The Cause of Sex
Trafficking is the Demand for it.
Just like arms
and drug trafficking, human trafficking exists to meet the demand.
- INTRODUCTION -
An
estimated 2 million women and children are held in sexual servitude
throughout the world, and between 800,000 and 900,000 are trafficked
across international borders for the purposes of sexual exploitation
each year. These women and
children make up the "supply" side of sex trafficking.
This supply has been created
to meet a demand. Without
this demand, there would be no need for trafficked women and children.
The demand side of the
trafficking equation includes those (mostly men) who buy sexual services
and/or consumer goods (videos, Internet pornography, etc.) created from
the sexual exploitation of trafficked persons. Little attention has been given
to the demand created by those people and organizations that benefit
from the commercial sexual enslavement of women and children.
To combat sex trafficking, much more
information is needed to understand the root causes and conditions that
create a need for a supply of trafficked women and children.
Without this information, those who are motivated to exploit and
use trafficked victims will continue to remain a mystery. By
understanding the dynamics of demand, we can develop the legal and
political policies necessary to control and end this horrific practice.
We have presented two very successful conferences on the
subject of demand: one in 2003 (Demand Dynamics: The Forces of
Demand in International Sex Trafficking) and one in 2005
(Pornography: Driving the Demand for International Sex
Trafficking). Please visit our conferences page by clicking
here for extensive information about each of these conferences.
Click on these
links to learn about the cause & demand:
SEX
TOURISM: A LEARNING MODEL
COMPREHENDING
CHILD SEX TOURISM
Recommendations Regarding Domestic Sex Trafficking of U.S.
Teens
Recommendations
for the Elimination of Trafficking To and Within the United States
SEX TOURISM: A LEARNING MODEL
Captive Daughters Fights Sex Tourism - 1999
Philippine Adventure Tours (PAT), of
Ventura, California, specialized in sex tours to the Philippines. The
individual cost was $1,645, for a package that provided round trip
airfare, hotel, and guided tours to bars where one could purchase sex
from prostitutes working in the bars as entertainers." The cost of
prostitution, called a " barfine," is approximately 750 pesos (U.S.
$24). The tour guide assists the tourist in negotiating the sexual
transaction with the "mamasan" (manager) of the
prostitute-entertainer.
Allan Gaynor, owner and tour guide for
PAT, promised prospective sex tourists that they would "never sleep
alone on this tour," and recommended sex with a different girl every
night - "two if you can handle it."
Mr. Gaynor routinely used his web site to
deceive the public as to the true activities of PAT. His April 1998 web
site used such words as "girl, lover, topless, breast, nudity, sex,
arrange" and the telltale word "barfine," which indicates to sex
tourists that girls/women are for sale for sex. The words were designed
to blend with the blue background of the site. By dragging the mouse
through the background, the words were revealed. No reputable tour
agency would ever incorporate these search mechanisms in their
advertising.
After an April 18, 1998 protest at LAX
against a PAT departure, the web site underwent various transformations
in an effort continue business , but continued to deceive the general
public as to their true activities. Still, there were numerous images of
young girls and women in minimal clothing and seductive
poses.
Unfortunately, PAT is not the only
American sex tour operator to Asia. According to Business Week more than
25 other U.S. companies offer such tours. Since December of 1996,
Equality Now has been calling for the prosecution of Big Apple Oriental
Tours in Bellerose, New York, a sex tour business that also promotes
tours to the Philippines. The Philippine Government has banned owner
Norman Barabash from entering their country.
Many of the prostitutes exploited by sex
tourism and other forms of sex trafficking are young girls. The 1994
Child Sex Abuse Prevention Act makes it a felony for United States
citizens to travel to another country for the purpose of engaging in sex
with persons under age 18 years of age.
Regardless of the age of girls,
prostitution is illegal in the Philippines. Sex tours also violate state
laws prohibiting the promotion of prostitution. The United Nations
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women obliges governments to "take all appropriate measures, including
legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and the
exploitation of prostitution of women. In June of 1998 Equality Now,
Captive Daughters and GABRIELA filed complaints with the California
Attorney General against, PAT, citing false and misleading advertising.
On November 4, 1998, a second protest was held at LAX against a PAT
departure.
