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Child Sex Tourism
"On
this trip, I've had sex with a 14 year-old girl in Mexico and a 15 year-old in Colombia.
I'm helping them financially. If they don't have sex with me, they may
not have enough food. If someone has a problem with me doing this, let
UNICEF feed them."
-Retired U.S.
Schoolteacher
"Maria
is . . . prostituted by her aunt. Maria is obliged to sell her body
exclusively to foreign tourists in Costa Rica, she only works mornings as
she has to attend school in the afternoon. Maria is in fifth grade."
The international
tourism industry is booming. Since the 1960's, international travel has
increased seven-fold. As tourists eagerly travel to distant lands to
enjoy new landscapes and cultures, economically developing countries have
welcomed the expansion of the international tourism industry as a
much-needed source of income within their own nations. With the
exponential rise in this industry, however, comes the growth of a darker,
more clandestine phenomenon: child sex tourism.
Background
Sex tourism is a very lucrative industry that spans the globe. In 1998,
the International Labour Organization reported
its calculations that 2-14% of the gross domestic product of Indonesia, Malaysia,
the Phillipines, and Thailand derives from sex
tourism. In addition, while Asian countries, including Thailand, India,
and the Phillipines, have long been prime
destinations for child-sex tourists, in recent years, tourists have
increasingly traveled to Mexico
and Central America for their sexual
exploits as well.
Child sex tourists are individuals that travel to foreign countries to
engage in sexual activity with children. The non-profit organization End
Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and the Trafficking of Children
(ECPAT) estimates that more than one million children worldwide are drawn
into the sex trade each year.
Factors Supporting the Child Sex Trade
The most significant societal factor that pushes children into
prostitution is poverty. Many nations with thriving sex tourism
industries are nations that suffer from widespread poverty resulting from
turbulent politics and unstable economies. Poverty often correlates with
illiteracy, limited employment opportunities, and bleak financial
circumstances for families. Children in these families become easy
targets for procurement agents in search of young children. They are
lured away from broken homes by "recruiters" who promise them
jobs in a city and then force the children into prostitution. Some poor
families themselves prostitute their children or sell their children into
the sex trade to obtain desperately needed money. Gender discrimination
also works in tandem with poverty; in many countries, female children
have fewer educational opportunities or prospects for substantial
employment. Consequently, they must find other means of earning a living.
The Internet has also facilitated the recent rise in child sex tourism by
providing a convenient marketing channel. Websites provide potential
child sex tourists with pornographic accounts written by other child sex
tourists. These websites detail sexual exploits with children and supply
information on sex establishments and prices in various destinations,
including information on how to specifically procure child prostitutes.
Additionally, sex tour travel agents may publish brochures and guides on
the Internet that cater to child sex tourists. In 1995, there were over
twenty-five businesses in the United States that offered
and arranged sex tours. One particular website promised nights of sex
"with two young Thai girls for the price of a tank of gas." The
easy availability of this information on the Internet generates interest
in child sex tourism and facilitates child sex abusers in making their
travel plans.
Finally, actions by foreign governments may directly or indirectly encourage
child sex tourism. National governments in countries which are struggling
economically have become increasingly tourist-oriented in their search
for profitable sources of income. These governments sometimes turn a
blind eye to the sex tourism industry, thus allowing the industry to
perpetuate sexual exploitation upon children in order to encourage
tourism in their country in general.
Victims of Child Sex Tourism
Child sex tourism makes its profits from the
exploitation of child prostitutes in developing countries. Many children
are trafficked into the sex trade. In Thailand, for example,
Burmese girls as young as thirteen are illegally trafficked
across the border by recruiters and sold to brothel owners.
The lives of child prostitutes are almost too appalling to confront.
Studies indicate that child prostitutes serve between two and thirty
clients per week, leading to a shocking estimated base of anywhere
between 100 to 1500 clients per year, per child. Younger children, many
below the age of 10, have been increasingly drawn into serving tourists.
