The Sex Exploiter
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PRESENTED BY
£h. M,N. KULKARNI
The Sex Exploiter
Submitted by
ECPAT for the
World Congress against
Commercial Sexual Exploitation
of Children
Stockholm, Sweden, 27 - 31 August 1996
■
The World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children aims to draw international
attention to the problems of child prostituUon, child pornography and the sale and trafficking of children for
sexual purposes and to initiate decisive action - nationally and internationally - to put an end to these heinous
violations of childrens' rights.
Commercial sexual exploitation of children occurs in many different ways and in a wide variety of settings
The underlying causes are numerous, complex and closely interrelated and must be analysed, understood and
confronted accordingly In order to facilitate greater understanding, the Planning Committee (The
Government of Sweden, UNICEF, ECPAT and the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the
Child) has commissioned theme papers on nine major topics. These will be discussed in panel sessions and
workshops at the Congress. The papers complement each other and taken together represent an attempt to
provide a broad overview, touching on all facets of this problem. The themes that they cover are The
International Legal Framework and Current National Legislative and Enforcement Responses; Prevention
and Psychosocial Rehabilitation of Child Victims of Commercial Sexual Exploitation; Health, Education,
The Sex Exploiter; Tourism and Children in Prostitution, Child Pornography: .An International Perspecttve,
The role of the Media; and Human Values
This paper has been written by Julia O'Connell Davidson for the ECPAT working group on The Sex
Exploiter as a contribution to the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. The
views expressed do not necessarily reflect endorsement by the Planning Committee.
May 1996
THE SEX EXPLOITER
EXECUTIVE SUMAL4RY
Most child prostitutes are integrated into the mainstream sex industry, and tend to be
concentrated in the cheaper end of the prostitute 'market', where conditions are worst and
the ‘throughput' of customers highest. Although some children are prostituted by and/or
specifically for paedophiles and preferential abusers, the majority of the several million men
who annually exploit prostitutes under 18 years of age are first and foremost prostitute users
who become child sexual abusers through their prostitute use, rather than the other way
about. Child sex exploiters (situational, preferential and paedophile) are thus drawn primarily
from the following groups: local prostitute users; the military; seamen and truckers; migrant
workers; travelling businessmen; tourists; expatriates; aid workers; and employers of
domestic workers. Within this context the paper defines the terms 'paedophile', 'preferential
child sex abuser* and 'situational child sex abuser* and observes that paedophiles and
preferential abusers secure sexual access to children in a number of different ways, but
typically target children who are in extremely vulnerable situations, or who are being
prostituted.
The paper examines motivations for child sexual abuse in commercial contexts (exploring
general questions about why people wish to purchase sexual access to prostitutes and how
this relates to the abuse of prostituted children) as well as motivations for child sexual abuse
in non-commercial contexts and looks at the cognitive distonions employed by sexual
exploiters in both contexts in order to rationalise and justify their acts of abuse.
The national and international organisation of child sexual exploitation is briefly considered,
as are possibilities for the control and rehabilitation of child sex exploiters and some
proposals for preventative action in future. Because so many children are sexually exploited
within the mainstream sex industry, the need for a worldwide change in public, police and
judicial attitudes towards prostitution is stressed. It is prostitute users (the exploiters) and
not prostituted children (the victims) who must become the focus of policing. Meanwhile,
greater national and international commitment and international co-operation is necessary
to effectively police, deter and rehabilitate preferential abusers and paedophiles who sexually
exploit children at home and abroad.
1
THE SEX EXPLOITER
The Consress Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children will consider the
actions ofthose who sexually exploit children. It will address questions about their identity,
actions and motivations, and consider whether and how their behaviours can be changed
and/or controlled.
L
DEFINITIONS
1.
'Paedophile' and 'Preferential Child Sex Abuser'
The term 'paedophile' is a clinical one, used to refer to an adult who has a personality
disorder which involves a specific and focused sexual interest in prepubertal children.
Though the majority of paedophiles are male, female abusers are not unknown, and though
some paedophiles have a focused interest in either female or male victims, others have no
consistent sender preference. Paedophiles do not all act on their sexual interest in the same
way. Some restrict their sexual life to fantasy (if they use child pornography for
masturbatory purposes, however, they can be said to engage, albeit indirectly, in child sexual
abuse). Those who do act upon their impulses may abuse children in a variety of ways, some
limiting themselves to ‘non-contact abuse' (exposure of genital organs, showing and/or
talking about pornographic material), others perpetrating 'contact abuse' (genital touching
and fondling, attempted or actual penetration - oral, anal or vaginal).
The term ‘preferential child sex abuser’ is used in this paper to refer to those individuals
whose preferred sexual objects are children who have reached or passed puberty. Such
abusers are usually, but not always men, and their victims may be either male or female
children. Again, psychiatry views their taste for immature and powerless sexual partners as
the manifestation of a personality disorder (hebephiha). Neither paedophiles nor preferential
abusers constitute a homogeneous group in terms of their modus operandi, and three major
behaviour patterns have been identified by the clinicians and law enforcement agents- who
work with them First, there is 'the seduction partem'. This is typically followed by offenders
who are motivated by a form of narcissism, seeing some lost part of themselves in the
‘innocent’ child, and/or having a strong sense of emotional congruence with the children
they abuse. This type of abuser is an excellent manipulator (often of adults and public
opinion as well as of children). They use affection, attention and gifts to court children, are
willina to spend Iona periods of time 'grooming' their victims in preparation for the abuse
and use threats, blackmail and physical violence to discourage disclosure. Second, there are
'introverted' offenders, who have a preference for children but lack the 'seducer’s'
interpersonal skills Such offenders typically engage in a minimum of verbal communication
with victims and tend to abuse unknown or very young children. Third, and least common,
there are 'sadistic' offenders, who not only have a sexual interest in children, but also derive
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sexual pleasure from the infliction of physical or psychological suffering on their victims.
This kind of offender may either use lure or force to gain access to the chili and they are
more likely to abduct and murder their victims than any other type of offender.
2.
’Situational Child Sex Abuser’
The tenn 'situational child sex abusef is used to refer to adult men and women who sexually
exploit children not because they have a focused sexual interest in children per se, but either
because they are morally and/or sexually indiscriminate and wish to 'experiment' with child
sexual partners, or because they have entered into situations in which a) children who match
their ideals ofphysical attraction are sexually accessible to them, and b) certain disinhibiting
factors are present which allow them to either delude themselves about the child's true age
or about the nature of the child's consent. Unlike preferential abusers and paedophiles, then,
situational abusers do not consistently or consciously seek out children as sexual partners,
and it is often a matter of indifference to them whether their sexual partners are 14 or 24,
providing they are 'fit1 and ‘attractive’. This type of offender cannot necessarily be described
as sexually 'perverse' (in the sense of deviating from culturally prescribed sexual norms)
since the physical characteristics that he or she is attracted to often conform to cultural
ideals of ‘youthful' feminine or masculine beauty, and not to cultural ideals of childlike
innocence. Children mature physically at very different rates, so that a 14 or 15 year old girl,
for example, can combine the physical characteristics associated with adult woman (large
breasts, ’hour-glass' figure, etc.) with attributes of youth that are much admired (good
muscle tone, unlined, hairless skin). It is also worth noting here that many models used in
the production of pornography aimed at 'normal', and not paedophile, men are actually under
the age of 18, and an adult who is sexually aroused by the sight of someone who is legally
and chronologically a child, but physically ‘mature’ and/or close to cultural ideals of sexual
beauty, cannot necessarily be understood as sexually or psychologically 'aberant'.
