As juvenile prostitutes, these girls encounter two areas of ambivalence in American society -- ambivalence toward juvenile deviance and ambivalence toward prostitution. Both of these are encoded in the criminal justice system in ways that do not augur well for the treatment of the prostitute who is also a juvenile. The United States is the only member of the United Nations that absolutely prohibits prostitution; all other countries either do not take cognizance of prostitution in their laws or else regulate it in any of several ways. Nevertheless, prostitution flourishes in the United States, usually with the knowledge of police and judges. Arrests are frequent enough and punishments severe enough to hassle the prostitutes, but not to deter them. There seems to be a need to express strong moral disapproval of prostitution, but no corresponding need to abolish it in fact. The American juvenile justice system embodies a different kind of ambivalence. The philosophy of its founders did perceive juvenile offenders as victims, as trouble youngsters in need of treatment. In practice, however, they are often dealt with as if they were criminals in need of punishment. The twin frustrations of a paucity of effective treatment alternatives and a rising rate of violent juvenile crime have supported this tendency. There is, in addition, the well documented fascination of juvenile justice officials in the sexuality and sexual activities of female juvenile offenders. It is the combination of these factors that dictates that when presented with the young prostitute in the dual role of offender and victim, the odds are very high that the latter will be subsumed in the former. (Author abstract)