Keywords from Philippine Adventure Tours'
Web Site
Asian, asia, asians, filipina, adventure,
adventures, attractive, cute, enjoyable, erotic, exciting, exotic,
fashion, video, taipei, tokyo, seoul, models, filipinas, friendly,
hospitable, lovely, online, orient, oriental,orientals,party, petite
,philippine, pretty, night, life, barfine, bar, fine, beautiful, nudity,
nightlife, penpals, companion, asean, bikinis, photography, camera,
cameras, photo, video, photos, photograph, sex, sexy, manila, picture,
pictures, print, prints, angeles, city, breast, women, arrange, bride,
female, females, girl, girls, ladies, lady, lover, match, mate, miss,
soul, mate, spouse, wife, barrio, barrretto, topless, olongapo city,
woman, field, fields, city, avenue, subic bay, subic, adult, bay, ave,
san miguel beer, penpal, bangkok, thailand, korea, japan, taiwan, hong
kong, vietnam, ho chi minh city.
NOTE: On February 24, 1999, on KABC-Los
Angeles, Mr. Gaynor announced that he was bowing to public pressure and
discontinuing Philippine Adventure Tours.
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COMPREHENDING CHILD SEX
TOURISM
To many governments around the world,
international tourism provides an answer to economic growth and
development. As tourism begins to overtake traditional sources of
employment, children and young people are encouraged to migrate to
tourist areas, in hopes they can earn an income for themselves and their
families. The commercial sexual exploitation of children parallels the
growth of tourism in many parts of the world. Tourism is not the cause
of child sexual exploitation, but it does provide easy access to
vulnerable children. In some instances, the marketing of certain
destinations, particularly within Asia, portrays an image of women and
children who are passive, submissive and exotic. These false images
reinforce many of the beliefs of sex tourists. Tourism also brings
consumerism to many parts of the world previously denied access to
luxury commodities and services. The lure of this easy money has caused
many young people, including children, to trade their bodies in exchange
for T-shirts, walkmans, bikes and even air tickets out of the country.
In other situations, children are trafficked into the brothels on the
margins of the tourist area and sold into sexual slavery, very rarely
earning the money to escape.
Profiles: Sex tourists may be solo
travelers or part of an arranged group. They may be Preferential
Abusers, who have clear and definite sexual preferences for children or
Situational Abusers, offenders who may not have planned to have
commercial child sex while abroad, but took the opportunity when it
presented itself. They use the "why not" approach and might consider it
a bit of holiday "fun" not considering adolescents as children, even
though many of the bar girls and boys are under 16 years of age. While
the majority of child sex offenders are male, it is also known that
women are involved, and in some cases, male and female offenders travel
as a couple to avoid discovery. Child sex tourist persuade themselves
that in another country, normal social and moral restraints can be
discarded, along with the belief that one will not be held responsible
for his or her behavior. It is within these circumstances that child
sexual exploitation thrives. The fact that most organized international
child sex abuse occurs in developing countries indicates that child sex
offenders exploit the economic hardships which many families endure.
Offenders prefer to believe that the children they abuse are
professional prostitutes, which allow the perpetrators to feel
exonerated or justified in their actions. The fear of contracting AIDS
through unprotected sex with older prostitutes has increased the demand
for virgins and young children.
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO WOMEN
AND CHILDREN?
SUPPLY
*Devaluation of the
girl child and discriminatory practices
*Perceived
responsibility of women and children to support
families
*Lack of educational, employment and vocational
opportunities
*Fragmentation of families: death of
parent/s, husband, increases homeless women and
children
*Economic conditions, especially rural poverty,
fueled by economic development policies and the erosion of agricultural
sectors
*Rural to urban migration and the growth of urban
industrial centers
*Move from subsistence to cash based
economy and increased consumerism
*Lack of laws and law
enforcement
DEMAND
*Criminal
networks who organize the sex industry and recruit the
children
*Law enforcement /governmental complicity in the
sex trade
*Demands of foreign sex industries creating
international trade in girls and women
*Fear of AIDS,
leading customers to demand younger girls
*Early marriage
and child marriage
*Traditional and cultural practices,
including the demand for virgins, the cultural practice of men
patronizing prostitutes, inter-generational patterns of girls entering
prostitution
*Employers using the debt-bond (slavery)
system, forced labor and child labor
*Demand of sex
tourists, pedophiles and the migrant labor
force
*International promotion of the sex industry through
information technology
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Recommendations Regarding Domestic Sex Trafficking of U.S.
Teens
In Support
of a National Strategy to Combat Child Sex Exploitation (CSE) & the
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC)
University of Pennsylvania
School of Social Work
For full report go here: http://caster.ssw.upenn.edu/~restes/CSEC.htm
Recommendation #1:
Protect the Children
Children are the victims of
sexual exploitation and only rarely can protect themselves against
sexual assaults by trusted family members and other adults, especially
when children themselves fail to recognize or give credence to the
coercion and deception that accompanies CSE. Thus efforts at protecting
children from sexual exploitation must emphasize prevention as the first
priority.
