Background
Paper for the
North American Regional Consultation
on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
University
of Pennsylvania School of Social Work
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
December 2-3, 2001
Prepared
by Nicole Ives
Introduction
My
friend and I would go to where these gang members hung out. They
gave us free pot, coke, etc., then they said “You owe us.”…I started
trying heroin, but I didn’t understand the price. They would explain,
“This doesn’t come for free. You have to earn money.” They’d keep
me at an apartment all day. I’d just sit there and wait for the
next guy. I hated doing it, wasn’t being good at it, wasn’t doing
my job properly, so he beat me up and threw me out. I had nowhere
to go.
–
Female experiential youth, whose
exploitation started at age 12, Canada[i]
Operators
of the Hong Kong Spa in Washington, DC, were arrested in 1995 for
purchasing underage immigrant Asian girls, one only 13 years old,
in Atlantic City and transporting them to DC to work in an indentured
sexual servitude arrangement. The girls had answered ads in local
newspapers for restaurant jobs paying $1,000 to $2,700 a week but
were picked up at the airport and taken to massage parlors and brothels
and forced to work up 15 hours a day.
–
Report by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women[ii]
These
stories describe but two of more than one million children who are
trafficked, sold, or forced into prostitution or pornography each
year. In Canada, Mexico, and the United States, hundreds of thousands
of children annually are sexually abused for profit. In 1996, in
response to growing concerns about the protection of children and
evidence of increasingly heinous violations of children’s rights,
the government of Sweden hosted the First World Congress Against
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Stockholm. The Congress
was planned by the government of Sweden, UNICEF, End Child Prostitution,
Child Pornography, and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Exploitation
(ECPAT)-International and the NGO Group for the Convention on the
Rights of the Child. The Congress brought together a diverse group
of government leaders and governmental agency representatives from
122 countries, representatives of intergovernmental and nongovernmental
organizations, service providers, researchers and members of the
media to focus on child prostitution, the trafficking and sale of
children for sexual purposes, and child pornography. At the Congress,
all 122 countries accepted the Declaration and Agenda for Action,
committing their national governments to confront the insidious
problem of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). The
Congress attracted attention to the severity of the problem.
In
preparation for the Second World Congress Against the Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children in Yokohama, Japan, to be held December
17-20, 2001, ECPAT-USA, NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights
of the Child Focal Point on Sexual Exploitation of Children, UNICEF,
and the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work will convene
a Regional Consultation on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, December 2-3, 2001. This
Consultation will be the first of its kind. Concerned participants
from government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, academic
institutions, service providers, and the private sector in these
countries have been invited to lay the foundation for developing
ways to reduce and ultimately end the commercial sexual abuse of
children.
National
Plans of Action
The
First World Congress recommended that delegates draft a National
Plan of Action to address the sexual exploitation of children in
their home countries. The National Plans would contain indicators
of progress, with set goals and time frames for implementation,
targeted toward reducing the number of children vulnerable to sexual
exploitation. Canada, Mexico, and the USA all supported the Declaration
and Agenda for Action of the First World Congress. While Canada
does not have an official National Plan of Action along the lines
of the First World Congress, it does have an integrated national
strategy that government officials assert is more suitable than
a formal Plan to Canada’s federal structure.[iii]
Explaining Canada’s opting for a national strategy rather than a
National Plan of Action, officials assert that what is most important
is that each country do what it can according to its own governance
structure to improve the situation of children who are being sexually
exploited.[iv]
Canada’s strategy includes objectives, actions, partners, and key
results in combating CSEC. In addition to the national strategy,
Canada has a Declaration and Agenda for Action of Sexually Exploited
Children and Youth that emerged from an international summit of
youth convened in 1998 in Victoria, British Columbia. The summit
brought together 54 experiential youth from Canada, the USA, Latin
America, and the Caribbean to provide narratives on their life experiences
as exploited children.
A
Plan of Action to Prevent, Attend, and Eradicate the CSEC in Mexico
was proposed by the Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo Integral
de la Familia (national DIF) in 1999. However, there is currently
no formal National Plan of Action for Mexico. While there are movements
against CSEC at the federal level, the USA does not have a formal
National Plan of Action along the guidelines of the First World
Congress.
The
purpose of this document is to provide a background paper for use
at the Regional Consultation. A discussion of the terminology used
in the CSEC literature is necessary before describing the details
of the exploitation in Canada, Mexico, and the USA. There are multiple
definitions of the same terms in the various materials published
in the three countries. Clarifying the definitions that will be
used is essential to a meaningful dialogue at the Consultation.
Forms
of CSEC with Definitions of Terms
The
following is a list of key terms used to discuss the CSEC. For the
purposes of this paper, forms of CSEC and related definitions are
taken from international covenants and declarations and international
organizations working in the area of CSEC.
Child:
According to the definition in the UN Convention on the Rights of
the Child (1989), a child is any human being under the age of 18.
Child
pornography: The Optional Protocol to the Convention on
the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution
and child pornography (2000) offers the following definition: Any
representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or
simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the
sexual parts of a child for primarily sexual purposes.
Child
prostitution: The Optional Protocol to the Convention on
the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution
and child pornography defines child prostitution as the use of a
child in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of
consideration.
Commercial
sexual exploitation of children: The World Congress Declaration
in Stockholm defines commercial sexual exploitation of children
as sexual abuse by the adult and remuneration in cash or in kind
to the child or third persons or person. The child is treated as
a sexual object and as a commercial object. The commercial sexual
exploitation of children constitutes a form of coercion and violence
against children and amounts to forced labor and a contemporary
form of slavery. ECPAT and UNICEF estimate that more than 2 million
children worldwide are in the sex trade.
Sex
exploiter: “Sex exploiter” has been defined as “those who
take unfair advantage of some imbalance of power between themselves
and a person under the age of 18 in order to sexually use them for
either profit or personal pleasure”.[v]
The definition is extended to include those third parties who have
no sexual contact with children, but who profit from facilitating
or orchestrating children’s sexual contact with another person or
persons. There are four categories into which most people who sexually
abuse children fall: pedophiles, preferential abusers, situational
abusers, and third-party abusers.
The
term “pedophile” is a clinical diagnosis referring to an adult with
a personality disorder that involves a specific and focused sexual
interest in prepubertal children. While there have been cases of
female pedophiles, the majority of pedophiles are male. All pedophiles
do not discharge their sexual urges in the same way. Some limit
their sexual life to fantasy while others may engage in non-contact
abuse (exposure of genital organs, showing and/or talking about
pornographic material) or contact abuse (genital touching and fondling,
attempted or actual anal, oral, or vaginal penetration).
“Preferential
abusers” are those individuals whose preferred sexual objects are
children who have reached or passed puberty. Children are the envisaged
objects of their sexual desire. They have sex with children
not because of some situational stress or insecurity but because
they are sexually attracted to and prefer children. Such abusers
are primarily men, and their victims are either male or female children.
Situational
or opportunistic abusers are those who exploit children if and when
they find themselves in situations where sex with a child is more
convenient or cheaper than sex with an adult, but whose fulfillment
is not contingent on the physical or emotional immaturity of the
person they exploit.[vi]
Under this category also fall men who choose children as sexual
partners primarily on the basis of misconceptions about sexual health
or myths surrounding the sexual contact with virgins.
According
to ECPAT, there are five primary motivating factors for sex exploiters
involved in the CSEC[vii]:
1.
Abusers who use prostitutes to satisfy what they imagine
to be a biological or emotional need for a sexual “outlet” or physical
contact;
2.