H.
GROUPS THAT SUPPLY CHILD SEX EXPLOITERS
Paedophiles and preferential abusers secure sexual access to children in a number of
different ways. Sometimes they seek jobs or positions which provide them with
opportunities to abuse, or move to areas where they know that sexual access to children is
relatively easily attained. This means that certain groups of children are at particular risk
of sexual abuse. Street children and children in orphanages and local authority care are
perhaps the most obvious examples of children who are vulnerable to sexual abuse by adults
occupying positions of trust or authority. They are easy targets for non-violent abusers who
wish to construct a fiction of‘consent’ around the abuse. Such children are, by definition,
emotionally needy. They are also often materially deprived. Adults in positions of trust or
authority are therefore able to manipulate them with promises, threats and bribes, often
making the child feel complicit in its own abuse. There is a great deal of evidence to suggest
that in affluent countries as well as poor countries, children who are being, or have been.
abused in this way also become extremely vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation by
pimps and pornographers. Furthermore, there are cases in which commercial sexual
exploitation is actuafty part of the abuse perpetrated by a trusted/feared adult who derives
sexual and psychological pleasure, as well as perhaps some financial benefit, from seeing the
child prostituted or used in the production of pornography. It is also the case that children
in war zones, refugee camps and prisons, as well as street children, are especially vulnerable
to violent sexual abuse by strangers, as well as to the forms of non-violent abuse described
above.
Although some children are prostituted by and/or specificafty for paedophiles, the vast
majority of child prostitutes are integrated into the mainstream sex industry which serves all
those who wish to purchase commercial sex, rather than working in some isolated ‘market
niche’ which caters solely to the desires of paedophiles and preferential abusers. In both
affluent and poor countries, it is not only the case that a significant percentage of prostitutes
are under the age of 18, but also that younger prostitutes tend to be concentrated in the
cheaper end of the prostitute market where conditions are worst and the 'throughput' of
customers is highest. Any group which represents a source of demand for commercial sex
can therefore be assumed to supply a significant number of child sex exploiters, many of
whom will be situational abusers. They sexually abuse children because they are
prostitute-users (and/or strip and sex show customers, and/or consumers of pornography)
in a world which, on the one hand places sexual value on youth, and on the other forces
larse numbers of children (either through direct coercion or economic necessity) into
woridnn in the sex industry. Taken together, all this means that the vast bulk of child sex
exploiters (situational, preferential and paedophile) are drawn from the following groups:
1.
The Military
Local and foreign soldiers have long represented a substantial portion of the demand for
commercial sex. Several of the poor countries where the sex industry is most developed,
either are or were until lately military dictatorships and/or have served or do serve as major
bases for foreign troops. The relationship between the military and prostitution has been
most recently illustrated by cases in which the presence ofUNpeacekeeping troops has
fuelled a phenomenal increase in the scale of prostitution, with soldiers often paying for the
sexual services of orphaned, abandoned or displaced girls, some as young as 12 years old.
Meanwhile, NGOs report that there are countries where girls in their early teens are
currently held in brothels under conditions of virtual slavery and forced to sexually service
off duty local soldiers. Soldiers are also sometimes responsible for other forms of sexual
abuse, such as child rape. This is especially the case in war zones (the most recent examples
of this concern allegations against rebel forces in Uganda and against Serbian troops m
Bosnia).
4
2e
Seamen and Truckers
Seamen and truckers are another group of men known to be extensively involved in
prostitution. Large numbers of child prostitutes are to be found working in the red light
districts of port towns around the world, serving a clientele that largely consists of merchant
sailors, fishermen and naval personnel, and there are also child prostitutes working in and
around 'ph stops' for truckers.
3.
Migrant Labour
Migrant workers represent another major source of demand for commercial sex in many
parts of the world. In some cities, men who have migrated from rural areas in search of
work are the main source of custom for child as well as adult prostitutes in red light areas.
Likewise, brothels in many mining areas (especially those in South America) are almost
exclusively dependent on th? custom of migrant workers, and the prostitutes therein are girls
aged from 13 to 22, who are often held under conditions of virtual slavery.
4.
Travelling Businessmen
Prostitute-use by businessmen, especially those travelling abroad, is widespread. The
provision of'call girls' and/or visits to brothels often form part of the 'hospitality1 provided
by business associates. Some companies are reported to 'reward* loyal or efficient
managerial employees with sex holidays abroad, and some firms are known to supply male
employees working in isolated areas with domestic servants who are expected to provide
free sexual services in addition to their other duties. Foreign travel for business purposes
can also provide paedophiles and preferential child abusers with opportunities to pursue
their sexual interests at low cost and in comparative safety. Indeed, interview work with
preferential child abusers suggests that such men sometimes establish business links in
particular countries precisely because this facilitates frequent visits to places where they can
easily obtain sexual access to their preferred sexual 'objects'.
5.
Sex Tourists
Sex tourists are individuals who enter into sexually exploitative relationships with local
women, men and/or children whilst travelling for leisure purposes. They are not a
homogeneous group. Though the vast majority of sex tourists are heterosexual males, there
are also homosexual and paedophile sex tourists, as well as some female sex tourists. These
people range in age from 18 to 80, and are of different national and ethnic origins and
socio-economic backgrounds. In many resort areas, sex tourists represent the major source
of demand for prostitution. Some sex tourists are paedophiles and preferential child abusers
who choose particular holiday destinations because they know that sexual access to children
in those places can be obtained relatively cheaply, easily and safely. Numerically more
5
sisnificant are men who have a preference for experiencing multiple, anonymous sexual
encounters with postpubertal teenagers and young women or men in their early twenties.
The sexual exploitation of local people is the central focus of their holiday in just the same
way that skiing is the primary leisure activity pursued by those who take skiing holidays.
Other tourists - male and female - ostensibly select their holiday destination for different
reasons (the local culture or climate, the availability of drugs, watersports facilities etc.) but
then simulate romantic relationships with a smaller number of local children or adults. This
latter type does not acknowledge the fact that they are prostitute users, preferring to think
of their exploitative acts as holiday romances’. Alongside and often overlapping these
sroups, there are sex tourists who have very specific 'racialised'-sexual fantasies. They
travel in order to secure cheap, easy and/or safe sexual access to 'Oriental', Asian, Black or
Latino women, men and/or children.
6.
Expatriates
f
Almost all the countries favoured by sex tourists are also home to large numbers of
expatriates from affluent countries. These expatriates are usually retirees, professionals or
small business owners. Many are involved in the tourist industry and some are directly
involved in prostitution (there are expatriate owned or managed bar-brothels in many sex
tourist destinations). A portion of the regular clientele of both adult and child prostitutes
in these countries is also drawn from the expatriate community. There are also cases of
expatriates making money by procuring women or children for sex tourists and foreign
businessmen as well as several known cases of expatriate involvement in paedophile 'rings’,
supplying children to fellow expatriates, visiting friends and tourists, as well as exploiting
them for the purposes of pornography.
7.
Local Clients
With the possible exception of those working in brothels set up specifically to cater to
military personnel, prostitutes around the world attract local custom, as well as that
provided by seamen, soldiers, migrant workers, foreign businessmen and tourists. In many
parts of the world, local cheats represent the major source of demand for both child and
adult prostitutes. Local paedophiles and preferential child abusers also often use
prostitution as a means of obtaining sexual access to children, and this is true in both affluent
and poor countries.
8.
