POVERTY AND PROSTITUTION SUSCEPTIBILITY AMONGST FEMALE YOUTHS IN CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA

There are myriad factors that seem to encourage or favour prostitution, especially amongyoung people. This study aimed to influence of poverty on the susceptibility of prostitutionamong female youths in Cross River State, Nigeria. The survey adopted an inferential design.A simple random sampling technique was used to select 300 respondents (250 females and 50males). The questionnaire was the primary instrument for data collection. Data wereanalysed using both descriptive statistics with excerpt from interview for triangulation offindings. Null hypothesis was tested with and the results showed that there is existing positiverelationship between poverty and prostitution in Cross River State. The hypothesis testdemonstrated through Pearson's Product-moment Correlation coefficient r = 0.97 show astatistically significant relationship between poverty and susceptibility of prostitution amongyoung girls. This study confirms that poverty encourages prostitution among female youths inCross River State, Nigeria. It is therefore recommended that the government make aconcerted effort to create employment opportunities and develop platforms that will helpgenerate wealth for the large unemployed population in Cross River State, Nigeria.