Abusers who use prostitutes in order to obtain a sense of
camaraderie with male colleagues or friends;
3.
Abusers who use prostitutes in order to obtain a sense of
“true” masculinity;
4.
Abusers who use prostitutes to satisfy a compulsive urge
to perform transgressive acts or to exercise sexual power over extremely
vulnerable, powerless, objectified and/or degraded individuals;
and
5.
Abusers who do not wish to see themselves as prostitute users.
The
motivation of sex exploiters who are involved as third-party beneficiaries
of CSEC is rarely anything other any profit. These suppliers are
rarely fuelled by personal sexual fixations on children, but rather
by the motivation of money. Suppliers to pedophiles and other abusers
justify their actions because of the demand and the fact that abusers
are willing to pay money for the service. According to a 1996 estimate
made by Special Rapporteur Ofelia Clacetas Santos, the sale of children,
child prostitution, and child pornography net $5 billion annually.[viii]
Sexual
solicitation: In the context of online victimization, sexual
solicitation is defined as a request to engage in sexual activities
or sexual talk or to give personal sexual information that was unwanted
or, whether wanted or not, was made by an adult.
Sex
tourism: Child-sex tourism is an increasingly significant
component of the sexual exploitation of children. It involves individuals,
mostly men from Western countries, traveling to a country with the
intention of seeking out sex with children.[ix]
According to ECPAT, the tourism industry is the largest employer
in the world. While tourism is not the cause of child prostitution,
it does provide easy access to vulnerable children.
The
primary motivation behind exploiters traveling abroad to have sex
with children is to experience freedom from the social constraints
of their home countries. Secondarily, exploiters may see the children
of developing countries as inferior, which may rationalize
their behavior, especially if they believe that there are no social
taboos in that country regarding having sex with children.[x]
They may have the misconception that children are less likely to
transmit sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV. An additional,
unfortunate motivation is also that poor countries are often under
strict economic pressure to develop tourism as a source of income.
In pursuit of that income, sometimes those governments ignore the
sexual exploitation of children.
ECPAT
has underscored the important role that the tourism industry can
play in preventing sex tourism. Airlines such as Lufthansa and Air
France have produced in-flight videos to inform travelers about
the laws about child sex tourism.
Trafficking
of children for commercial sexual exploitation: Trafficking
is the “...recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or
receipt of persons...” by improper means, such as force, abduction,
fraud, or coercion, for an improper purpose, such as forced or coerced
labour, servitude, slavery or sexual exploitation. Countries that
ratify the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking
in Persons, Optional Protocol to UN Convention Against Transnational
Organized Crime are obliged to enact domestic laws making these
activities criminal offenses, if such laws are not already in place
(Article 3). “Trafficking in persons” includes a range of cases
where human beings are exploited by organized crime groups and where
there is an element of force involved. It also includes both domestic
trafficking, where there is exploitation within a country by domestic
or transnational organized crime groups, and international trafficking
where there is the forced movement of people across borders.
CSEC
in Canada, Mexico, and the USA
The three countries involved in the Regional Consultation have a
variety of problems and approaches to the problems of CSEC. However,
there are common themes across the three countries. This section
of the background paper includes a detailed information profile
of the CSEC issues for each of the three countries since the First
World Congress. The subsections are parallel across the three and
include: profiles of the children; profiles of the exploiters; trafficking;
national legislation pertaining to CSEC; law enforcement; prevention,
protection, and recovery programs; child pornography; and role and
involvement of the private sector.
Canada
Having
all the abuse in the family and all the alcohol, really there was
nobody to turn to…when I did it [turned a trick] I had to cry at
least 2 hours each time before I went out because I was afraid for
my life…it’s what I had to do to survive.
–
Experiential youth[xi]
Profiles
of the children
Histories
of sexual abuse, poverty, and poor income and employment are recurring
themes in the life experiences of exploited children, particularly
those engaged in prostitution.[xii]
Specifically for children involved in prostitution, evidence suggests
several commonalities in childhood experience: a history of family
dysfunction (including substance abuse, violence, and sexual abuse),
running away from home and surviving on the streets. The experience
of victimization at home or in foster care is frequently part of
the lives of children and youth who live on the streets. Once on
the streets and separated from family, a lack of food and shelter
make them vulnerable to being abused through prostitution.[xiii]
Research studying homeless youth further suggests that there may
be a pattern of increasing involvement in criminal activity (such
as drug use, theft, and prostitution) as the length of time on the
street increases.[xiv]
Substantial research has also demonstrated links between high-risk
behavior and exposure to drugs and violence while on the street.
Some
studies indicate that homeless youth in Ottawa, Saskatoon, Vancouver,
and Toronto who turn to prostitution do so as a means of survival
while on the streets, although it cannot be assumed that all homeless
or runaway children and youth are predictably involved in prostitution.[xv]
There have been countless cases of homeless or runaway youth who
engage in sex in exchange for food, shelter, or gifts, or to experiment
with their sexuality. Survival sex appears to have gender distinctions,
where it is more of a factor for females than males. A study of
Ottawa street youth found that males are more often able to stay
at the home of an acquaintance while females are frequently forced
to exchange sex for food, shelter, and money.
Issues
particular to certain groups, such as aboriginal youth, need to
be considered separately in discussing the situation of exploited
children. For example, in Saskatoon many of the street youth self-identify
as aboriginal. These youth seem less likely than non-aboriginal
to sever ties with their families after entering the street culture.[xvi]
On the other hand, others who leave their home communities for urban
areas often end up being exploited. These youth may feel doubly
alienated because they may be both homeless and in a culture that
is quite different from that of their home community. This can make
them particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation by pimps and
other abusers.[xvii]
Canadian consultations have suggested that there is a higher level
of aboriginal youth involved in prostitution in Saskatchewan and
Manitoba than in other areas of the country as well as within Vancouver
in some areas of the city.[xviii]
I
was brought up in care, and I was abused. Care is a very tough way
to grow up; they move you from place to place, you’re owned by them,
they can give and they can take, they choose your clothes, if you
don’t like it you can’t change it. In care I was brought up to think
all Indians were bad, gross, on welfare and then I ended up being
that. I’m Metis…[and] I was made fun of. I was quite young when
I started prostitution.
-Experiential female
youth, Saskatoon[xix]
Any
attempts to develop a profile of youth who are involved in prostitution
in Canada are difficult because of lack of information. There is
some evidence that many are runaways and homeless and engage in
street prostitution. However, there also are indications that some
engage in prostitution even though they live at home, and some work
in venues run under the auspices of other businesses such as escort
agencies. The majority of youth involved in prostitution are females,
although boys, irrespective of sexual orientation, are also involved
in the sex trade.[xx]
Estimates of the numbers of females and males who are involved in
prostitution vary. It is difficult to calculate the numbers of exploited
children involved in prostitution since young people do not often
come to the attention of the law or appear in official records and
statistics as prostitutes.
Similar
difficulties are encountered when trying to determine the age at
which children and youth become engaged in prostitution. Various
studies and interviews with people involved in prostitution indicate
that there are youth who first have sexual relations for money as
young as 6 years old.[xxi]
A Victoria survey and British Columbia consultations estimate age
of entry between 14 and 15.5 years of age, however findings from
interviews with prostitutes in Vancouver revealed an average age
of entry as 16.3 for females and 15.6 for males.[xxii]
In other cities, higher age estimates are found. In Ottawa, the
average age of entry was 17.8 years of age. Surveys in Montreal
did not report an average age of entry, but noted that one third
of the 75 prostitutes interviewed had begun prostituting themselves
before the age of 18.[xxiii]
Findings
from consultations support the supposition that approximately 10-15%
of prostitutes on the street are children and youth.[xxiv]
Of the total number of people thought to be involved in street prostitution
in Vancouver in 1996 (estimated to be between 300 and 450), social
agencies and advocates estimate that approximately 30 to 40 at any
point in time were believed to be youth, many of them aboriginal.