Aid Workers
Much Aid work provides ready access to children, and several cases of NGOs and volunteer
workers sexually abusing the children in their care have recently come to light. Some Aid
workers are also prostitute users during their stay abroad. It is also the case that social
welfare projects run by religious missionaries and church workers in both economically
6
developed and underdeveloped countries sometimes attract paedophiles and preferential
abusers. There are cases of pnests and supposedly philanthropic 'Christians' setting up
vocational centres and residential homes in order to operate paedophile rings, as well as
numerous instances of such men exploiting the trust and credibility bestowed on them by
virtue of their religious affiliation as a means to secure sexual access to children.
9.
Employers of Domestic Workers
In many countries, children between the ages of 12 and 18 are employed as domestic
workers. They are vulnerable to sexual exploitation by their employers, and child domestic
workers who are migrants or victims of trafficking are especially unable to resist sexual
abuse since their employers often wield enormous power over them (in many cases, the
child's rights of residence in a country, as well their livelihood, depend upon their employer).
m
MOTIVATIONS FOR CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE IN COMMERCIAL
CONTEXTS
In all known societies, there are rules and conventions which govern and constrain people's
sexual interaction. The twilight and often illicit world of prostitution provides an arena
within which the laws and rules which constrain sexual practice can be evaded, and, m this
sense, the attraction of child prostitution to many paedophiles and preferential child sexual
abusers is obvious. Laws and social conventions make it very difficult and dangerous for
such people to satisfy their sexual interests in non-commercial contexts, but prostitution
porenriany provides 'instant access', often to a selection of children. Since there are very few
countries where large numbers of prepubertal children are prostituted, those which have a
reputation for child prostitution attract paedophiles (at least those who can afford to travel)
from all around the world.
However, it cannot be simply assumed that all the clients of child prostitutes are paedophiles
or preferential abusers. Research suggests that, depending upon the setting from which they
work, child prosmutes^ervice' between 2^nd 30 cjjgntsper week,je^-SOffigwhere between
100 and^U^OO clients_a^year,_ Even if the lowest estimates on the numbers of child
'^sritutes’are accepted, die number of clients of child prostitutes still runs into several
millions annually Furthermore, these millions of clients are a very disparate group in terms
of their nationahties and their socio-economic, cultural and religious backgrounds. To
explain the behaviour of such a large and varied group solely through reference to two
dinicallv defmed personality disorders - paedophilia and hebephilia - (diagnostic categories
^which are themsefres based on research with a relatively small and atypical sample of
Western men) would clearly be unsatisfactory. Indeed, it is more reasonable to assume that
a majority of these men are first and foremost prostitute users who become child sexual
abusers through their prostitute use, rather than first and foremost paedophiles or hebephiles
prostitution as a means of obtaining sexual access to children. It follows from this that
7
understanding why people sexually abuse children in a commercial context requires us to
address general questions aboutyriiyjpeople wish tn purchase sexual access taprostitutes,
and how thisrelates to the abuse of prostituted children. This section draws on research
with prostitutes’ clients in a number of different settings which suggests that, in general, men
(and some women) use prostitutes for one of the reasons discussed below, or some
combination of these reasons.
1.
Some Clients Use Prostitutes to Satisfy What They Imagine to be a Biological
or Emotional Need for a Sexual ’Outlet’/ Physical Contact
Many societies socialise their members into a belief that human beings (especially human
males) have a biological sexual drive akin to hunger or the need to evacuate the bowels.
Male sexual desire is viewed in terms of
many men who
do not have, or are separated from, a regular non-commercial sexual partner, often believe
that prosdrute use is necessary to their physical and psychological well being. A great deal
of the prostitute use by seamen, truckers, soldiers and migrant workers appears to be
underpinned, at least in part, by this type of thinking. Some tourists and locals also explain
their sexual exploitation of prostitutes in this way, saying that they are lonely and driven to
prostitute-use by their need for physical attention, comfort or sexual 'release’.
In theory, this should mean that the link between prostitute use and child sexual exploitation
for these men is an entirely contingent one (he., that they only abuse children because it so
happens that many of the cheapest and/or most accessible prostitutes just happen to be
under the age of 18), and there is some supporting evidence for this view. A Ukrainian
sailor interviewed during the course of research for End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism
(ECPAT), for example, commented, Tm a man. I have biological needs. Fve been on ship
for seven months, I needed a woman'. When the ship docked at a port in an economically
underdeveloped country, he therefore went to the red light district, an area which was, in
his words, 'dirty and horrible' and where girls enter into prostitution from the age of around
12 or 13. Clearly, in this setting, the chances that such a man will sexually abuse a child are
hiah, but, according to the sailor, he does not go to such places from choice, but 'out of
necessity1. It is also important to reiterate the fact that^child prostitutes are typically
concentrated in the cheapest, sector gfthe prostitution-marketXin_the West, this means street
’prostitution, in poorer countries it often means the seamiest brothels), and it follows that
low paid migrant workers and locals who use prostitutes to satisfy their imagined sexual
'needs' are also highly likely to sexually abuse child prostitutes.
However, it is also the case that while many men justify and defend their prostitute use
throush reference to the idea that they have a simple biological need for sex, very few are
completely indiscriminate as to how this ’need' is satisfied and by whom In fact, if they
were indiscriminate, there would be no reason to use prostitutes at all, since they could quite
easily find sexual 'release' alone or with fellow soldiers, sailors, migrant workers or tourists.
8
There is no reason to suppose that they are any less discriminating about the kind of woman
they 'need' and it seems probable that many of these men do actually prefer to use prostitutes
ased somewhere between 14 and 20, since girls in this age range tend to conform more
closely to cultural ideals of feminine beauty. Support for this hypothesis comes from
research with prostitutes in port towns, who state that as a woman grows older, she finds
it increasinsly difficult to attract customers. Finally, misconceptions about the transmission
of A IDs and other venereal diseases may encourage men who use prostitutes to satisfy what
they imagine to be a biological need for a sexual 'outlet' to select younger prostitutes in the
mistaken belief that they are less likely to contract illness from them.
2e
Some Men Use Prostitution in Order to Obtain a Sense of Camaraderie with
Male Colleagues or Friends
Prostitute use is sometimes a group activity, experienced as pleasurable because it
consolidates a shared masculine identity and heightens a sense of group belonging.
Employers who organise group sexual exploitation for their male employees do so precisely
in order to encourage such 'male bonding’, as do rugby, cricket and football clubs and other
organisations which seek to reproduce and reinforce strict gender segregation. Male friends
also often travel together to engage in sex tourism. It might be hoped that the presence of
business colleagues or friends would inhibit men from breaking taboos around child sexual
abuse, and this is no doubt the case so far as the abuse of prepubertal children is concerned.
However, research with sex tourists and foreign businessmen suggests that the situational
abuse of postpubertal girls aged between 15 and 18 is quite common. Businessmen and sex
tourists travelling in groups of two and more who were interviewed during the course of
research for ECPAT often reinforced each other’s self serving self delusions as to the true
ase of the prostitutes they were with, whilst others would joke about the girls' ages with
each other, laughingly referring to their friends as Jcradle snatchers' or to their child
prostitute 'girl friends' as 'jail baft'^
3.
