Teen Strippers, Old Enough to Be Indoor Hookers but Too Young to Drive

[Bill Cosby]

http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/nm_stripper_21_090722_mn.jpgIn Rhode Island, a loophole in the law allows girls as young as 16 to find work as strippers. The state also allows "indoor" prostitution.
(Sara Press/Getty Images/Getty Images)


Elizabeth Roberts' 17-year-old daughter was put through the bureaucratic wringer to get a summer job in her home state of Rhode Island this year. (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=8149969&page=1)

Under state law, the teenager could not operate a power saw, work on ladders or even pump gas. The state also regulates how many hours and times of day minors can work.

But in Rhode Island, where Roberts is lieutenant governor, the teen -- with a work permit -- can take off all her clothes at a strip club, even those where adult men can touch the merchandise.

Just this week the Providence Journal revealed that a loophole in the state's minor laws do not restrict girls as young as 16 from working as strippers, as long as they are home by 11:30 p.m.

This spring, while investigating a 16-year-old runaway who had been working at one of Providence's notorious strip clubs, police discovered that they could not prosecute, because there were no local or state laws barring teens from working in the city's thriving adult entertainment business.

"To think that any minor could just as easily be employed as a stripper is mind-boggling," Roberts said. "This must end immediately."

In other parts of the country, even in Las Vegas, there are age limits on strippers, according to the report.

"When I saw yesterday's paper, I had a visceral reaction -- it's an outrage that we would ever have allowed this to happen -- that anyone would hire a young person we are meant to protect," Roberts told ABCNews.com.

"Everyone was completely shocked to learn it wasn't against the law," she said. "None of us was aware of it."

Strip Club Described as 'Dark and Dirty'

The 16-year-old runaway had been working at Cheaters, described by the Boston Strip Club Directory as "dark and dirty."

Cheaters refused to comment to ABCNews.com.

"You get more contact here talking to a woman at the bar than you do in most clubs during a lap dance, and in the private rooms, anything goes for probably half the women working there, and the others will still make sure you leave happy," reported one of its customers.

Teen Prostitution, at Least Indoors, Not Illegal

Inconsistencies in Rhode Island law would allow teens to turn to prostitution, providing it's done indoors -- in a hotel room, club or private home. Prostitution is only illegal when the solicitation is done outdoors.

"You see it on a daily basis on Craig's List, pictures of girls with hourly rates," said Major Thomas Oates, who is in charge of the Providence Police Department's investigative unit. "It's about as open as you can get."

More @ source.


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[Citizen]

Stripper = hooker? :dunno:

[Bill Cosby]

Why not post your comments on both.............

[Citizen]

Why not post your comments on both.............

OK, but if you're an advocate of public safety I'm not sure if grinding up and down on a dude's leg is hazardous to anyone's health (maybe hazardous to their marriage :D) in comparison to being a poor driver.

[Bill Cosby]

Would you allow your daughter to work there???

[Citizen]

Would you allow your daughter to work there???

No, I probably wouldn't.

[Bill Cosby]

No, I probably wouldn't.


I know I wouldn't..........

I think as men we have few qualms ogling someone elses daughter but don't want anyone ogling ours......

Several years ago I worked w/ a girl that was about 16 or 17 & we would chat & she eventually told me she wanted to be a stripper (nude) when she was legal.....

& she did........ I never went to go see here but they said she was good......

I saw her several months ago w/ her kid.... She is fat faced now & on welfare.......

I can't imagine what she did w/ all her money...........

[Kana]

It seems like this should be a fairly easy thing to fix with the law. In California and Washington, at least, you have to be licensed by the state to work as a stripper, and naturally, you have to be over the age of majority.

I feel the same should be true for prostitution. Decriminalise and license. Then, rather than sending the police after adults engaged in consensual activities, we can focus our resources chasing the people who actually prey upon minors.


I can't imagine what she did w/ all her money...........
A lot of strippers aren't very good with money, unfortunately. You get paid a lot for a job with no skill or education requirements. When you've suddenly got more money in your pocket than you ever have before, it's easy to go overboard and actually get into debt. They aren't forward thinking enough to realize that money isn't going to flow forever.

[Moby]

I was dating a woman that was a stripper and she bought a house, no mortgage after saving up for it. Not all strippers and in fact most that I've met, are not that smart.

They need to change that law.

[slowhand]

Rhode Island Bans Indoor Prostitution

November 03, 2009 02:36 PM


The end has finally come to a long and often malicious battle in Rhode Island over a 30-year-old legal loophole which allowed indoor prostitution to legally occur. Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri signed the bill (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gYEvAGNstaj6_qUjcRW2xGFGxfagD9BO7RL84) into law today, and it is effective immediately. The debate which took place around this bill and the Rhode Island prostitution law ended up being about far more than just legalese and statutory distinctions. It encompassed the growing debate about the relationship between human trafficking and prostitution.

To say the personal attacks that have been broadcast through the blogosphere during this debate escalated to vicious is like saying people had strong feelings about Obama's election. Both the pro-legalizing indoor prostitution camps and the pro-making indoor prostitution illegal camps did their fair share of demonizing the other side. Those who fought to keep the loophole in the law were accused of being unsympathetic to human trafficking victims, shells for the commercial sex industry, and anti-feminist.