Furthermore, a 1987 study of street prostitution in Montreal obtained
estimates of the number of youth involved in prostitution ranging
from 80 to over 5,000. Apparently, these differences are the result
of different definitions of prostitution.[xxv]
It
should be noted that there are also children and youth who become
engaged in other facets of prostitution. In some jurisdictions in
Canada, it seem that children and youth are also becoming caught
up in the more serious forms of prostitution-related offenses, such
as procuring and pimping other children and youth. Estimates of
the number of children and youth involved in these activities is
unknown.[xxvi]
I
grew up in a very dysfunctional family: there was always more drugs
and booze than food in the fridge at any given time. I was raped
in 1992, and even the police stated that it was the worst rape of
a female they had ever come across. And my dad said, “You’re damaged
goods, you’ve always been damaged goods, and you’ll never be anything
else.” But at least when I’m out working, I’m not waking up to find
my dad in my bed.
–
Female, started prostitution at age 14, Winnipeg[xxvii]
Profiles
of the exploiters
Prostitute
users encompass the categories of the sex exploiter discussed above.
There is evidence of pedophiles and preferential abusers as well
as situational abusers and third-party exploiters. Child sex exploiters
in Canada are drawn primarily from the following groups that are
typically prone to prostitute use: the military, seamen and truckers,
temporary farm workers, traveling businessmen, tourists, expatriates,
aid workers, employers of domestic workers in addition to local
prostitute users.[xxviii]
Research
in British Columbia found that there are at least two categories
of pimps: professional pimps and “popcorn” pimps.[xxix]
A professional pimp has control over a number of girls while a “popcorn”
pimp is typically a casual boyfriend or associate on more equal
footing with the female (the girl sells sex, the boy sells drugs,
and they share the earnings.)[xxx]
Exploiters
are skilled in identifying areas in local neighbourhoods, particularly
where youth are unsupervised, to procure children for the sex trade.
Popular recruiting places include malls, video arcades, fast food
restaurants, record stores, community centres, bus stations, and
movie theatres.[xxxi]
Trafficking
Trafficking of children in Canada is a significant
problem, both internationally and domestically, especially in the
larger cities such as Vancouver, British Columbia, and Toronto,
Ontario. According to an American INS agent, a group of American
and Canadian exploiters calling themselves “the West Coast Players”
are actively involved in trafficking Canadian children to Los Angeles
for the sex trade.[xxxii]
Canadian law enforcement officials also believe that American girls
are being trafficked into Canada from the USA. In 1998, an exploiter
and his co-defendants were convicted on eight counts of transporting
minors from Canada across the USA-Canadian border and across state
lines for prostitution.[xxxiii]
Traffickers have flown into Toronto and Vancouver and transported
women and children over land into the USA. Toronto is a popular
transit point with the Russians as there are over 150,000 Russians
living there.[xxxiv]
National
legislation pertaining to CSEC
While
prostitution is legal for adults in Canada, selling sex is illegal
for minors under the age of 18. It is a criminal offense for anyone
to profit from prostitution of another
person under the age of 18 years. This includes
aiding, abetting, counseling, or compelling the person under age
18 to engage in prostitution with any person, and using, threatening,
or attempting to use violence, intimidation, or coercion.
Provincial
legislation designed to protect children from sexual exploitation
has made extensive headway. British Columbia’s Child,
Family and Community Services Act contains a reference
to sexual exploitation as a basis for taking a child into care.
It also provides for the use of restraining orders against adults
who are believed to be exploiting the child, such as a pimp. In
Alberta, the Child Welfare Act defines a child in need of protection
as one who is sexually abused, and defines this abuse as including
prostitution-related activity. Section 1 (3)(c) states that a child
is sexually abused if the child is inappropriately exposed or subjected
to sexual contact, activity or behavior, including prostitution
related activities. Under the Protection
of Children Involved in Prostitution Act (1999), the Alberta
Government has introduced programs and services to help children
end their involvement in prostitution, either voluntarily or involuntarily.
A child who wants to end his or her involvement in prostitution
may access community support programs. A child who does not want
to end his or her involvement in prostitution can be apprehended
by police. Police officers then take the child to a protective safe
house, where he or she can be confined for up to 5 days (under amendments
to the Act in March 2001, the length of confinement was increased
from 72 hours to 5 days). In particular cases, a child may be confined
for up to two additional periods for a maximum of 21 days each.
In a secured facility, the child receives emergency care, treatment
and an assessment. Additionally, child welfare workers develop a
long-term plan for the child. This legislation also introduces legal
penalties for consumers of prostitution and pimps, who can be charged
with child sexual abuse and fined up to $25,000, jailed for up to
2 years, or both fined and imprisoned.
One
legislative hindrance in protecting children has been the differences
in defining age of consent and age of maturity. Currently, under
the Criminal Code,
anyone who is 14 years of age or older can consent to most forms
of non-exploitative sexual conduct without criminal consequences.
However, many who work in this area, particularly in British Columbia,
feel that 14 years is too young for a person to knowledgeably consent
to sexual activity with an adult.[xxxv]
The Criminal Code
delineates the circumstances under which a child may legally consent
to sexual activity and the defenses that apply to some of these
offenses, such as mistake of fact. For example, consent by complainants
under 14 years of age is not a defense to specified sexual offenses,
including sexual interference (Section 151), invitation to sexual
touching (Section 152), and sexual exploitation (Section 153). The
first two offenses, which apply to persons under the age of 14,
are punishable by no more than 10 years on indictment or a maximum
of 6 months on summary conviction. The offense of sexual exploitation
(Section 153) prohibits the same type of conduct set out in Sections
151 and 152 in respect of persons from 14 to 17 years of age, where
an accused is a person in a position of trust or authority or where
an accused is someone with whom such a complainant is in a relationship
of dependency. However, this offence is punishable only by a maximum
penalty of 5 years imprisonment on indictment or 6 months on summary
conviction. It has been suggested that the penalty under Section
153 should be raised to the same level as that available in the
case of complainants under 14 years of age (Sections 151 and 152),
such as a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment. It would seem
that through legislation, the worst cases involving complainants
between 14 and 18 years of age would not be considered as serious
as those involving complainants under the age of 14.
Another
form of CSEC, child pornography, is defined in the Canadian Criminal
Code as (a) a photographic, film, video or other visual representation,
whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means, (i)
that shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age
of 18 years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit
sexual activity, or (ii) the dominant characteristic of which is
the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal
region of a person under the age of 18 years; or (b) any written
material or visual representation that advocates or counsels sexual
activity with a person under the age of eighteen years that would
be an offence under this Act. Individuals can be prosecuted for
producing, distributing or selling child pornography or for
being possession of child pornography. It is also a criminal offense
to send obscene materials through the mail or over the Internet
if they fall under the auspices of child pornography.