Some Clients Use Prostitutes in Order to Obtain a Sense of ’True' Masculinity
In a number of otherwise very different societies, men are socialised into a gender ideology
which equates masculinity with the successful exercise of control over women, over other
men, over their own bodies and over material objects. They are also often fed a diet of
pomosraphy in which 'ideal' men exercise enormous power over sexually objectified women
(or. in the case of much homosexual pornography, men). Many men's non-sexual daydreams
as well as their masturbatory fantasies centre around the idea of becoming truly 'masculine'
in the sense of having the power to command others, and, providing they have money, the
institution of prostitution equips them with precisely this kind of power. Because the sex
industry reduces those who work in it to ^ualjcommodities', h simultaneously turns the
men who use it into ^sovereign-^^nsumers^^
the world, thereare businessmen,
soldiers, se-nmen, migrant workers and locals who find prostitute use (as well as visits to
9
strip, peep andjtye sex shows) affirmative for this reason. Once again, because child
prostitutes are often found in the cheaper end of the commercial sex market,Jess affluent
men (ffiept.haye^gLQateL2cQpsumeiJ power m relation to child than to’adult prostitutes, and
are thus likely to become situational child abusers even if they have no specific sexual
interest in children.
For prostitute users who are motivated by a desire to control and command sexually
objectified human beings, locations which combine widespread poverty with a well
developed and highly commercialised sex industry are ideal This is of particular relevance
to understanding one type of sex tourist - the 'Ma^ho Men' who make repeated visits to
cities or resorts which conform to this description.Crhese men's annual or biannual trips to
such places are like passing through the lookingglass^into a world wherein all their
masturbatory fantasies are miraculously embodied and attainable. z This is partly because
sexual access to prostitutes is extremely cheap, and partly because the array of different
forms of commoditised sex on offer is so extensive that they are in a position to command
'anything and everything'. Furthermore, they feel able to live out their masturbatory
fantasies because they are disinhibited by their sense that, in these places, prostitutes really
are nothing but 'commodities'. Indeed, the particular organisation of the sex trade in some
of the cities favored by sex tourists objectifies and deindividualises prostitutes to a quite
extraordinary extent. The seemingly endless numbers of Go Go bars and brothels, for
instance, present sex tourists with a sense of prostitutes not only as somehow 'mass
produced', but also as highly standardized commodities (for example, large numbers of
girls/women or bowmen of roughly similar physical proportions are displayed in matching
costumes, and often have numbers pinned to their clothing). Meanwhile, the live sex shows
which some exploiters frequent (generally featuring girls and women performing acts which
involve expelling air or objects from their vaginas, or pulling long strands of cloth, or strings
ofbells or razor blades from them) further reinforce the idea of these racialised 'Others' as
nothing more than animated sexual organs.
Not all prostitute users like this kind of very explicit commoditisation, but the pleasure that
those who do derive from it appears to be linked partly to a generalized hostility toward
women. To see women and girls lined up in a brothel, numbered and available to any man
who picks them is to see them dominated and humiliated, stripped of their power to
’withhold' the sexual access that such men imagine is so central to their own well being.
Above all their pleasure is linked to their sense of being in a position to control females as
sexual objects as the following extracts from an interview with one British sex tourist shows:
One night, I went to a brothel.. They sit you down on these nice couches...
and then pull the curtains back and there are all the girls sitting there behind
this glass screen and they've all got numbers on... and the guy says, ‘Which
one would you like then?’ And you look at the girls and... say, ‘Oh, I like
number 7 or 8’ and you say Ts she good girl?’ and he says, ‘Yes, any
10
problems phone me up and I’ll sort it out'... They get a walkie talkie out to
speak through the screen, sends through for her, says ‘Number 7 go and get
dressed’... and she knows she’s been took, and then they go with you.
This man had abused child prostitutes, not because he has a focused sexual interest in
children, but because he is morally and sexually indiscriminate. Men of this type do not
really care whether the girl they take from a brothel or bar is 14 or 24, providing they ’fancy*
the look of her, and furthermore, child sexual abuse becomes just one more sexual
experience in the range that is on offer to them as a ’consumer*. An anonymous contributor
to a ‘World Sex Guide’ available on the Internet, for example, provides descriptions of six
‘adventures’ he had on his ’holiday’, the last of which features a visit to a brothel where 12
year old girls were on offer. The sexual acts he performed upon a physically small and
immature child are recounted as neither more nor less than another new and exciting
‘commodity/service’ purchased during the course of his trip.
/
Some clients use prostitutes to satisfy a compulsive urge to perform sexually
4.
transgressive acts and/or to exercise sexual power over extremely vulnerable,
powerless, objectified and/or degraded individuals
It was noted in i) above that many men believe all males to be possessed of some kind of
‘natural’ sexual drive which makes them need heterosexual intercourse. For some men
(including most of those discussed in iv) above), this belief forms the basis of a deeply
nrisosynistic worldview. Because they see themselves as victims of a biological compulsion
to have sex with any ‘beautiful’ female they meet, women are imagined to control a resource
(their female bodies) that is vital to men’s physical well being. Females are therefore
resented for their ’immense power*, whilst men are viewed as out of control and powerless.
For such men, prostitution represents a means of acquiring control over themselves and
others as sexual beings. As one British man, a habitual sex tourist, put it, prostitution means
“You don’t have to worry about going out and getting someone, because you know any
rime, day or niaht, you can have anyone you want within seconds. You feel so powerful, you
.feel you’re in control of your sex life”.
The compulsive nature of some men’s prostitute use gives it a character very similar to the
sexual behaviour of paedophiles and preferential abusers, who likewise tend to view
themselves as weak and to express misogynistic rage against women's power to *withhold'
sexual access and unconditional emotional support. Clients like this often report that the
sexual and psychological pleasure they derive from prostitute use comes largely from the >
knowiedse that they are breaking the law, cheating on their wives, flouting the moral codes
they have been taught, or in some way transgressing rules and values and getting away with
it. An element of risk is often a vital component of these men's sexual excitement (hence
the not uncommon scandals concerning ‘upright*, wealthy citizens getting caught using street
prostitutes, despite the fact that a myriad of more discrete options were readily available).
11
For other compulsive prostitute users, the idea of revenge is more central to their sexual
excitement. Recent psychoanalytical work which suggests that perversion is essentially a
sender disorder constructed out of a triad of hostility (rage at giving up one's earliest bliss
and identification with the mother,/ear of not succeeding in escaping out of her orbit, and
a need for revenge for her putting one in this predicament), is helpful in understanding such
men and their propensity to sexually abuse children. In word and deed, compulsive
prostitute users express rage at not being the central focus of a woman's adoring and
indulsent gaze. Adult women who are their economic, social and/or legal equals are
perceived as hugely threatening simply because they are in a position to control themselves.
that is to say, to exercise choice over whether or not to meet a man's demands. For a
woman to be in a position to exercise choice is for her to assert her separateness, her free
will, her capacity to freely withdraw from the relationship and thus to arouse these men's
infrntile rage. Even a prostitute may be perceived as threatening if, as many adult Western
prostitutes are, she is in a position to determine the limits of the contractual exchange. An
interview with a Canadian sex tourist is revealing. He explained that he 'hated' prostitutes.
He had used prostitutes all over the world, and he hated European and North American
prostitutes in particular:
It’s all businesslike. It's by the hour, like a taxi service, like the/ve got the
meter running... There's no feeling. If I wanted to fuck a rubber doll, I
could buy one and inflate it... A prostitute in Europe will never kiss you.
In Canada, it's ridiculous. You know, if you go with a prostitute and you
don’t pay her, you know what? They call it rape. You can be in court on
a rape charge.
