[Child prostitution: a public health issue].
This article analyzes child prostitution based on a review of the literature, in order to support an approach to this problem by the field of Public Health. First, health, prostitution, and violence are discussed as categories. Prostitution has traditionally been analyzed from a medical perspective, mostly within a hygienist point of view. However, the issue is dealt with here from a different perspective. After this discussion, several aspects about the cruelty of Brazilian reality are revealed showing that prostitution among children and teenagers is a way of survival. From this angle, poverty and child prostitution are closely related, although the study concludes that the latter is not solely a consequence of the former. Over the course of the review, a number of publications on the current issue are taken into consideration in order to best contribute to the discussion of the matter. Finally, the author concludes that to confront this problem it must be considered within the family context and linked to macro-social questions.
Gomes
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Faculdade de Educação, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 20559-900, Brasil.