On
March 15, 2001, Bill C-15, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and
to amend other Acts, was introduced for first reading and debated
at second reading in May, 2001, in the House of Commons. The bill
strengthens the protection of children online by combating
cyber crime, creating a new offence that targets the luring and
exploitation of children for sexual purposes via the Internet; makes
it a crime to transmit, make available, export or access child pornography
on the Internet; allows judges to order the deletion of child pornography
on the Internet and to seize materials or equipment used; enables
judges to keep known sex offenders away from children through prohibition
orders and 1-year peace bonds for offenses relating to child pornography
on the Internet; and amends the sex tourism law (former C-27) to
make it easier to prosecute Canadians who sexually assault children
abroad.[xxxvi]
Law
enforcement
One
of the problems in identifying the number of exploited children
involved in prostitution relates to the different ages that are
used to refer to them. The Badgley Committee defined “juvenile prostitutes”
as individuals under 20. The Fraser Commission addressed those under
18, while still others describe children as persons under 16, especially
when viewing them in the context of child welfare concerns. These
distinctions may account for different explanations of what is meant
by “youth involved in prostitution” and how much of it exists. The
maximum age referred to in the definition of “young person” included
in the Young Offenders Act is a person under 18 years
of age. This is consistent with Parliament’s view that prostitution
of young persons under the age of 18 represents sexual exploitation.
According to Parliament, these youth should be protected, as signified
by the creation of the offense contained in Section 212(4)
of the Criminal Code (i.e.,
obtaining the sexual services from a person under 18 years of age).
There is further disagreement over definitions of whether a youth
is actually involved in prostitution. A Montreal study of street
prostitution reported that police defined “juvenile prostitute”
more narrowly than did social workers, who included youth involved
in the exchange of sex for consideration, including food and shelter.[xxxvii]
Some
estimates of youth involvement are made by analyzing arrest statistics
for Section 212 of the Canadian Criminal Code. Between 1986-1990,
approximately 10-15% of prostitutes arrested under the Communicating
Provision of the Criminal
Code were in the young offender age category—the majority
were 16 or 17.[xxxviii] There
were a handful of reports of 14- or 15-year olds. The number of
young persons charged continued to decline until 1995, when only
3% of charges for prostitution offenses were youth from 12 to 17
years of age. The small numbers of youth who are charged with prostitution-related
offenses most likely reflect police enforcement patterns as opposed
to the real number of youth involved in street prostitution. Some
police departments have asserted that youth should be treated as
victims rather than criminals and in such cases should not be arrested
unless there is no other vehicle for getting them off the street
and out of danger. Thus, unless charges are brought under Subsection 212(4),
youth involved in prostitution are practically invisible.[xxxix]
A
survey of youth in the Victoria, British Columbia, area who self-identified
as working in prostitution revealed an interesting pattern illustrative
of the law enforcement policy there. The majority of the 75 youth
interviewed had been picked up by the police at some point in their
lives (77%); however, of those who had been picked up, most were
either simply taken home (47%), lectured about the dangers of the
sex trade (43%) or taken to a shelter, social worker or clinic.[xl]
Fifteen percent of the 75 youth in the sample had been arrested
for communicating for the purpose of prostitution; all of them were
under the age of 24. None of the youth who were under 18 when the
interview occurred reported that they had been arrested for this
offense.
I
don’t want somebody coming up to me saying ‘you’re wrong, you’re
doing it because you’re stupid’. You need somebody out there who
actually has had experience, somebody to tell you their story: ‘This
is what I did to get out of it; this worked for me, it might work
for you, it might not and it if does great, and if it doesn’t we’ll
find some other way’.
–
Female youth, Vancouver, British Columbia[xli]
Prevention,
protection, and recovery programs
Education
programs about the realities of exploitation could prevent some
youth from being lured into this situation as well as decrease the
tolerance for exploiters. In British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan,
and Nova Scotia, programs portraying the procurement of youth for
sexual purposes as child sexual abuse have been seen to be relatively
successful in changing public attitudes.[xlii]
One
method of protecting exploited children and helping them recover
is the integration of enforcement efforts against exploiters with
social supports for children and youth. In 1996, the Provinces of
Ontario and British Columbia instituted a Provincial Prostitution
Unit (PPU) within their police forces that targets the sexual exploitation
of children.[xliii]
British Columbia’s Provincial Prostitution Unit assists police in
enforcement operations targeting exploiters of children and youth.
The Unit ensures that social supports are available: a social worker
accompanies the police and provides immediate support to the youth,
talks to him or her about options and where possible, ensures that
the child is referred to appropriate services. This immediate support
not only helps ensure that the youth will feel able to testify in
court, but may help him or her to get the supports needed to leave
the sex trade. The PPU has also developed training strategies for
police, Crown, and judges regarding both innovative enforcement
strategies as well as information on the dynamics of the sex trade
and the victimization of youth.
In
Victoria, British Columbia, PEERS (Prostitute Empowerment, Education,
and Resource Society) provides peer outreach, support, advocacy,
and education for young people wishing to exit the sex trade. The
Society focuses on prevention, harm reduction, advocacy, and public
awareness. Established by ex-prostitutes and community supporters,
PEERS program objectives include conducting outreach activities
with sex trade workers and providing support where appropriate to
reduce harmful effects of the trade; increasing public awareness
and understanding of the impact of youth and adult prostitution
as part of their prevention strategy; acting as advocates for current
and exited sex workers in legal, housing, and welfare rights to
facilitate access to services and respect for their rights; and
providing information and training programs to former and current
sex trade workers to reduce harmful effects and/or assist them in
exiting the trade.[xliv]
Nova
Scotia has developed a successful model for providing witness protection
programs for youth that have assisted many of them to eventually
leave the street. The Nova Scotia Task Force used a number of intermediate
strategies to address the needs of potential witnesses, rather than
enrolling them in a full witness-protection program. These strategies
include police personally assisting witnesses to find supportive
resources, assisting them in finding and moving to a new apartment,
and other strategies that give the witness added security.[xlv]
Child
pornography
In
Ontario, the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police Service established
a High Tech Crime Unit composed of four officers who deal with child
pornography and the enticement and seduction of children on the
Internet. The Unit created a Cyber Investigation Course for use
by Canadian cyber investigators in cooperation with the National
White Collar Crime Centre.[xlvi]
Role
and involvement of the private sector
Even with the advent of the Internet and the
ease of transfer of electronic images downloaded directly from digital
cameras, print photography still plays a major role in the sexual
exploitation of children. The private sector can be very influential
in providing information about incidents of child pornography. Photo
processing shops can help in reporting any questionable images developed
in the shops. A large photo-processing company in Canada has a policy
requiring police reporting where employees find questionable material
in clients’ films.[xlvii]
Status
of Women Canada (SWC) partnered with Kids Friendly in Vancouver
to pilot Stolen Innocence: A National Education Campaign Against
the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, in cooperation with
the travel and tourism industries.[xlviii]
Mexico
A
recent study found that over 16,000 children in Mexico are being
sexually exploited[xlix].