Child prostitutes live in constant fear; they live in fear of sadistic
acts by clients, fear of being beaten by pimps who control the sex trade,
and fear of being apprehended by the police. It comes as no surprise that
victims often suffer from depression, low self-esteem, and feelings of
hopelessness.
Many victims of child sexual exploitation also suffer from physical
ailments, including tuberculosis, exhaustion, infections, and physical
injuries resulting from violence inflicted upon them. Venereal diseases
run rampant among these children and they rarely receive medical
treatment until they are seriously or terminally ill. Living conditions
are poor and meals are inadequate and irregular. Many children that fail
to earn enough money are punished severely, often through beatings and
starvation. Sadly, drug use and suicide are all too common for victims of
child sexual exploitation.
Child Sex Tourists
Child sex tourists are typically males and come from all income brackets.
Perpetrators usually hail from nations in Western European nations and North America.
While some tourists are pedophiles that preferentially seek out children
for sexual relationships, many child sex tourists are "situational
abusers." These are individuals who do not consistently seek out
children as sexual partners, but who do occasionally engage in sexual
acts with children when the opportunity presents itself.
The distorted and disheartening rationales for child sex tourism are numerous.
Some perpetrators rationalize their sexual encounters with children with
the idea that they are helping the children financially better themselves
and their families. Paying a child for his or her services allows a
tourist to avoid guilt by convincing himself he is helping the child and
the child's family to escape economic hardship. Others try to justify
their behavior by believing that children in foreign countries are less
"sexually inhibited" and by believing their destination country
does not have the same social taboos against having sex with children.
Still other perpetrators are drawn towards child sex while abroad because
they enjoy the anonymity that comes with being in a foreign land. This
anonymity provides the child sex tourist with freedom from the moral
restraints that govern behavior in his home country. Consequently, some
tourists feel that they can discard their moral values when traveling and
avoid accountability for their behavior and its consequences. Finally,
some sex tourists are fueled by racism and view the welfare of children
of third world countries as unimportant.
International
Response to Child Sex Tourism
The response of destination countries to the epidemic of child sex
tourism has been ineffective. Although many of these countries have
passed legislation that criminalizes sexual exploitation of children,
these laws often remain unenforced against tourists. Efforts to combat
child sexual exploitation often run into conflict with foreign
governments' efforts to promote the international tourism industry.
Police corruption is common. In Thailand
and the Philippines,
police have been known to guard brothels and even procure children for
prostitution. Some police in destination countries directly exploit
children themselves. Thus far, the international community has not been
able to rely on destination countries to adequately protect the rights
and well-being of child victims.
The United States
has risen to take legislative action against the growing evils of child
sex tourism. In 1994, Congress established 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b), which is
aimed towards prosecution of child sex tourists. Section 2423(b)
criminalizes traveling abroad for the purpose of engaging in illegal
sexual activity with a minor. Currently, successful prosecution under §
2423(b) requires the government to prove that an alleged child sex
tourist from the United States formed the intent to engage in sexual
activity with a child prior to meeting the child and initiating sexual
contact. In other words, a defendant is only punishable under § 2423(b)
if he has the intent, while traveling, to engage in sexual activity with
minors. The federal government has successfully utilized § 2423(b) to
target several child sex tourists. Current proposals to eliminate the
intent requirement may broaden the government's prosecutorial power by
allowing the government to prosecute United States citizens who
engage in sexual acts with children while abroad, regardless of when they
formed the intent to do so.
Child sex tourism
grows at an alarming rate and inflicts devastating consequences on
millions of children around the globe. As a global leader, the United States
is committed to using its power to reform and eradicate child sex tourism
industry.
-Sowmia Nair
U.S. Department of Justice,
Criminal Division ° Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS)
1400 New York Avenue,
6th Floor ° Washington,
D.C. 20530
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