Recommendation #2:
Target Adult Sexual Exploiters of Children for Punishment, Not the
Children
Sexually exploited children
often are re-victimized by the very agency that have been designed to
assist them. This
re-victimization takes several forms: 1) the treatment of sexually
exploited children as criminals rather than as victims of sexual
exploitation; 2) to the extent they occur at all, arrests of juveniles
involved in prostitution rather than the pimps, traffickers, customers
and other adults that benefit from the sexual exploitation of children;
and 3) "benign neglect" by many agencies of the complex service needs of
tens of thousands of runaway and homeless street youth that enter local
communities as "transients."
Recommendation #3:
Enforce More Fully Existing National & State Laws Relating to
CSE
This investigation has
determined a pattern of benign neglect on the part of many law
enforcement and human service agencies vis-a-vis the needs of sexually
exploited children and youth.
This pattern is reflected both in the comparatively low number of
CSE cases currently being served by public agencies and the absence of
written policies and procedures for dealing with CSE cases in all but a
few agencies. The pattern
prevails despite the existence of strong Federal, and usually, state,
laws designed to protect the children from sexual
exploitation.
Recommendation #4:
Increase the Penalties Associated With Sexual Crimes Against
Children
While no one can forecast
exactly the net impact of greater or enhanced criminal penalties in
reducing CSE; there is an important logic for doing so. Penalty enhancement broadcasts
the unmistakable message that CSE is a crime, not a viable defensible
personal choice.
Recommendation #5:
Support local Communities in their Efforts to Strengthen Local and State
Law Pertaining to Child Sexual Exploitation
At the same time that work is
done by governmental and non-governmental groups to change the penalty
structure and hierarchy of statutes pertaining to CSE, work also needs
to be done in strengthening those statutes that already
exist.
Recommendation #6:
Establish a National Child Sexual Exploitation Intelligence
Center
This investigation has
demonstrated the need for a full-time intelligence gathering and
strategic planning apparatus for monitoring national trends related to
CSE. The that end, we
recommend that National Child Sexual Exploitation Intelligence Center
(NCSEIC) be established.
Recommendation #7:
Expand Federally funded Multi-jurisdictional Task Forces on Child Sexual
Exploitation Into All Major Federal and State
Jurisdictions
Recommendation #8:
Expand Federally-Funded Internet Crimes Against Children Units into All
Major Federal and State Jurisdictions
Federally-initiated
multi-jurisdictional task forces on CSE as well as federally initiated
Internet Crimes Against Children units have demonstrated great promise
in the communities in which they are located. They have succeed in
sensitizing communities, promoting multi-jurisdictional cooperation,
promoting new public-private partnerships, strengthened local laws and
served as focal points for promoting of public and continuing
professional education concerning CSE both locally and
nationally.
Recommendation #9:
Expand the National Pool of Child Sexual Exploitation Experts and
Specialists
A serious shortage exists
nationally in the number and types of specialist in CSE. These shortages are most
apparent in the forensics area but also are manifest in judicial and
prosecutorial agencies. An
urgent need also exists for more social workers, psychologists,
educators, physicians, lawyers, police officers, coroners and other s
with special expertise in CSE.
Recommendation #10:
Promote Effective Public/Private partnerships for Combating Child Sexual
Exploitation
A successful national campaign
to combat CSE will require active participation and coordination of
efforts between and among all public and private stakeholders committed
to the prevention of CSE and to the protection of its victims. See full recommendations for
detailed list of stakeholders.
Recommendation #11:
The Need for More Specific Studies of Perpetrators of Child Sexual
Exploitation and Their Victims
The present investigation
represents a unique "first generation" inquiry into the nature, extent,
dynamics and seriousness of CSE in the U.S. This investigation has uncovered
many surprising, and unsettling, facts about the near epidemic nature of
CSE in contemporary American society. We have reported these findings
in considerable detail.
Even so, much more needs to be understood about the causes and
extent of CSE, especially among sexually vulnerable populations of
children and youth that are hidden from public view.
COMMERCIAL CHILD
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: "THE MOST HIDDEN FORM OF CHILD ABUSE,"
SAYS PENN PROFESSOR
University of Pennsylvania
News Bureau
CONTACT: Ron Ozio at 215-898-8658
(office) 215-920-1290
(cell) or ozio@pobox.upenn.edu
WASHINGTON – Tens of thousands
of U.S., Mexican and Canadian children and youth become victims of
juvenile pornography, prostitution and trafficking each year. So significant is the problem
that even most law-enforcement and child-welfare officials do not
realize its scope.