The escalation in CSEC cases has been traced to several factors,
the most salient being (a) poverty, (b) exploitation by family members/family
friends, (c) participation in survival sex, (d) recruitment by organized
crime networks, and (e) trafficking of children for sexual purposes
from underdeveloped countries to developed countries.[l]
While the correlation between poverty and CSEC is strong and poverty
has been found to explain involvement of substantial numbers of
children in sexually exploitative activities, poverty alone, cannot
explain the large number of children under 16 years of age who are
recruited for these activities.[li]
Other studies show a strong relationship between sexual victimization
of children and adolescent pregnancies, adult prostitution, substance
abuse, violence, and other types of adult criminal behavior. Further
factors that have been proposed to explain CSEC include: pedophilia,
accessibility, ineffectual legislative control, debt bondage, sadomasochism,
intergenerational prostitution, and sex tourism profits.[lii]
The
border towns of Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana are both transit zones
and receiver zones. They serve as a way station for persons who
want to cross the frontier legally or illegally and a receiver zone
for individuals who are returned and who, in many cases, remain
in the area in order to make another crossing attempt. In 1998,
approximately 12,365 children were repatriated along the Mexico/U.S.
border. Of that number of children, 1,706 were repatriated from
El Paso to Ciudad Juarez. In 1999, the total number of repatriated
children decreased to 10,740 but the number of those children repatriated
from El Paso to Ciudad Juarez increased to 2,637.[liii]
Other factors come together in border towns to create a welcoming
environment for the local sex trade: (a) the flow of people with
no or few job skills who often arrive without family or resources
but with an urgent need for income, (b) the demand for these services
by local clients and persons who are in transit and have left their
families somewhere else, and (c) tourists who cross the border with
the specific purpose of sexual exploitation.[liv]
The infrastructure of these cities is insufficient to meet the needs
of these children, who often are abandoned and living on the streets.
Sexually
exploited children are at great risk for contracting sexually transmitted
diseases (STDs). In 1999, health officials in Ciudad Juarez reported
that there were 35 new cases of AIDS reported among young people
and minors that prostitute themselves.[lv]
In that same year in Guadalajara, within the group of boys and girls
ages 5 to 14, there were a total of 419 cases of STDs which included
2 cases of AIDS. Sexual exploitation of children occurs in places
which operate under different auspices than adult brothels, which
makes it very difficult for health control officials to track and
treat exploited children. For example, covert prostitution has been
found to take place in massage parlors, beauty parlors, and modeling
and escort agencies, but health officials do not have entrè into
those establishments because they are not registered as places where
adult prostitution occurs. Only children who work in places subject
to obligatory health control receive medical attention; the remainder
of boys and girls who are being sexually exploited receive none.[lvi]
Additionally, when children are rotated around the country by organized
criminal networks, any kind of continuity of care (which includes
treatment as well as immunizations against communicable disease)
becomes impossible, putting the children’s health in even greater
jeopardy.
I
have a friend who has a daughter and she’s only 13 years old. She’s
still a baby; I’m still a baby. Every time I see her, her baby is
dirty and crying, looking like it hasn’t been fed…it’s so scary
to see it, it rips me up to see young girls like that who are out
there thinking that they have to do this.
–
Experiential Youth[lvii]
Profiles
of the children
Boys
and girls involved in commercial sexual exploitation have been found
to be as young as 8 years of age, although the majority is between
12 and 17 years of age.[lviii]
In Mexico City, an NGO study found that 50% of the females involved
in prostitution in the area were minors, and the majority of that
group was 15-16 years old.[lix]
The background and current environment of children who are being
exploited contain several common factors that fall under the categories
of abuse history, familial circumstances, at-risk status, and socioeconomic
status.
A
substantial amount of research in many countries has shown a link
between child exploitation and emotional, physical, and/or sexual
abuse by family members.[lx]
In particular, in Guadalajara, a religious organization that cares
for children who are exploited estimated that 70% of the children
in their care were victims of sexual abuse at home.[lxi]
In these cases the boys and girls show an important loss of self-esteem
that makes them susceptible to new outrages since their defenses
are weak and the support they might obtain from the family who has
already subjected them to violence is questionable.
Family
abuse history as well as current status contributes to children’s
susceptibility to exploitation. The Observation Centre for Young
Offenders in Guadalajara found the most important factor to the
situation of child exploitation was parents’ or stepfathers’ alcoholism
and subsequent violent behavior.[lxii]
In many cases, child prostitution has been found to be promoted
by family members. Familial abuse not only scars children, but also
plays a role in driving children from their homes, which in turn
leads to the children’s rootlessness. Disconnection from one’s familial
network, although perhaps beneficial in that the experience of family
abuse ends, increases the vulnerability of children who are forced
to make their own way. Child exploiters prey on such children, portraying
themselves as protectors and oftentimes providing children with
food and shelter. Particularly if they are from rural areas, children
often move to larger towns and cities. There they can be forced
into prostituting themselves in order to survive, may get caught
by procurers who “sell” them to brothels or bar owners and entrench
them in a world of debt bondage, or try to crossing a border to
find employment that provides a livable wage.
The
existence of drugs has become central to the exploitation of children
in Mexico. Children who may become addicted to drugs before being
exploited often find their way to prostitution to pay for their
addictions. In semi-organized/organized prostitution settings, exploiters
will use drugs purposefully as a tool to ensure the continuation
of their profits from child prostitution. Exploiters will get children
addicted to drugs, thereby ensuring the children’s need to continue
prostituting themselves in order to pay for their addiction. Azaola
(2001) found this occurring in Mexico’s largest cities. In some
cases, children are also used in drug trafficking.
In
Mexico, poverty can play an important role in leading children into
a situation where they are exploited. Rural and urban poor families
struggle with deteriorating living conditions. However, many children
recruited into prostitution also come from middle-class backgrounds.
In many cities throughout Mexico, groups of girls from higher socioeconomic
backgrounds are exploited by organizations that arrange private
parties or arrange for the adolescents to offer their sexual services
in hotels in the tourist zones.[lxiii]
In Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, for example, one company organizes
girls, most of whom are students from middle-income families, to
work in area hotels.[lxiv]
Profiles
of the exploiters
In
Mexico several factors converge to create an appropriate atmosphere
for the facilitation of the exploitation of children. Several transit
zones in Mexico bring in temporary farm workers, illegal immigrants,
polleros (traffickers of illegal immigrants over the border), truck
drivers, traveling businessmen, military personnel, and seamen.
These groups are characterized as being predominantly male populations
who have no family nor are looking to establish roots in the transitory
communities. This lack of roots unites them, and historical and
contemporary evidence have shown that this rootlessness is linked
to prostitute use. The majority of men belonging in these groups
are situational abusers, whereas they come to sexually exploit children
through their prostitute use, rather than using prostitution as
a means of access to children.
In
addition to the groups that are most often situational abusers mentioned
above, pedophiles and preferential abusers come to Mexico as tourists
with the primary purpose of having sex with children. The majority
of sex tourism exploiters are male. Massage parlors, escort and
modeling agencies, in spite of not being authorized to provide these
sexual services, offer and promote sex with children openly in the
media. The following are some examples from Acapulco: “School girls
and ardent young boys. The best services you can find. Just dare!”
and “All you desire! Beautiful, precocious young girls. Just what
you deserve.” In Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara, researchers found
evidence of organized sex tourism with boys.[lxv]
In the border town of Tijuana, sex tourism is something that happens
daily as Americans cross the border with the purpose of having sex
with minors. These “sex tourists,” often relatively affluent compared
with the socioeconomic level of the children they are exploiting,
take advantage of the destitution of these abandoned and neglected
children.
While
pedophiles, preferential abusers, and situational abusers benefit
from the sexual exploitation of children directly, third-party exploiters
benefit as well. Taxi drivers play an important role as middlemen
between tourists and the various options offered by the sex trade
in the area. They know girls who work in the milieu and transport
them and, even though they sometimes consider themselves to be their
protectors, can also be their pimps.
Trafficking
Domestic
and international trafficking and the sale of children are widespread
throughout Mexico, and is a lucrative business. Research has uncovered
the recruitment of children as sex workers by organized crime networks.
