Understanding the statistics

Researchers have tried to determine how many teens are involved in prostitution, but complete information is not available. The country's official crime statistics, published every year by the FBI in a book called Uniform Crime Reports, do not reflect the true size of the problem. In 1995 only 1,033 people younger than eighteen were arrested for prostitution, but the FBI points out that this figure is not an accurate record of the total amount of teen prostitution. Instead, the FBI explains that the arrest record shows something about what the police are doing to stop this problem. Typically, cities have campaigns from time to time to reduce prostitution, but only a few of the adults and teens involved in prostitution are arrested in sweeps by a vice squad. Cathy Spatz Widom is a professor of...