Jennifer is the mother of a 17-year-old girl who worked as a prostitute for 2 years. She testified to aufeminin about the hell they both went through.
Underage prostitution has returned to the news thanks to a government prevention campaign on the subject. At the same time, a report was submitted to Adrien Taquet. In the striking figures, we note an increase in the phenomenon because of social networks, and the very young age of young girls. Jennifer is the mother of Assia, who is now 17 years old. Her daughter worked as a prostitute from the age of 14 to 16. This mother wanted to testify with aufeminin, in order to talk about this phenomenon which has damaged her family, and underline the difficulties she has had in finding support.
Everything starts from one virtual first encounter with older boywhile Assia lives in a home: “It was a love affair from a distance, with an exchange of a few messages. Gradually, there were runaways to join him and the start of prostitution to ensure the couple’s income”, explains Jennifer. The young man isolates Assia: no more friends, no more apps on his phone, call controls, no talking to his family. Assia even has to call her little brother on the loudspeaker so that he checks what they say to each other. It becomes complicated for Jennifer to know where her daughter is, who constantly runs away from home.
Lack of support from social services
Jennifer contacts social services to alert them to Assia’s situation. She gets her daughter back homewhich she had been asking for years: “Concerning the social services, I informed them of the situation, partly linked to the fact that she had been placed in a home elsewhere; the only decision taken was to cancel the educational placement measure, which means a return at home; I’ve been asking for it for years and we’re doing it when the situation became catastrophic! I also had to ask the children’s judge twice to ask for support with action professionals education in an open environment.
How did she realize that her daughter was a prostitute? “Through his mailbox: I had his identifiers and I came across some ads, I quickly understood, I logged into this account, I saw all the ads…”
Seeing these ads, Jennifer struggles at first to overcome the feelings that assail her : “I was disgusted, disgusted, I was ashamed, it was no longer my daughter, it took me a little time”. Feelings exacerbated by the times she comes for her daughter by force: “The first time I went to pick her up she was in terrible shape, she smelled bad, she was covered in bruises; she was no longer my daughter in the sense that she gave herself nicknames, she dressed differently, she had changed even in her look, she was no longer my daughter, but a physical envelope, she was no longer the same, it took a year and a half for her to become herself again”.
Police officers with little understanding of prostitution
Another source of distress: the lack of support from the police forces encountered: “The police told me to let it go, that if she was going from car to car it was because she was voluntary, they advised me to go home and take care of my other child”. Today, her daughter has returned home, started a process of therapy and will soon face her pimp in a trial. Jennifer wants to do prevention, share her story, and hopes that the elections will mobilize on the subject. She denounces the lack of human resources: no prosecutor dedicated specifically to these cases, training that law enforcement must do in their spare time. Jennifer also hopes that the Solfa scheme in Lille, which welcomes minors in prostitution to help them get out of it, can be extended to France.
From 2016 to 2020, the number of defendants recorded by the police and gendarmerie for offenses of procuring minors or resorting to prostitution of minors has multiplied by 2.5. Moreover, among underage girls who are victims of prostitution of French nationality registered by the police and gendarmerie services, 88% are between 14 and 17 years old. The boys, even if they are still a minority, are represented at all ages.
Missions: Mathilde is an expert in subjects related to women’s rights and health. Addicted to Instagram and Twitter, never stingy with a good …