In one trafficking case, Mexican traffickers made approximately
$2.5 million over 2 years by forcing Mexican women and girls into
prostitution.[lxvi]
Sale of children for sexual purposes can take the form of girls
who are given in marriage to older adults who give economic benefits
to the family in exchange. In other cases, children are also sold
by their parents, bought by middlemen, and sold again to American
families.[lxvii]
This has been reported in Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana. Second only
to Mexico City, Guadalajara reports the greatest number of stolen
children each year. In that number is included cases of children
who have been in the custody of public and private institutions
in the city and the participation of officials in granting irregular
adoptions.[lxviii]
Young girls from Veracruz are trafficked across the northern border
and forced to have sex with migrant workers in the southeast United
States.[lxix]
In
Tapachula, which borders Guatemala, children are especially prone
to abuse. Hundreds of children cross the border each year from El
Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.[lxx]
Some children, mostly girls, are “bought” by club owners from procurers
who find them in their villages within the state or across the border
and bring them along under duress or under false pretenses with
phony promises of work. The girls begin working in order to pay
the debt the owner paid for them, plus the amount the owner charges
for food and lodging. This system of perpetual debt forces them
to stay in servitude. Other children from El Salvador and Guatemala
reported that they had traveled with adults who had paid for assistance
with illegal migration into the USA and who had used Mexico as a
transit country.[lxxi]
According to the US State Department’s 2001 Trafficking in Persons
Report, children from Central America, China, and Eastern Europe
have been trafficked through Mexico to perform commercial sex work
in the USA, Canada, and Japan.[lxxii]
Additionally, illegal status compounds the children’s problems as
they are much less likely to prosecute their exploiters for the
abuse they have suffered as that could lead to deportation.
National
legislation pertaining to CSEC
Mexico
has various articles of legislation pertaining to CSEC. The Federal
Penal Code does not ban prostitution among persons over 18 years
of age, neither in the case of the person who practices it or the
one who requests it. They do, however, prohibit exploitation with
the objective of profiting from the sexual work others do, regardless
of whether they under or over 18 years of age.
The
Federal Penal Code declares that the procurement, facilitation,
and force of a child under 18 years of age to perform acts of pornography,
prostitution, consumption of narcotics, and/or commit criminal deeds
is a criminal offense punishable by a prison term at least 5 years
in length (Articles 201, 201 bis.). While few states explicitly
delineate child pornography as a crime, the crime of “corruption
of children” can be applied to sanction these activities. Article
208 states that the person who promotes, conceals, or permits the
carnal intercourse of a child under the age of 18 will be sentenced
to 8 to 12 years in prison. However, each of the 31 States has its
own penal code. In the State of Quintana Roo in which Cancun, a
major tourist destination and site of CSEC, is located, age of majority
for criminal matters is 16 so it is considered that after that age
they are no longer children.
Trafficking
of children was recently characterized as a crime, although it is
not included in the legislation of all the states and children 16
and older are not included in the legislation’s protection. According
to Article 366 (Trafficking in children), a sentence of 25 to 50
years in prison will be applied when liberty is taken away in order
to take a child under 16 years of age out of the national territory
with the purpose of obtaining an unlawful profit from the sale or
delivery of the child. This mismatch between the state and national
age of majority leads to reduced protection for children.
Recently incorporated into the Federal Penal
Code is a law to combat sex tourism. Article 201 bis 3 makes a criminal
offense any person who promotes, advertises, invites, facilitates,
or negotiates, by any means, the movement of a person(s) inside
or outside national territory with the purpose of having sexual
relations with children under 18 years of age. This is punishable
by a sentence of 5 to 14 years in prison.
Law
enforcement
During
1998, the authorities of the Attorney’s Office for Justice in Guadalajara
carried out 186 preliminary investigations into the corruption of
children and 133 in 1999 for different motives not necessarily linked
to sexual exploitation. From a total of 319 investigations, only
one person was remanded for the corruption of children and two for
inciting children to prostitution.[lxxiii]
This demonstrates the difficulty of prosecuting exploiters, as very
few cases are prosecuted and even fewer end in the trial of the
persons responsible. In Cancun, local police reports demonstrate
the lack of proportion of prostitution cases in the different areas
of the city brought before judges during 1999. Out of a total of
638 cases, only 21 were from the tourist hotel area while 449 corresponded
to poorer areas of the city. This inequality illustrates a situation
where local law enforcement is more interested in controlling the
sex trade in poorer areas as opposed to intervening in the lucrative
hotel zone.[lxxiv]
There
are two significant reasons why very few cases of sexual exploitation
of children are prosecuted. First, even in cases where children
press charges, often the children drop the charges because the exploiters
threaten them or their family or pretend that they are the children’s
godfathers or benefactors. Second, the difficulty of prosecuting
exploiters is compounded by the complicity of some members of local
law enforcement in the sexual exploitation of children. In the border
city of Tapachula, local children as well as children from Central
America work in the bars in the red light district. While there
is fear of raids by the police which could lead to deportation for
the undocumented children, Azaola (2001) through interviews found
that raids did not happen very often since the bar owners buy police
protection. Additionally, in some cases, children working in the
district, with or without documents, are victims of extortion by
the police. This was also found in Tijuana, where children interviewed
stated that not only were they victims of extortion by police officers
but some police officers were pimps as well.[lxxv]
Very
few cases are tried and aggressors rarely go to prison. Even those
cases in which children have been raped or suffer sexual abuse,
there is a quite generalized attitude on the part of the families
in the sense of not pressing charges to avoid scandal.[lxxvi]
Additionally, often charges are not pressed against exploiters because
families fear reprisals. Tightening Mexican laws will not be enough
if they are not exercised or their violation is tolerated in practice.
This situation allows exploiters to continue to act with impunity.
Kids
can’t get a job or into school or collect welfare because they need
ID and a place to live, they don’t have ID because someone wants
to find them that they are afraid of – the public needs to be aware
that some people can’t get a job, can’t get welfare … prostitution
is the only job you don’t have to apply for.
–
Male youth, Toronto[lxxvii]
Prevention,
protection, and recovery programs
In
the major Mexican cities where CSEC has been found to be thriving,
there appears to be a lack of programmatic and institutional responses
available to children who have been sexually exploited. There are
few government institutions that provide shelter for children living
in the streets. Most of the shelters available do not have specific
programs to provide specialized care to the child victims of CSE.
Furthermore, there are no adequate programs for children with addiction
problems. In Cancun, which reports at least 700 boys and girls who
are being exploited, there are only two civil homes for children
who have been abandoned or maltreated and a government home, Casa
Filtro, provided by the municipal Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo
Integral de la Familia (DIF).[lxxviii]
This home receives about 400 children each year, from newborns to
16 year olds. Although it has at times received girls and boys who
work in the sex trade, they recognize that these cases are beyond
their competence because they would require specialized attention
that they are not a position to provide. Neither are they in a position
to receive adolescents with severe addiction problems. DIF also
runs another home in Tapachula that serves a wide range of people
from small children to the elderly. However, the institution does
not have specific programs for child or adolescent victims of sexual
exploitation. In Guadalajara, there are about 30 homes for children
that have been abandoned or maltreated, most of which are private
institutions run by religious orders. Only one of them, which is
run by nuns, has specialized care programs for the girl and boy
victims of sexual exploitation.
There
are several programs that are striving to make a difference in the
lives of exploited children. For example, the Attorney’s Office
for the Defense of the Child, the Woman and the Family and the Attention
Centre for Border Children in Ciudad Juarez provide legal and psychological
services for all child victims of different types of abuse by request.
