Welcome to the real world!
Can't remember the exact year, (must have been early 90's) but I was working in the Police in Norwich (not too far up the road from Ipswich) on the day when Natalie Pearman (local prostitute) was murdered. Although she was only left partially stripped, there were similarities in that there was no serious attempt to hide the body and she had been left in a semi-rural location not far off a main trunk road. It was thought that she had been killed at another location and taken to where she was found in the boot of a car and dumped there.
I had to arrest a number of people who she had been with (not a clients, more associates) in the previous 24 hours. I also spent alot of time interviewing other prostitutes and taking statements in the days that followed.
What I found then was that a lot of these girls are on the game because their 'boyfriends' put them there. So many of them meet a guy who they start going out with. He gets them some drugs for 'recreational' use and once they're an addict they get told they have to earn their next fix - on the street. And if they don't comply the can end up getting a horrendous beating - then if they're covered in bruises they can't earn money anyway. They soon develop the fear and start doing what their told. Nice way to live.
But it's only the girls who have managed to extracate themselves from this sort of existence that will actually say this sort of stuff. Those that are still on the block are far too scared of the consequences of being found out, so they'll tell the media etc. that they have to earn the money for their kids etc.
Sorry, but it's got little to do with poverty in the local area etc. As with most stuff like this it's about someones greed.
Not many girls go into prostitution as a career choice.