Hacker News Reader

Comment by xvxvx | Hacker News Reader

A few years ago I saw a Twitter post highlighting 2 studies asking sex workers if they had been the victim of childhood sexual assault. One study reported 70% responded ‘yes’. The 2nd study reported 90%.

If 70-90% of people working in AI had been the victim of childhood sexual assault, we would question WTF was going on. Yet ‘sex work’ gets a pass.

View on HN

Childhood assault obviously precedes career choice. The relevant causal story would be selection or shared risk factors, not sex work causing assault. Otherwise we’re in “funerals cause death” territory.

1) Sex work is largely criminalized around the world today.

2) Yes, childhood sexual abuse (again, also a crime) is associated with both hypo and hyper sexuality. Hypersexual individuals are more likely to engage in sex work.

I absolutely believe it could be 90%. And it happens a lot more often than people think. The estimated average across the general population is roughly 1 in 4 for girls and 1 in 6 for boys. The vast majority are by family (3 in 4).

But I'd hesitate to say that is conclusive without seeing how it is across other professions as well.

I suspect it's more strong correlation than strong causation without more data to the contrary.

Gets a pass on what? Asking "what is going on" with the correlation? Is it mysterious? It's very unclear what you're trying to say.

It gets a pass because there are far too many men out there who self-servingly advocate for this form of paid rape.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com