The Office and the Centre have collaborated in trying cases and
in-following up of exploitation before the corresponding authorities.[lxxix]
Another
example of good practice is found in Mexico City. El Caracol offers
street children and youth an educational alternative by providing
productive workshops where young people can acquire values, skills,
and incomes. Participants include children and youth aged 15 to
23 living on the streets of the city who have shown potential for
productive lives and successful reintegration into society. El Caracol’s
program focuses on prevention, healing, and making connections with
street children and youth. Program objectives include providing
training to children and youth living on the streets, giving them
the opportunity to develop and reintegrate into society; supporting
youth at risk before they end up on the streets; and providing and
training staff of other institutions to assist them in working appropriately
with homeless children and youth.[lxxx]
Casa Alianza has a program designed to meet
the particular needs of children living on the streets. The programs’
four components include: (a) Outreach: Outreach teams provide children
living on the streets with emergency medical care, counseling, nonformal
education, and friendship; (b) Crisis Centers: As children are encouraged
to leave the streets, Casa Alianza offers a structured, supportive,
secure environment providing food, clothes, medical treatment, and
educational and vocational training; (c) Transition Homes: After
the Crisis Centers, children are transferred to Transition Homes
run by staff trained to help children develop long-term goals; and
(d) Group Homes: The last component of the program replicates a
positive family environment and provides nurturance by a team of
counselors. Each group home accommodates approximately 14 boys and
girls.[lxxxi]
Child
pornography
The
use of children in producing pornographic material is widespread
throughout Mexico. In most of the major tourist areas, the victims
are often, although not exclusively, children who live on the streets.[lxxxii]
Major players are expatriates, particularly American and Canadian
nationals, who purposely visit tourist spots in order to exploit
children for pornographic purposes. In Acapulco, there have been
cases of expatriates who have lured children to their houses in
the area and have kept them there locked up for days or weeks while
the pornographic materials were produced.[lxxxiii]
These expatriates collaborate with local exploiters in organized
networks where they buy children from the poorest areas of the country
and then move them around from one place to another. Keeping the
children under the influence of illegal substances inhibits their
running away.
Often
progress in combating CSEC is coupled with steps back. In 1998,
a group that was distributing videos and pornographic images using
children over the Internet was shut down.[lxxxiv]
However, in 1999 in Puerto Vallarta, several Mexicans and expatriates
who were involved in procuring children for pornographic purposes
were arrested, but they were allowed to go shortly afterwards.[lxxxv]
The
situation is similar in Tijuana. Child pornography happens frequently,
in particular with children who prostitute themselves and are further
exploited by Americans who offer them an additional payment to let
themselves be photographed.[lxxxvi]
Although it is widely known that child pornography is something
that happens often, law enforcement officials emphasize the difficulties
they face in prosecuting these cases since they have not found a
technique for getting the children to agree to prosecute and collaborate
with the investigations. Police officials need to respond appropriately
to the reality that children who prosecute exploiters are most often
jeopardizing food, shelter, and other subsistence needs.
Role
and involvement of the private sector
Of
the three subsectors traditionally associated with CSEC, travel
and tourism, media, and new technologies industries, the most central
to Mexico’s CSEC problem appears to be travel and tourism. A great
deal of the CSEC activity occurs in the tourist areas of Mexico;
the Mexican travel and tourism industries are a logical source of
action. Internationally, 93% of CSEC activities take place in hotels.[lxxxvii]
This finding is in step with research in Mexican tourist areas where
hotel managers and other employees turn blind eyes toward child
prostitution in their midst. In some cases, exploited children work
and live in hotels, such as those in Cancun’s tourist zone. An analysis
of local police reports in Cancun demonstrates that police officers
focus more on policing poorer areas than the hotel zone, even though
there is substantial visible activity in both areas.[lxxxviii]
In Guadalajara, researchers found that most of the girls, as young
as 8 years of age and up to 17, prostituted themselves in the hotels
in the central zone of the city.[lxxxix]
The
burgeoning maquiladora industry plays a key role in the growing
number of exploited children in Ciudad Juarez. More than 250 companies
operate in the area, preferring to employ young women and minors.
Women and children perform tedious work for low wages. However,
for many who come to this area, the poverty that drove them from
their home villages or towns was worse. The growth of this sector
has attracted important contingents of young women and minors from
both the locality and rural areas of other states who move to the
town with the expectation of obtaining employment and settling down
there, or getting enough money to cross the border. Local firms
could make an important contribution by providing child care services
to employees. Unfortunately, hardly any firms offer these services,
which means that a substantial number of children are left alone
during the day. This is considered to be the origin of the large
number of children who from an early age spend a lot of time on
the streets, leave home, take drugs, and/or join gangs.[xc]
Media
involvement is also crucial to making progress in the elimination
of CSEC. As mentioned above, advertisers in the print media market
sex with children overtly. However, there have been instances of
media cooperation. Until a recent crackdown by the municipal authorities,
Cancun was one of the major centers for child sex tourists and pedophile
groups, both foreign and local. Now there are concrete symbols that
tolerance of child sexual exploitation is decreasing: around the
city, billboards and taxis display signs reading, “No sex with children”.[xci]
To
galvanize support from the legal sector, Bruce Harris, Latin American
Regional Director for Casa Alianza, spoke to the annual conference
of the International Bar Association on November 1, 2001, in Cancun.
Twenty-five hundred lawyers from 158 countries, including 500 delegates
from the USA, heard Harris’ presentation on the international trafficking
of Central America’s children. He called for lawyers at the conference
to contribute their efforts in halting the trafficking of infants
and children. Additionally, attendees participated in more than
100 sessions covering a wide range of business, human rights and
professional issues, including the focus on the trafficking of children.
United
States
The
growing number of children involved in commercial sexual exploitation
in the USA has been termed a “silent emergency”.[xcii]
Conservative estimates vary from 100,000 to 300,000 children[xciii];
other sources calculate that there could be 500,000.[xciv]
Profiles
of the children
There
are numerous factors that converge to create a climate where the
sex trade can thrive. In the USA, poverty is a critical contextual
factor in CSEC. Poor children and adults driven by dire circumstances
become caught up in sexually exploitative activities.[xcv]
Thirty-seven percent of children under 18 are categorized as poor
in the USA even though they make up only about 26% of the total
population.[xcvi]
In addition to poverty, research findings support the assertion
that children with histories of family dysfunction, familial or
personal drug addiction, and recurrent school and other social failures
are more vulnerable to CSEC.[xcvii]
For
a substantial number of children, sexual exploitation begins with
sexual assaults by family members. Numerous studies have shown a
link between child exploitation and emotional, physical, and/or
sexual abuse by family members.[xcviii]
Researchers analyzing reports filed with the National Child Abuse
and Neglect Data System found that there are 105,000 new cases of
child sexual abuse confirmed to occur each year in the USA. Estes
and Weiner (2001) found that up to 40% of girls and up to 30% of
boys who are victims of sexual exploitation have been victims of
physical or sexual abuse at home. Estimates of the prevalence of
incest among prostitutes range from 65% to 90%. The Council for
Prostitution Alternatives, Portland, Oregon Annual Report in 1991
stated that: 85% of prostitute/clients reported history of sexual
abuse in childhood; 70% reported incest.[xcix]
Although child prostitutes are not always runaways, there is a close
link between the two. Runaway children often see prostitution as
the only option to make money while living on the streets. Since
child prostitution is so closely connected to the issue of runaway
children, preventative measures for both should be explored. The
probability that homeless children will engage in survival sex is
increased for those who have been victimized.[c]
One youth shelter in a large, urban northwestern city reported that
60% of homeless girls they served had been sexually abused.[ci]
Studies
have found children as young as 8 in the sex trade in the USA, while
the majority of exploited children range in age from 13 to 17.[cii]
Most of these 13- or 14-year-old girls were recruited or coerced
into prostitution. Ethnic composition of exploited children varies
by region, although the majority is Caucasian. In Seattle, researchers
found that 65% of homeless children who were involved in some type
of sexual exploitation were Caucasian, while 14% were African American,
and 3% were Asian/Pacific Islander.[ciii]
The proportions change somewhat in the southern part of the country.