He liked the powerlessness of prostitutes in the poor countries he visited. 'Here, they don't
even ask for the money. It's up to you'. As an affluent tourist to countries where
prostitution is illegal, he enjoys the knowledge that, as he put it, 'if you don’t pay a girl here,
there's nothing she can do. She's not supposed to be with you anyway. It's just tough'. This
intense rage against women who exercise the smallest modicum of control over their
interactions with men leads some men to search for sexual partners who _are perceived as
especially powerless, and child prostitutes clearly fit this description. Meanwhile, because
TEe Sexual ^serfThildren is, in itself; a transgressive act, it represents a form of revenge
aaninst the authority figures who such men imagine are attempting to control them as well
as asainst a world that refuses to gaze indulgently upon them. Taken to its most extreme
form, the desire for this type of control and vengeance can lead individuals to find sexual
pleasure in the infliction of pain and/or damage, on another human being.
Finally, there are men, and indeed some women, who use prostitution as a means of
obrainin? sexual contact with individuals whom they perceive to be objectified and/or
degraded in some way. Psychoanalytic explanations for this type of sexual interest would
also centre on the notion of an intense fear of intimacy. The basic idea is that people who
12
suffered betrayal at the hands of those upon whom they were utterly dependent as children
(usually parents or parent figures) sometimes develop a pathological fear of dependency.
Since sexual relationships often imply a high degree of intimacy/dependency, such people
seek ways of rendering sexual partners 'safe' and non-threatening. To select sexual partners
who are perceived as powerless (a small child or a visibly brutalised prostitute, for example)
and/or in some sense less than human (a 'racialised' Other, for instance), is one strategy for
selecting sexual partners who are imagined not to be in a position to reject or harm.
5.
Exploiters Who Do Not Wish to See Themselves as Prostitute Users
Another clearly identifiable subgroup of prostitute users is comprised of men and women
who do not view themselves as 'clients' and yet sexually exploit prostitutes. This may sound
like an impressive feat of self-delusion, but it is a trick annually performed by many hundreds
of thousands of sex tourists, as well as by some foreign businessmen and expatriates in
South American, Caribbean, Asian and S. E. Asian countries. They are able to deceive
themselves about the true nature of their sexual interaction with local people because
prostitution takes a number of different forms in the countries they visit. As well as brothel
mr
based prostitution, there exists an informal prostitution sector, comprised
of adults and
children either soliciting independently from beaches, parks and ordinary tourist bars, or
supplementing their very low pay from, say, hotel or bar work with occasional prostitution.
Furthermore, the prostitute-client exchange, especially in the informal, independent sector,
is often very different to that whiclflakes place in the West. Independent prostitutes in
countries which host sex tourists do not usually sell sexual services by the piece as Western
prostitutes do, but generally provide anything from 18 hours to two weeks of full access to
their persons, and perform the kind of acts that in the West are taken to signify genuine
affection (kissing, cuddling, sleeping in the bed with clients, providing physical care such as
rubbing in sun tan lotion, washing their hair or feet, and so on, all things which an
experienced Western prostitute would never do).
Thus, sex tourists, expatriates and foreign businessmen do not have to go into a brothel, or
even into a ‘tacky’ Go Go Bar, in order to pick up a prostitute, nor do they have to
negotiate a_'deal' in advance (the two things which, to most Westerners, are viewed as
integral to 'prostitution'). They can therefore interpret the process of 'picking up' as
confirmation of a mutual attraction rather than as initiating a commercial sexual encounter
and when the adult or child later confides their desperate need for cash, the chent constructs
the act of giving them money not as payment for services rendered, but as a gesture of
compassion or generosity. All of this makesit possible for some sex exploiters to tell
themselves^Sat the girls/boys they exploit are not really prostitutes, and thus that they
themselves are not really 'clients'.
Such people are usually motivated to engage in this form of sexual activity for the reasons
discussed in 1, 2 and 4 above, and because large numbers of freelance prostitutes working
13
in sex tourist resorts are under the age of 18 (indeed, the bulk of child prostitution often
takes place in this kind of informal prostitution sector), this type of prostitute user is just as
prone to situational child sexual abuse as any other prostitute user. It also seems probable
that those paedophile sex tourists who in their own country tend to follow the 'seduction'
behaviour pattern also favor the informal prostitution sector as a means of securing sexual
access to young children. If such men veer toward an excessively sentimental regard for
children, and have a strong sense of emotional congruence with their victims, then they
would almost certainly prefer to arrange sexual access to small children whom they can see
playing around on a beach, splashing in the sea, drinking coca colas and so on, than to
bruised and half starved children in small cubicles in seamy brothels.
IV.
MOTIVATIONS FOR ABUSE IN NON-COMMERCIAL CONTEXTS
Adults' motivations to sexually abuse children in non-commercial contexts such as refugee
camps, orphanages and prisons are probably best understood through reference to ideas
discussed in either c) i) or iv) above. Adults prisoners or refugees who abuse postpubertal
teenagers in prisons or refugee camps, for example, are probably acting on the basis of a
behef in their 'need' for sexual release (possibly also a desire to overcome their own sense
of powerlessness by exercising power over another human being). Where adults deliberately
seek out positions of authority in institutions or organisations that are intended to serve the
needs of children in order to obtain sexual access to those children however, it seems likely
that they are motivated by the fear of intimacy and/or dependency and the desire for control
over powerless sexual partners that have already been discussed. Clinicians argue that
paedophile and preferential abusers' motivation to abuse often rests partly on their sense of
‘emotional congruence’ with children (they see themselves as somehow as weak and as
powerless as the child). This same sense of'congruence' would be very easy to marry with
a view of the self as someone who ’loves' and 'understands' children, and abusers may
therefore genuinely believe that they have a great deal to offer abandoned and neglected
children. Certainly some paedophiles have successfully convinced other adults^fimding
bodies and officials that they are caring, child-centered philanthropists, whilst simultaneously
commirting horrific crimes against the children in their charge.
V.
OTHER FACTORS NECESSARY FOR ABUSE TO OCCUR
Research with men who sexually abuse children in non-commercial contexts in their home
countries suggests that, as well as needing a motivation to have sex with a child, three
further factors need to be present for abuse to occur. First, the adult has to overcome
external inhibitions and create conditions under which they can carry out acts of abuse. This
often requires extensive planning and/or ‘grooming’ of the victim prior to the actual assault.
Second, the abuser has to overcome the victim’s resistance, and this is typically achieved
through the use of threats, bribes and/or gifts. Clearly, if children are being prostituted it
obviates the need for ’grooming* on the abusers pan, and the child is unlikely to offer any
14
resistance. The amount of effort required to create conditions for the abuse to take place
also varies m non-commercial contexts. The greater the abuser's authority over the child
and status in the community, the less likely his interest in children is to be questioned. The
Freddie Peats case in India providesjm instructive example. Peats ran an orphanage, which
gave him more or less absolute authority over the daily lives of children therein. He also
actively and successfully sought respect from the local community (through his charity
work, by claiming to be a doctor, etc.). The Frank Beck case in Britain serves to underline
that this kind of abuse recognizes no national, economic or ’racialised1 boundaries. It can
and does take place in any country of the world.
Finally, the vast majority of paedophiles and preferential child abusers know their behaviour
is illegal and/or socially proscribed, and have to overcome internal inhibitions in order to act
out the abuse. It is also the case that the vast majority of abusers need or want a fiction of
consent in order to abuse. Although there are individuals who derive sexual pleasure from
acts that are clearly and inescapably coercive or violent (some child prostitutes describe f
being vaginally or anally penetrated, or forced to have oral sex while tears are streaming
down their faces), they are definitely in a minority. In both commercial and non-commercial
contexts, abusive adults use a series of'cognitive distortions' to justify and excuse their
behaviour and to convince themselves that the children they exploit are actively consenting
to sex. These distortions are considered below.
