The award-winning investigative journalism website Help Me Investigate is looking for students to join its latest project researching whether prostitution is becoming more common among students.
Here’s what Phil Chamberlain, who is leading the project, has to say:
Students are turning to prostitution – or are they?
The BBC reported last November that the National Union of Students believes increasing numbers of students are turning to prostitution to fund their studies because of a lack of jobs and the rise in fees.
The evidence appears anecdotal and parochial –but it is a story which has a powerful attraction for the media.
Now student journalists across the UK are currently investigating the facts behind the headlines. As part of a Help Me Investigate project students from, among others, Bristol, Salford and Birmingham are asking student welfare departments if they have figures on students who have approached them because they’re involved in sex work. They also want to know if they have policies to deal with such issues. And they’re checking with outreach groups to see what their experience is.
It’s an issue made complex by the nature of the work which shifts between the legal pole dancer, the grey area of escort work and outright prostitution.
The story has surfaced most recently in The Telegraph which reports research suggesting “one in ten students know someone who works in sex trade”.
A number of local newspapers and student publications have carried stories about student prostitutes but the format is usually an interview with one person involved in the sex trade and little contextual evidence. For instance in 2010, Cherwell interviewed Oxford students involved in escort work.
If you want to get involved and use HMI to help find out what the story is in your local area then visit the Help Me Investigation Education site.
Students are turning to prostitution – or are they?
The BBC reported last November (Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16157522) that the National Union of Students believes increasing numbers of students are turning to prostitution to fund their studies because of a lack of jobs and the rise in fees. The evidence appears anecdotal and parochial –but it is a story which has a powerful attraction for the media.
Now student journalists across the UK are currently investigating the facts behind the headlines.
As part of a Help Me Investigate project (Link: http://helpmeinvestigate.com/education/2012/02/students-are-increasingly-turning-to-prostitution-to-fund-their-studies-or-are-they/) students from, among others, Bristol, Salford and Birmingham are asking student welfare departments if they have figures on students who have approached them because they’re involved in sex work. They also want to know if they have policies to deal with such issues. And they’re checking with outreach groups to see what their experience is.
It’s an issue made complex by the nature of the work which shifts between the legal pole dancer, the grey area of escort work and outright prostitution.
The story has surfaced most recently in The Telegraph (link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9112217/Universities-take-millions-from-student-sex-traders.html) which reports research suggesting “one in ten students know someone who works in sex trade”.
A number of local newspapers and student publications have carried stories about student prostitutes but the format is usually an interview with one person involved in the sex trade and little contextual evidence. For instance in 2010, Cherwell interviewed Oxford students involved in escort work (Link: http://www.cherwell.org/news/2010/10/06/cherwell-goes-under-the-covers).
If you want to get involved and use HMI to help find out what the story is in your local area then visit http://helpmeinvestigate.com/education.