Findings in New Orleans revealed 61% Caucasian, 36% African American,
2% Hispanic, and 1% Other for the same group. However, in New York
City, service provides estimate that the large majority of prostituted
children are African American and Hispanic.
The
most tangible consequence of involvement in juvenile prostitution
is the extremely high probability of suffering violent assault.
The vast majority of female prostitutes are beaten by their pimps
and abused by their customers repeatedly. Rape is often a common-place
experience for girls involved in prostitution, with up to 70% of
female-juvenile prostitutes admitting that they have been raped
by customers an average of 31 times per prostitute.[civ]
Girls
were found to be primarily involved in exploiter-controlled prostitution,
including street prostitution and prostitution organized through
massage and escort agencies. Boys, on the other hand, were found
to be primarily engaged in entrepreneurial prostitution and pornography.
Significantly, in terms of providing appropriate services to boys
trying to leave the sex trade, 25-35% involved in commercial sex
self-identify as sexual minorities, such as gay, bisexual, or as
transgender or transsexual.[cv]
Substantial percentages of children involved in the sex trade have
been removed from their homes by Child Protective Services, have
spent time in foster care, and have had parents with substance abuse
problems.[cvi]
I
think you should do something about the johns. They should be charged
for sex abuse of young girls, not just given a slap on the arm.
The johns…are the trade. They always blacklist the prostitutes,
but they should do something about the johns. Put them in jails,
and when they are in there, give them some help to stop them doing
this, because they are very sick people.
–
Experiential female youth, started at age 14[cvii]
Profiles
of the exploiters
According
to current research, nearly all offenders of sexual assault reported
to law enforcement (96%) are male.[cviii]
While the majority of these offenders are adults, 23% of all sexual
assaults against children are committed by juveniles under the age
of 18 and 22% are committed by adults between 18 and 24 years old.[cix]
Evidence
of participation in CSEC in the USA comes from each exploiter category
mentioned above. Pedophiles, preferential abusers and sex tourists
plan their vacations around the purpose of having sex, primarily
with children, as this is highly stigmatized, illegal, and difficult
in their home countries.
Situational
or “opportunistic” exploiters do not indicate a sexual preference
for children but instead have sex with children because children
are available. Most prostitute users fall into this category. Nearly
half of prostitute users have been found to be married men, often
with children. The majority of users are Caucasian, employed full-time,
self-identified as heterosexual, and have personal incomes in excess
of $30,000USD per year. Transience is a key factor in male prostitute
use. Men who are military personnel, truck drivers, seasonal workers,
or conventioneers are more likely to exploit children for sex.
Exploiters,
mostly male, who profit from child prostitution (“pimps”) are mostly
African American or Hispanic in the USA. Their ages range from 16
to mid-50s.[cx]
Recent research found that at least 25% of exploiters were tied
into citywide crime rings, 15% were involved in regional or nationwide
networks, and approximately 10% were tied into international sex
crime networks.[cxi]
Many are also involved in drug trafficking and sales, both for profit
and to keep the children they exploit addicted so that it is difficult
for them to leave their exploiters.
When
I was a pimp I manipulated three girls into prostitution, by leading
them to believe they were of no use to anyone but me. I think a
person has to believe in themselves or they are vulnerable to this
type of manipulation. Their self-esteem was very low, so it was
easy to get them out there.
–
Transvestite, started pimping at age 15[cxii]
Trafficking
Between
700,000 and 2 million women and children are trafficked across international
borders each year.[cxiii]
Approximately 45,000-50,000 women and children in the USA are trafficked
annually, primarily by small crime rings and loosely connected networks.[cxiv]
Victims have historically come from Latin America and Southeast
Asia, though increasingly they are coming from the Newly Independent
States and Central and Eastern Europe.[cxv]
Trafficking in human beings has been found to be the fastest growing
criminal enterprise in the world, and the targets are typically
poor, young, uneducated children and women.[cxvi]
One reason for the increase is the weak economies and lack of job
opportunities in the countries of origin of the victims. In July,
2001, a landlord from Berkeley, California, was sentenced to nearly
9 years in prison and ordered to pay $2 million in restitution to
the women and girls whom he had been bringing from India for sex
and cheap labor for the last two decades.[cxvii]
Under President Clinton, the President’s Interagency
Council on Women led the coordination of domestic and international
policy on the trafficking in women issue. The Council formulated
the following definition of trafficking:
“Trafficking
is all acts involved in the recruitment, abduction, transport, harboring,
transfer, sale or receipt of persons; within national or across
international borders; through force, coercion, fraud, or deception;
to place persons in situations of slavery or slavery-like conditions,
forced labor or services such as, forced prostitution or sexual
services, domestic servitude, bonded sweatshop labor or other debt
bondage.”[cxviii]
Major
ports of entry used by traffickers to move women and children into
the USA include the following airports: Chicago’s O’Hare, Los Angeles
International, Miami International, New York City’s JFK, and San
Francisco International.[cxix]
Once inside the USA, women and children are moved around on a sex
trade circuit that includes Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami,
New York, Reno, San Francisco, and Seattle. Movement of exploited
children is a common feature of CSEC. The goal of movement is twofold:
by rotating children between cities and states, traffickers ensure
a “fresh supply” of children for users as well as keep children
rootless and unaware of local law enforcement contacts.[cxx]
Poor,
uneducated children are easy prey for traffickers and exploiters.
Richard (1999) recounts one case where from February 1996 to March
1998, between 25 and 40 Mexican women and girls were trafficked
to Florida and South Carolina for prostitution. Typical of trafficking
situations, the exploiters offered false promises of jobs in landscaping,
child care, and elder care, and had convinced the children’s parents
that the jobs were legitimate. In August 1998, an organized crime
task force in Atlanta indicted 13 members of an Asian smuggling
ring for trafficking up to 1,000 Asian women and girls between the
ages of 13 and 25 for prostitution in Atlanta and other American
cities. The women and girls were held in bondage until their $30,000
to $40,000 contracts were paid off.
National
legislation pertaining to CSEC
Since
the First World Congress in 1996, American legislators have made
significant progress in criminalizing the actions of exploiters.
The Child Pornography Prevention Act of
1996 amends the definition of child pornography to include that
which actually depicts the sexual conduct of real minor children
and that which appears to be a depiction of a minor engaging in
sexual conduct. Computer, photographic, and photocopy technology
is amazingly competent at creating and altering images that have
been altered to look like children even though those photographed
may have actually been adults. People who alter pornographic images
to look like children can now be prosecuted under the law. State
governments have taken a number of steps to prevent the sexual exploitation
of children. Today, every state has enacted statutes that specifically
address the problem of child pornography.
In
1998, Congress passed the Child On-Line Protection Act. The Act
requires the operator of any website or online service directed
to children that collects personal information from children or
the operator of a website or online service that has actual knowledge
that it is collecting personal information from a child: (a) to
provide notice on the website of what information is collected from
children by the operator, how the operator uses such information,
and the operator’s disclosure practices for such information; and
(b) to obtain verifiable parental consent for the collection, use,
or disclosure of personal information from children.
Legislative
progress is being made against human trafficking in the USA. Congress
passed |
