The difference between a scientific study, which has been properly conducted and appropriately peer-reviewed, and the stated opinion of someone telling of the 'many' examples he has seen is so vastly incongruous, it is ridiculous to even consider such a comparison, and in fact, there is none.
There is nothing wrong with personal opinion, much of it is based on very real personal experience, and there is also nothing wrong with presenting anecdotal evidence, or the stories someone has told to you, as long as people understand that this type of evidence is extremely biased, limited, and unverifiable.
I want to address the percentage of women interviewed who say they would stop prostituting if they were presented with viable financial alternatives.
The people conducting this survey of 100 Dominican prostitutes should of hung out at the Western Union in Sosua and recorded how many chicas are receiving hundreds and even thousands of dollars monthly from different foreign clients and are
STILL prostituting.
The proof, the REAL proof would be to calculate how much money some of these women are raking in and juxtapose that with their lifestyle.
What changes occur in their lives once they reel in a Western Union boyfriend?
1) Do they go home to raise their kids?
2) Do they go to school to better educate themselves?
3) Are they staying home in the campo with their family or do they remain in Sosua and continue turning tricks to increase their chances of meeting more men who will send them a monthly or bi-monthly income?
4) What percentage of these women support Dominican boyfriends with money earmarked for her and her children from foreign remittances?
Addressing these questions would constitute a concise and valid scientific research project, more so than just asking a bunch of prostitutes rote questions and receiving stock answers that give us no insight whatsoever into their real lives.
Patterns in human behavior are discerned by gathering information on lifestyle choices-the difference between what these women
DO as opposed to what they
SAY they would do is of the essence.
I do believe that certain studies are biased and manufacture results that are self-serving and are not reflective of reality. This is one of them.
There is a huge problem when someone uses personal opinion and anecdotal evidence to persuade others to reach certain conclusions, and in an attempt to discredit a valid scientific study.
It would be intellectually irresponsible NOT to question a so-called "scientific" study whose validity can be contradicted with outright personal experience, especially if that experience can be verified with actual proof.
There is no verifiable methodology when forming personal opinions, any fool can do it. But it takes time, effort, and professional overview to conduct a valid study.
For the reasons I have mentioned I believe this does not fall under the category of a valid study.
Why?
I would never expect to hear from a survey that prostitutes enjoy the lifestyle and would rather score clients than work a regular low-paying job, because that doesn't fit the stereotype.
Yet that is exactly what I've heard from beautiful, young women in the game. They would rather prostitute themselves than go work in the zona franca for peanuts.
I've yet to meet a woman who would stay home and change her life simply because she is receiving money on a regular basis from an overseas client, regardless of what they would stand to lose if they were caught by their foreign boyfriends.
They seem oblivious to the consequences and the importance of what is at stake goes right over their heads.
Some women have been left by kind-hearted, generous clients who were fooled into thinking they were really in love when the reality is they were being taken advantage of.
Yet these women, once on the Western Union payroll, show no intention of living up to their end of the bargain, always cheating on their foreign boyfriends and complaining that the money they receive is never, ever enough.
Many times, as a consequence of this behavior, they get plunged into poverty worse than before they begin prostituting.
Why?
Because they have children they cannot afford, and once the remittances stop their Dominican boyfriends leave them as well. So now they are back to prostitution and are worse off than ever before.
Some remain stubbornly defiant in the face of their monumentally dysfunctional decision-making process, going back to their campos, back to sitting in a loteria booth all day "cojiendo numeros", sitting around bored and thinking if something doesn't happen today it will happen tomorrow.
The results of this study are a bit too obvious and offer no insights into the REAL question at hand.
Aside from the ones who suffer abuse at the hands of their nuclear family, native boyfriends and clients(numbers which may not differ much from the general population), it still does not answer the question as to why women who are sent remittances from abroad stay in the game when clearly an overwhelming majority say they would do the exact opposite if they had an opportunity.
And what better opportunity would that be than by receiving an allowance that is many times the average salary for an uneducated native Dominican?
