The average age of entry into prostitution is 12 years old

[gcomeau]

22. No it isn't.

I'm not trying to downplay the seriousness of the issue, but claiming that the average age of entry into prostitution is 12 one of those statistics that is so self evidently ridiculous that it's like someone claiming the average age of Alzheimer's patients is 21.

And posting self evidently ridiculous statistics doesn't help anything. Do you have the faintest clue what the distribution of entry ages would have to look like to put the AVERAGE age at 12? You'd have to have significant numbers of four year olds being recruited into prostitution. VERY significant numbers. I don't know what so-called "sources from the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI" this guy is supposed to be citing but the most charitable interpretation is that he just badly misunderstood something he was told and doesn't know enough about basic bath to understand how obviously wrong that number is.

My best guess? He was told the average age of entry into prostitution *of child prostitutes* is 12. Which still seems extremely suspect but at least remotely possible since you have then excluded all the high age data points, and maybe even somewhat plausible depending on what age "child" is defined as for the purposes. If the top age cutoff is like 15 or 16 and nothing above that counts in this number? Then sure, average of 12 could be something that could happen. Maybe.