ABSTRACT
This article discusses the role of social support in women's breakaway from prostitution. We present results of a study based on qualitative interviews with 23 Swedish women who left the sex trade during 1985–95. The article describes the women's exit in terms of a salutogenic process in which different factors interact. Critical factors in this process are the women's supportive relationships and their ability to mobilize both informal and professional support providers. Another important factor appears to be the woman's own capacity to change her coping strategies and actively work with her relational problems in different ways. We found that women's break with prostitution does not necessarily lead to good health and development-these presuppose extensive work on relationships and social networks. There are three main components to this work; working through traumatic experiences, repairing and mastering previously close relationships and building a new heterogeneous social network. On a theoretical level the study is closely linked to research which addresses processes of change, turning points, role changes and exit behavior. It is also linked to the study of social networks and social support; informal support providing as well as professional support interventions.