"Child sexual exploitation is
the most hidden form of child abuse in the U.S. and North America
today. It is the nation's
least recognized epidemic," said Richard J. Estes, a University of
Pennsylvania professor of
social work and the author of "The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children in the U.S., Canada and Mexico." Neil Weiner of Penn's Center for
the Study of Youth Policy co-authored the international
report.
The three-year project was
funded by the National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of
Justice, the W.T. Grant Foundation, the Fund for Non-Violence and the
Research Foundation of the University of Pennsylvania.
Estes reported that his and
Weiner's research identified 17 groups of children in the U.S. who are
at "substantial risk" of being sexually exploited. The largest of these groups are
runaway, thrown away and other homeless American children who use
"survival sex" to acquire food,
shelter, clothing and other things needed to survive on America's
streets," Estes said. "These children are solicited for sex repeatedly
by men, many of whom are married and have children of their own," Estes
said. "Like other groups of
sexually exploited persons, street children are exposed to violence,
drug abuse, rape and sometimes, even murder at the hands of the pimps,
‘customers' and traffickers that make up their world."
Estes also reported that some
U.S. children engage in commercial sex while living at home. "The
majority of these children trade sex for money or for more expensive
clothes and other consumer goods.
Most of the ‘customers' of these children are members of their
own junior and senior high school peer groups," he said. Many of these
children live in secure middle-class homes, and few parents are aware of
their children's involvement in pornography and prostitution. This group
also includes American youths who cross into Canada or Mexico in pursuit
of cheaper drugs, alcohol and sex. Mexican authorities report that
border town are little more than "cantinas for America's youth," Estes
said.
The sexual exploitation of
children is not limited to particular racial, ethnic or socioeconomic
groups, according to the Penn professors' report, although children from
poorer families appear to be somewhat at a higher risk of commercial
sexual exploitation. In
fact, most of the street children encountered in the study were
Caucasian youths who had run away from middle-class homes. But, "a disproportionate number
of street youth have histories of recurrent physical or sexual abuse at
home and took to the streets in a desperate effort to bring their abuse
to an end," Estes said.
"It's ironic that running away from home increases their risk of
physical violence and
sexual abuse." Many street youths use drugs "deal with the
emotional pain of being
sexually victimized at home and, once on the streets, by four to 10
‘customers' a day," Estes said.
Just as the exploited children
come from all parts of society, so do the perpetrators of sex crimes
against children. These
sexual predators include relatives and other adults known and trusted by
the children or their families.
"Despite popular notions to the contrary," Estes said, "strangers
commit fewer than 4% of all the sexual assaults on children." In the
case of street children, their "customers" include pedophiles,
pederasts, pimps and traffickers.
Other customer are transient males, including members of the
military, long-haul truck drivers, seasonal workers, conventioneers and
sex tourists.
"In the U.S., child sexual
exploitation affects as many boys and girls, but boys are less well served by
human service and law-enforcement systems because of the widespread
belief that boys are better able than are girls to fend for themselves,"
Estes reported. Given the
high levels of emotional dysfunction, drug abuse and violence that
exists for boys living on America's streets, however, this is not
true. In time, many boys
shift from being victims of sexual abuse to victimizing other boys and
girls as pimps and traffickers.
Other groups of commercially sexually exploited children in the
U.S. include girls in gangs; transgender street youth; foreign children
brought into the U.S. illegally from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere in
the Americas; and U.S. youth who are trafficked nationally and
internationally as part of organized crime sex rings.
Estes and Weiner have
identified an 11-point action agenda focused on eliminating the further
commercial sexual exploitation of America's youth. "There is an urgent
need," Estes said, "for the systematic public and professional education
on the causes, nature and extent of child sexual exploitation in the
United States. The
situation in the U.S. must be understood within the broader content of
child sexual exploitation occurring throughout both the North American
region and the rest of the world.
Only through such understanding will the U.S. be able to act
decisively in protecting her children from heinous abuse."
He also called for earlier
identification and more intensive supervision of sexually offending adults and
juveniles as urgent priorities in protecting children from sexual
exploitation.
THIS INFORMATION IS EMBARGOED
UNTIL 1:00 P.M. (EDT),
SEPT. 10, 2001
U.S. Campaign Against the
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
Campaign Purpose: To end the use and abuse of
children and youth in
prostitution, pornography and sex-trafficking
The Campaign Seeks
To:
1. Develop new national
legislation that will create incentives for states to enforce laws that
prohibit the use of children in the sex trade
2. Increase public concern
about CSEC
3. Promote coordinated and
effective law enforcement response
4. Increase services for
sexually exploited youth
5. Strengthen penalties for
those who recruit/use children for sex and pornography
6. Support youth participation
in advocacy efforts to end CSEC.