1.
Cognitive Distortions and Sexual Offending
Research with men who sexually offend against children in the UK and USA has concluded
that distortion of attitude and belief whereby children are portrayed as being in some way
responsible for their own abuse, and that they are not harmed by sexual contact with adults
and are able to consent to or gain benefit from such encounters, is one of the most common
characteristics exhibited by child sexual abusers. Prostitute users (sex tourists, locals,
sailors, soldiers, businessmen and expatriates) employ precisely the same cognitive
distortions in relation to the prostkutes they sexually exploit at home and abroad. Research
with preferential and situational child prostitute abusers has found that these distortions take •
the following forms:
1.1. The fact that the child is identified as ’a prostitute' as opposed to being seen as
.prostituted (either by another person iJFhy'economic circumstances) allows the sex
exploiter to tell himself that the children he abuses are responsible for their own abuse.
Prostitute users do not consider the fact that the vast majority of prostitutes are
survivors of incestuous abuse, rape and/or assault, and have been compelled or
coerced into prostitution by a third party or by a complete absence of alternative
means of survival (this is true of prostitutes in both the economically developed and
underdeveloped world). Instead, prostitute users tell themselves that the child
prostitutes who approach them have actively chosen prostitution as a *way of life'.
15
They tell themselves that they did not seduce the child, rather the children /nvzr^.their -.
own abuse by ’electing1 to prostitute themselves. As one sex tourist said of a 13 year
old he had sex with, ‘She was expecting something, and it wasn’t a lollipop’. JThis
kind of thinking can be extended to justify the use of force and the infliction of
damage and p ain on children.
1.2. Abusers of child prostitutes typically express either highly sexualized forms of racism
or extreme forms of hostility towards prostitutes. Without exception, sex tourists,
expatriates and travelling businessmen interviewed in the course of research for
ECPAT described the cultures that host them as more sexually 'open', 'natural' and
'free' than Western culture. This allows them to delude themselves about the
meanings that are attached to sexual behaviour in the countries they visit. They claim
that the way in which six year olds dance proves that they are more physical and
sexual than Western children; that girls in these countries are grown up and sexually
experienced by the time they are 14; that no stigma is attached to prostitution; that
'They' are all 'at it' all of the time. This is often coupled with a horribly warped
interpretation placed on knowledge about the prevalence of incest and/or child
prostitution in the host countries. Abusers tell themselves that the harm from
adult-child sexual contact has already been inflicted by someone else, and that their
own acts of abuse are not, therefore, the real crime. In these ways, sex exploiters tell
themselves that children are not harmed by sexual contact with them. To quote a
particularly repellent sex tourist in the Caribbean:
Sex is a natural thing here. Everyone's at it, fathers do it with their
daughters, brothers do it with their sisters, they don't care. They'll do
it with anyone, they do it with everyone, they don't care who it is or
how old they are. They're like animals. That's the only way I can
explain it to you. They're like dogs or cats or roosters. Have you seen
roosters, the way in the farmyard the way they carry on? Just hop on
top of any chicken they see. That's what it's like here. By the time a
girl is 10 years old, she's had more experience than, well, an American
woman or an Irish woman won't never have that much experience in
her whole life... Girls learn it's the way to keep a man happy. It's
natural to them, it's a natural way to please men.
Local men use similar reasoning to justify their sexual exploitation of child prostitutes.
To understand this, it is necessary to recognize the fact that child prostitutes in many
of the world's cities, ports and mining towns are not actually local children, but have
either migrated or been trafficked from other countries or other regions of the same
country, and thus do not usually share a common 'racialised', ethnic, regional and/or
national identity with the local men who abuse them. Furthermore, where children do
share a common social identity with local men, the local abuser will often focus upon
16
the sexaial 'looseness' and 'immorality1 of the individual child (as opposed to that of
their 'race' or culture) in order to justify his acts. Such men tell themselves that, since
the child is already 'a prostimte' (and so already 'dirty1 and less than fully human), no
harm can result from their om acts of abuse.
1.3. The fact that child prostitutes desperately need money, often to support their
j dependents, is taken as evidence that they both consent to and benefit from sexual
contact with adults. Sex tourists, for example, say that ‘the girls’ depend on them: ‘If
we stopped coming out here, I hate to think what would happen to these girls’. Local
clients, businessmen, soldiers, expatriates and seamen can likewise tell themselves that
they are effectively doing the child a favor by providing 'custom'.
These comtitive distortions allow exploiters to convince themselves that no physical or
emotionaT harm will result from the act, and that the child actively consents to and will
benefit from it. Western sex tourists #re particularly adept at manufacturing self serving
, rationalisations. A sex tourist guide book, for example, encourages men to ‘try’ sexually
' exploitins: debt bonded children in brothels, and, should their conscience prick them, the
U.S. author helpfully observes that “One way to rationalise it is to say, if it's not me, then
it's the guy behind me, and who's more likely to be the gentler of the two?
VL
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION OF CHILD SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION
1.
International Paedophile Organisation
It was noted in section a) that paedophiles and preferential abusers do not constitute a
homosenous group, and this is also true in relation to their propensity to organise at national
and international level. Some paedophiles and preferential abusers are essentially solitary
individuals, but others wish to share their experiences, pornography and even their victims
with other abusers. This latter type can be further subdivided. Some obtain a sense of
validation if they merely 'share' with a small number like-minded individuals, exchanging
letters and photographs in a fairly informal way. Others derive psychological satisfaction
(sometime also material benefits) from operating a more structured and systematic
oraanisation serving a larger network of fellow paedophiles/preferential child abusers.
Possibilities for operating international 'rings' have recently been much enhanced by
advances in computer technology. Paedophiles and preferential abusers can now take
advantage of the Internet and computer bulletin boards to make contacts across national
boundaries as well as to share information, experiences and pornography, all in relative
safety. The motives of abusers involved in such activities are probably best understood
through reference to the desire to either a) 'normalise' their own behaviour by developing
contacts with others like themselves, or b) to obtain sexual and psychological gratification
from behaviours that are risky, secretive and manipulative, and thus demonstrate the abuser's
17
power to control others as well as to master his own fears. The commercial benefits for
individuals operating this kind of paedophile 'ring’ are generally believed to be negligible, but
the desires of paedophiles and preferential abusers can be profitably exploited as a 'side line'
bv business people who are already involved in the organised sex trade. For example, there
are 'escon' aeencies which procure/ recruit children as well as adult prostitutes in order to
provide clients greater ‘variety’. Such agencies are often highly organised, if smnlk and in
Latin American as well as North American and European countries, their owners will supply
children with mobile phones in order to both “facilitate 'customer service' and to avoid
detection.
2.
The National and International Promotion and Organisation of Sex Tourism
This is dealt with in the background paper on tourism prepared for the World Congress
Aaainst the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.
/
3.