Those who fought to close the loophole were called autocratic moralists, Bush administration cronies, and anti-feminists. If you listen to the rhetoric that went on, is sounds like the biggest group of misogynists to ever fight for the rights and welfare of women. At one point I was called an "intellectual malcontent," which I believe was intended as an insult, but which I consider somewhat of a compliment (I strive to be intellectual and I'm am certainly not content with the prevalence of human trafficking and sexual violence against women in the world). But the mud-slinging was more than just meanness, it was symptomatic of how long before today, this debate stopped being about Rhode Island and its residents, and started being about polarizing and conflicted ideologies on how best to protect women.

I've made no secret that I believe that human trafficking thrives in areas with legal and heavily tolerated commercial sex markets, nor that many, many women enter into prostitution as children, due to coercion, or because of a lack of other options. So it won't come as a surprise that I support Gov. Carcieri's signing the bill into law, and that I anticipate it will help protect women and children from exploitation. But it would be naive to think the broader debate is over now that the Rhode Island question is settled. And it would be negligent to think that the next debate should also devolve into the level of petty name-calling and unreasonable accusations that this one did.

These questions are not going away of their own accord, and all of us who care about women -- women in prostitution, women who are victims of trafficking, women in need of economic options -- owe it to them to not lose sight of our common goals in the darkness of our differences.

So please, see this message as an open invitation to anyone who was dissapointed by the Rhode Island decision and wants to have a respectful discussion about the relationship between human trafficking and prostitution and how that affects or should affect legislation. Let's do something truly radical to change the world together: let's listen to each other. Let's listen and learn how we can be better advocates, and how we can create better policies. We cannot hide from each other any more than the women we try and help can hide from violent pimps or violent police men or violent clients or the violence of poverty. And we cannot afford to lose ourselves in petty insults when there is so much work still to be done.

This blog will always be a space where people can respectfully discuss these important issues, even when we disagree. All I ask is a willingness to listen.

http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/rhode_island_bans_indoor_prostitution

[Bill Cosby]

It seems like this should be a fairly easy thing to fix with the law. In California and Washington, at least, you have to be licensed by the state to work as a stripper, and naturally, you have to be over the age of majority.

I feel the same should be true for prostitution. Decriminalise and license. Then, rather than sending the police after adults engaged in consensual activities, we can focus our resources chasing the people who actually prey upon minors.


A lot of strippers aren't very good with money, unfortunately. You get paid a lot for a job with no skill or education requirements. When you've suddenly got more money in your pocket than you ever have before, it's easy to go overboard and actually get into debt. They aren't forward thinking enough to realize that money isn't going to flow forever.


Great points but what kinda license they need here in Calif?? I never heard that......... I thought they show ID of 18+ & then pay to dance & earn their tips..............

I am not for prostitution or any of that.......... But it is gonna happen no matter what..........

Young hot girls want money........ Old men want young hot girls & got money, = & that is how it has been since the beginning of time, whenever that was..

[Bill Cosby]

I was dating a woman that was a stripper and she bought a house, no mortgage after saving up for it. Not all strippers and in fact most that I've met, are not that smart.

They need to change that law.

Yes, it is really stupid IMHO...... You can't use a box cutter or compactor but you can do a lap dance etc.........

I have meet several over the years but some are indeed smart=intelligent but somehow in the end they always seem to end up lookin like a dumbfuck...... :dunno:

[Kana]

Great points but what kinda license they need here in Calif?? I never heard that......... I thought they show ID of 18+ & then pay to dance & earn their tips..............

When I lived there, you had to get an adult entertainer license through the police department. It probably varies by city. I worked for three years in San Francisco, and a couple months in Seattle. The police in Seattle are a bunch of pricks, so dancing there got old very quickly.

I am not for prostitution or any of that.......... But it is gonna happen no matter what..........

Young hot girls want money........ Old men want young hot girls & got money, = & that is how it has been since the beginning of time, whenever that was..

Whether it's booze or sex, prohibition drives the trade underground and leaves regulation up to the criminals. I believe we need to bring it out in the open so that sex workers can be given rights, and can go to the police without fear of arrest. Our policies should be built around the goal of reducing harm, not punishing sinners.

[Bill Cosby]

Interesting...

perhaps in SF but here there is no requirement....

It is really big business in SF/the bay area..........

Reducing harm, especially to the girls seems the least of their worries.........

As you prob know there are/have been various attempts in the city but it never seems to happen........

[doctordog]

When I lived there, you had to get an adult entertainer license through the police department. It probably varies by city. I worked for three years in San Francisco, and a couple months in Seattle. The police in Seattle are a bunch of pricks, so dancing there got old very quickly.



Whether it's booze or sex, prohibition drives the trade underground and leaves regulation up to the criminals. I believe we need to bring it out in the open so that sex workers can be given rights, and can go to the police without fear of arrest. Our policies should be built around the goal of reducing harm, not punishing sinners.

I wondered if you were ever an entertainer but did not want to be rude and ask. I wish I had been around in those days as KANA is HOT!:D

[Bill Cosby]

I wondered if you were ever an entertainer but did not want to be rude and ask. I wish I had been around in those days as KANA is HOT!:D

Oh yea.............:D