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.
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