.Armed Services’ Involvement in the Organisation of Prostitution
There is evidence of both national and international armed services' involvement in the
orsanisation of prostitution in a number of countries. At a national level, military personnel
sometimes use their status and authority to supplement their salaries by variously procuring
sirls for prostitution, or investing in, managing or 'protecting' brothels, including those
which sell children's bodies. At an international level, foreign military personnel have played
a sisnificant role in the development of the sex industries in countries used for 'Rest &
Recreation', both by continuously transponing vast numbers of prostitute users to those
countries, and by getting involved in the setting up and regulation of military bro^hgls
around their bases. Inthe 1990s, the U.N. has deployed large numbers of troops around the
‘dobeTand whilst prostitute use by these troops is not officially sanctioned, it does not
appear to have been viaorousiy condemned or controlled either. Serious allegations against
U.N. troops in Mozambique and in Cambodia were made in the early 1990s. It is claimed
that, in response to local groups' complaints about sexual exploitation by UN forces in
Cambodia, certain sites were placed . off limits and new guidelines for soldiers were
introduced. According to some sources, however, these new 'guidelines' were not strict
enoudh Soldiers were told not to park their cars in front of massage parlours, and nothing
was done to address the issue of child sexual exploitation since, despite all evidence to the
contrary, the UN official in charge of the matter simply did not believe that child prostitution
existed.
4.
The Organisation of Child Sexual Exploitation via the ’Mail Order Bride’ and
Domestic Servant Industries
The ’Mail Order Bride' and domestic servant industries represent another means through
which the sexual exploitation of children, as well as adult women, is organised at national
18
and international level For example. Eastern European girls of 16 years old are currently
being offered as *wives’ in mail order catalogues produced by British and German
companies; teenage Indian and Afiican girls are trafficked as domestic-cum-sexual servants
to Asian and Middle Eastern destinations; in Latin America, children between the ages of
12 and 18 are recruited by employment agencies and supplied to single men as
domestic-come-sexual servants.
VH. THE CONTROL ANT) REHABILITATION OF CHILD SEX EXPLOITERS
This paper has highlighted the feet that children are sexually exploited by prostitute users,
as well as by paedophiles and preferential abusers who may or may not be prostitute users.
This has implications for issues of control and rehabilitation, which are considered below.
1.
Legal Controls on Paedophile and Preferential Abusers who Travel Abroad
It is sadly the case that every nation produces its own paedophiles and preferential abusers,
and it is clearly important that each nation attempts to control and deter such individuals.
Here, however, we focus on abusers who travel abroad. This is because, in general, these
abusers are nationals of affluent countries who travel to poor countries which can barely
afford to police their own abusers, let alone those from wealthier nations. Richer nations
have a moral obligation to protect all children from their own abusers. The majority of
paedophiles from affluent countries know that adult sexual contact with prepubertal children
is criminal almost everywhere in the world, and are usually conscious of the risks associated
with their activities. Most therefore target vulnerable children who are unlikely to report
them, and will weigh up the risks of getting caught in different settings and countries. A
recent case involving a British man provides a good example of this. While in Britain, he
restricted himself to forms of non-contact abuse for which he could not be prosecuted.
When on holiday in a poor country (where in his estimation the risk of discovery and
prosecution was low), he placed no such constraint upon himself; indulging in genital
contact, anally penetrating children and filming himself so doing. This man stated explicitly
that he would not have abused the children in this way had he believed there was a realistic
chance of prosecution, and since he was capable of exercising self control in Britain, this
claim seems plausible. There is, then, reason to believe that the introduction of
extraterritorial legislation to cover child sexual offenses and effective enforcement of such
law would help to control the incidence, or at least the severity, of child sexual abuse by
paedophiles who travel abroad.
There is some evidence to suggest that while preferential child abusers from affluent nations
know that their activities are illegal in their own countries, they are not always aware that
ase of consent laws exist in certain ’Third World’ countries. Even when they do know the
law, like paedophiles, they often beheve the chances of being prosecuted for such acts are
low. As one Canadian preferential abuser said of a Caribbean country 'No-one cares, the
19
police don’t care, the parents don't care, why should I care?'. The same man stated,
however, that he did take care to avoid underage prostitutes in Europe and North .America
bavins had ’bad experiences' with the law there. Other preferential abusers say that they
would not offend at home where 'They clap you in jail for just looking at a girl’. More
visible and effective pobeing as well as the implementation of extraterritorial legislation
would so some way toward inhibiting this type of offender. It would also help to reduce
the incidence of situational child abuse by prostitute users, since they are also typically both
isnorant of age of consent laws in S. E. Asian, South American, Caribbean and African
countries and convinced that teenage sexual activity is socially acceptable in these places.
Althoush many of this latter type of abuser prefer to tell themselves that the children they
exploit are really over 18, they very patently do not feel the need to enquire too closely as
to prostitutes' true ages. This would undoubtedly change if they bebeved there was a real
risk of being prosecuted for having sex with a minor whilst hobdaying abroad. Greater
international commitment to and co-operation in pobcing child sex exploiters is therefore
necessary.
/
2.
Legal Controls on Prostitute Users
Since the vast majority of child sexual exploitation takes place in a commercial conte,xt, it
is necessary to find ways of controbing all situational abusers of child prostitutes (this
includes locals, soldiers, seamen, truckers, businessmen, expatriates and sex tourists). For
them to feel squeezed by the law, it is imperative that the focus of prostitution law
enforcement shifts dramatically. In virtually every part of the world today, it is postpubertal
prostitutes and not their cbents who are most actively pobced. Girls of 14 years and
upwards are routinely harassed, arrested, tried and imprisoned or otherwise punished by
criminal justice systems in affluent as well as poor countries, while their adult male abusers
walk free. Prostitute users know this only too well, and rightly estimate that the risk of
anything more serious than being required to pay a small fine or bribe is slim, even if the
prostitute they are with is underage. In some countries, sex tourists and locals who are
preferential abusers even boast about their own immunity, observing that the child
prostitutes they exploit would never dare to go to the pobce (even if they were robbed or
raped) because they know that they would suffer as a consequence. It is therefore vital that
child sex abuse which takes place within a commercial context is seen for what it is, namely,
abuse. Only then will the grotesque absurdity of pobcing and imprisoning the victim, instead
of the criminal, become transparent. And it is only if abusers are seen to be held criminally
responsible for their acts of exploitation that the law can hope to act as a deterrent.
3.
Treatment Programmes for Offenders
The vast majority of child sex exploiters need to imagine that their victims actively consent
to their abuse, and they use various cognitive distortions to convince themselves that this
is the case. Research with men who offend in non-commercial contexts suggests that those
20
who remain convinced that some children are not harmed by sexual contact with adults, or
that they actively seek such contact, also remain at risk of repeating their offending. The
prime objective of treatment programmes for paedophiles and preferential abusers who
offend domestically has therefore been to challenge the cognitive distortions employed by
abusers, to get them to admit to their abuse rather than minimise or deny it, and to
encourage the development of empathy with their victims. Where resources have been
invested in them, such therapeutic programs appear to have enjoyed some degree of success.
As the Director of one clinic for offenders observes, 'The only prospect of keeping children
safe fronTabusers is work extensively, painfully and expensively with those men in order to
interrupt their cycle of offending. Such work - whether they 'deserve' it or not - is simply
the best form of child protection we have'.
However, since a large proportion of child sexual abuse takes place within a commercial
context, it is essential that treatment programs for prostitute users are also developed and
that those who offend in a commercial context are somehow compelled to participate in
them. Such programs are currently being pioneered in Canada, Australia, the USA and the
Netherlands. The Portland organisation, SEEP, for example, offers an intervention program
for arrested chents of prostitutes and an education and a prevention program in schools,
universities, colleges, community groups, neighbourhood associations and businesses. Its
intervention work with chents involves both intensive workshops for first time offenders and
long term counselling for habitual offenders, and the objective is to challenge the cognitive
distortions employed by such men to legitimate their sexually exploitative acts, as well as
to educate them about the realities of prostitution (for example, the feet that in the USA, the
usual age of entry into prostitution is between 14 and 17, that 85% of prostitutes report
being sexually abused as children, that 90% of prostitutes are coerced into prostitution by
pimps, etc.). In this way, the workshops and counselling programs attempt to get prostitute
users to empathise with, rather than objectify and denigrate, prostituted women and
children.
