English
This paper draws on fieldwork conducted in several poor neighborhoods of Lima, the capital of Peru, which included observations of and biographical interviews with teenage girls in situations of street-level prostitution. It analyzes the factors that explain how these girls became prostitutes and keep practicing this activity which is integrated into the informal economy. The analysis of empirical data sheds light on different temporalities of this sexual practice and leads to a discussion of deviance, as construed by moral entrepreneurs considering the age of these girls.