Currently the Campaign
includes 36 organizations that actively recruit new membership and work
together to create a legislative strategy. Along with developing new
legislation, the Campaign is encouraging the U.S. Senate to ratify the
Optional Protocol Against the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and
Child Pornography.
Members of the Campaign
Steering Committee have briefed over 40 representatives of federal
agencies about CSEC in the United States and the need to develop coordinated
and effective responses to this problem. A website is being
developed.
U.S. Campaign Steering
Committee
ECPAT-USA (NY) www.ecpatusa.org
Girls Educational &
Mentoring Services (NY)
Paul & Lisa Program
(CT)
Sisters Offering Support
(HI) www.soshawaii.org
Standing Against Global
Exploitation) (CA)
Youth Advocate Program
International (DC)
www.yapi.org
YouthCare (WA)
YouthLink (MN)
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Recommendations
for the Elimination of Trafficking To & Within the United
States
Introduction:
Trafficking in
persons has gained much notoriety in recent years. The publicity has
primarily been focused on the trafficking of women and girls for the
purposes of sexual exploitation in less-developed regions of the world.
The image of poverty-stricken parents "selling" their daughters into
bondage has been heavily exploited by the media worldwide, with little
attention to the underlying structures of politics, culture, and
development that created the situation in the first place. In fact, the
majority of women and girls are lured into the sex trade under the ruse
of legitimate employment or are simply kidnapped.
Just as Western
Europe and Japan, the United States has become a destination country for
men, women and children hoping for a better life. Most major cities have
trafficking victims from locations from around the globe, such as China,
Korea, Mexico, the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union,
Russia, Jamaica, Haiti, India, and Nepal, to name a few.
The U.S.
is a major trafficking destination and there is also an internal
trafficking circuit that stretches from Honolulu and the West Coast into
Canada and the Eastern seaboard. According to the Report on Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children in the United States, 200,000 to 300,000
children are victims of commercial sexual exploitation (Report on CSEC,
"Overview of the CSEC in the United States"); statistics largely ignored
by the American media and the government. Ignorance with regard to
trafficking allows Americans to write them off as "runaways," or "bad
girls/boys" rather than realizing that the majority are dupes of
traffickers and pimps.
With the passing of the Victims of
Trafficking and Violence Against Persons Act of 2000 by the United
States Congress, better leadership at federal and state levels against
trafficking has been established through the formation of the
Trafficking in Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force. This not only
allows for better interface with foreign governments, but also within
the U.S. itself, among the various law enforcement agencies such as the
Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Services, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Labor and the Office of
Special Counsel. If we are to eliminate trafficking of persons to and
within the United States, we must simultaneously attack the internal and
external networks of crime with the full force of prosecution and public
indignation.
Recommendations for Internal Trafficking of
Persons in the United States
** Development and
distribution of public education materials for the classroom as schools
are a favorite hunting ground of pimps and traffickers.
**
Prevention services for children and youth -- counseling, treatment,
support and life skills training for those in the juvenile justice
systems. These children and youth -- especially girls -- are the prime
targets of pimps and traffickers.
** National public education
campaign with advertising in print media, radio and television
advertising targeted to potential victims and their families.
**
Expansion of domestic violence services to include trafficked women.
Although now more than ever, some shelters are accepting trafficking
victims, there are still too many more who are turned away because they
do not "qualify." Most shelters are not equipped to deal with all the
problems that go with giving support and help to vcitims of
trafficking.
** Better coordination,collaboration and
aggressive action by local, state, and federal law enforcement to stop
the flow of trafficking between jurisdictions.
** Harsher
penalties for pimps and traffickers.
** Transitional living
programs to serve women who have exited prostitution and are working
their way back into mainstream society.
Recommendations for
External Trafficking of Persons to the United States
**
Ratification by the United States of the United Nations Convention of
the Rights of the Child. Articles 34 and 35 specifically pertain to the
protection of children from sexual exploitation.
** Sensitivity
training for government, law enforcement, the courts and immigration
officials who come into contact with trafficked persons.
**
Shelters for foreign victims of trafficking aiding in trafficker and
pimp prosecution. Currently, such victims of trafficking are housed in a
variety of places, such as the homes of social workers, "good
samaritans," or hotels. Housing is perhaps the biggest problem for which
a satisfactory solution has yet to be found.
** Collaborative
partnerships formed between governments.
** Government-funded
multi-lingual public education campaigns, utilizing print media, radio
and television to target affected communities.
** Federal
investigations and prosecutions of U.S.-based sex tour
operators.
