Listening to Olivia: Violence, Poverty, and Prostitution

by Jody Raphael

For nineteen years, Olivia lived the shadowy life of stripper, streetwalker, and heroin addict on the fringes of society. Leaving a troubled home at age sixteen to land a seemingly glamorous job at a Chicago stripclub, she became trapped in a web of prostitution and drug addiction that eventually forced her onto the streets and into a world of hardship at the hands of abusive men. But Olivia, a resourceful, vibrant woman of color, ultimately escaped the prostitution lifestyle and is now director of addiction services at a community counseling program, working to support drug-dependent women.Listening to Olivia is the compelling account of her descent into poverty and abuse together with her hard fought recovery. By assimilating new research on the women and girls in prostitution—in addition to their male customers—Jody Raphael discovers that experiences like Olivia’s are alarmingly common and argues that the sex trade as an institution promotes violence against women. Smashing both the common stereotype of the depraved streetwalker and abstract feminist arguments legitimizing prostitution as the sexual liberation of women, the author uncovers an emerging multimillion-dollar global trafficking industry that detains women in a violent cycle of exploitation and dependence. Olivia’s own insights on her turbulent childhood, stripping in clubs, soliciting on the street, drug addiction, brutal pimps, her three pregnancies, and her extraordinary transformation highlight important new who are the men who buy sex from such poor, strung out women; and why are so many of these men so violent?Olivia’s story gives a human face to the overwhelmingly low-income, non-white, and unempowered young women in prostitution today. Combined with a wealth of new findings, this gripping and accessible study challenges the academy, the legal system, and society as a whole to wake up and listen to the women like Olivia.

312 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2004

About the author

Jody Raphael is an attorney.

Reviews

[Beth Orchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, well researched for the time period in which it was written. Back then there wasn't any help for women in Cook County jail and now there is a program to try and help them and the problem is becoming more widely known. However, the problem of police officers abusing their power was documented throughout and I'm not sure how that is currently being dealt with for the women in prostitution. A well thought out book which looks at many different angles of this multi-faceted problem which should beg us to ask ourselves what part we can play in helping to bring these women hope.

[Ledena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gives you a broader understanding of the intersections between violence, poverty and prostitution. This books has a lot of information in it (statistical and otherwise) while reading about a real person's (Olivia) story.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely changed how I viewed prostitution and strip clubs.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had a lot of research woven into the narrative. Discovered a lot of things I did not know about the world of prostitution.