of this work is that we must challenge every social condition that gives men license to use women in these ways.” —Kathleen Barry, author of Female Sexual Slavery

“No single study has gone this deeply into the aftermath of steady involvement in prostitution on the self-images, self-feelings, and personal relations with the opposite sex for both prostitutes and customers. The similarities of some of these prostitutes’ experiences with the reactions of survivors of incest and rape are also thought-provoking. Few studies ever present this much data on the backgrounds, strategies, and life-styles of customers and pimps. This triangulation' of the world prostitution—utilizing data about a significant number of women, clients, and pimps—provides an unusual depth to this work.” —Barbara Sherman Heyl, Illinois State University