Such work is relevant for the problem of local demand in both affluent and poor countries
as well as the problem of demand from sex tourists, since both types of demand are
underpinned by a profound lack of empathy for child prostitutes who are typically viewed
as morally corrupt and/or ‘racially’ or ethnically 'Other1. These intervention programs can
only work with the active support of law enforcement and criminal justice personnel
however. The focus of law enforcement needs to be upon the chents of child prostitutes,
and courts need to view sexual offenses against prostituted children as seriously as they view
offenses against non-prostituted children.
21
r4^
07382
V<oc
Il
vm. some proposals for the future
1.
Preventative Education with Abusers and Potential Abusers
Preventative education programmes with prostitute users and potential prostitute users need
to be developed worldwide. Popular misconceptions about prostitution and male sexuality
need to be challenged amongst young people, some of whom will otherwise grow up to
become sexual exploiters. Education on the impact of child sexual abuse upon victims, on
the reasons why children and women enter into prostitution, on age of consent and
prostitution law around the world, as well as consciousness raising around issues of gender
and raoism would also help to deconstruct the permissive narratives used by current abusers
to justify their actions.
2.
Preventative Action with Specific Groups of Prostitute Users and Child Sex
Exploiters
/
Since military and naval personnel are effectively a ‘captive’ audience, it would be very
simple to introduce an educational programme along the lines mentioned in i) above for
them as part of their training. (It is particularly important to target military personnel since
research indicates that many sex tourists and local prostitute users are ex-military men,
susgesting that the armed services often socialise men into a lifelong 'addiction' to prostitute
usej Companies which tolerate or promote prostfrute use by businessmen should also be
taraeted. Likewise, during flights to sex tourist destinations, tourists could be exposed to
educational videos which specifically challenge the cognitive distortions employed by
situational abusers as well as preferential abusers and paedophiles. This would also
encourage non-abusive tourists to challenge the behaviour of abusive tourists when they
wimess it.
The demand for commercial sex from migrant workers could be partially addressed through
chanses to immigration policies and/or company policies which often forcibly separate
misrant male workers from their wives or partners. Oppressive immigration policies also
underpin the absolute power that employers wield over domestic workers and thus need to
be challensed more generally. Meanwhile, child sexual abuse by Aid workers, orphanage
directors, "religious missionaries and church workers could be reduced through the
imposition of more thorough vetting and monitoring procedures. In particular, agencies
which make block grants to projects in poor countries should be urged to exercise great
caution where a) the project is founded and run by a single foreign male and administered
without accountability to the local community, and b) the project has as its sole focus
assistance to poor young children. There are likewise some obvious steps that could be
taken to prevent the sexual abuse of child prisoners (Le., massive reductions to the child
prison population, and the provision of separate cells for those for whom incarceration is
trulv unavoidable).
22
3.
Awareness Raising to Encourage Better Policing and Reporting of Child Sex
Exploiters
Education in countries which are newly attracting sex tourists could also play an important
preventative role. Local people are often unaware of the phenomenon of sex tourism (until
it is too late), and more especially, they may have little knowledge about child sexual abuse.
Without this knowledge, Western paedophiles' observable behaviour with street children buying them meals, cuddling them, taking them back to hotel rooms - is often interpreted
as kindliness', and certainly not seen as a cause for concern. It is also the case that there are
currently a number of organisations (and hundreds of thousands of individuals) in a position
to assist in the policing and prevention of child sexual exploitation, which do not offer any
assistance. Indeed, through their tolerance of prostitute use, the army, the navy, the tourist
industry, employers of maritime sailors and many businesses actually contribute to the
problem. Education and awareness raising programmes could be used to encourage such
organisations to play a more active role in discouraging and policing abusers. Individual
tourists need to be encouraged to challenge the behaviour of compatriots engaging in sex
tourism. Share holders and pension fund managers need to be encouraged to investigate the
nature of the hospitality provided by managers in firms that they invest in. Finally, it is
necessary to educate those involved in criminal justice and law enforcement to recognise
child prostitution for what it is, which is not only the abuse of socially, politically and
economically powerless individuals but criminal violation of their human rights codified in
international and national legal instruments.
4.
Research and Information
There are many areas and issues that need to be investigated and/or monitored in future.
In particular, we need more information on the nature, organisation and scale of child
prostitution in different countries around the world and on the identity and motivations of
their abusers; we need to monitor the development of sex tourism in new sites; and to
monitor the success of therapeutic treatment programs with paedophiles and prostitute
users.
23
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Select Bibliography and Further Reading
Beckett, R (1994) 'Assessment of Sex Offenders' in T Morrison, M. Erooga and R. Beckett
(Eds.) Sexual Offending Against Children: Assessment and Treatment of Male Abusers.
London: Routledge.
Browne, K. (1994), ‘Child Sexual Abuse’ in J. Archer (Ed.) Male Violence, London:
Routledge.
Degenais H. (1993) Women in Guadeloupe: the Paradoxes of Reality1, in J. Momsen (Ed)
Women and Change in the Caribbean: A Pan-Caribbean Perspective, London: James
Curvey.
Delacoste, F. and Alexander, P. (Eds) (1988) Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex
Industry, (London: Virago).
Enloe, C. (1989) Bananas, Beaches & Bases, London: Pandora.
Ennew, J. (1986) The Sexual Exploitation of Children, Cambridge: Polity.
Tanning, K (1992) Child Sex Rings: A Behavioural Analysis, Virginia: National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children.
O’Connell Davidson, J., (1995), ‘British Sex Tourists in Thailand’, in M. Maynard and J.
Purvis (Eds), (Hetero)sexual Politics, London: Taylor & Francis.
O'Connell Davidson, J. and Sanchez Taylor, J. (1996) 'Child Prostitution and Tourism
Beyond the Stereotypes', in J. Pilcher and S. Wagg (Eds) Thatcher's Children, London:
Falmer Press.
O'Grady, R_, (1994), The Rape of the Innocent, New Zealand: Pace.
Singh, S. (1989) Exploited Children in India, Calcutta: Sakti Pada Paul
Skrobanek, S. (1994) The Globalization of Trafficking in Women, International Workshop
on International Migration and Traffic in Women, Chiangmai, October 17-21.
Stoller, R. (1986) Perversion: The Erotic Form of Hatred, New York: Kamac.
Sutton, A. (1994) Slavery in Brazil London: Anti-Slavery International.
Truong, T. (1990) Sex, Money and Morality: Prostitution and Tourism in Southeast Asia.
London: Zed Books.
Wyre, R. (1995) Murder of Childhood, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Acknowledgments
The assistance of the following people in the preparation of this paper is gratefully
acknowledged:
Amihan Abueve, Muireen O'Brien, Ron O'Grady, Chris Vertucci, ECPAT, 328 Phaya tai
Road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
Shelley Anderson, Just Words, Van de Wondestraat 23, 1815 VT Alkmaar, Netherlands.
Anne Badser, Helen Beecher and Frankie Chissim, Coalition on Child Prostitution in
Tourism, Unit 4, Stableyard, Broomgrove Road, London SW9 9TL, United Kingdom.
Simon Carter. MRC Medical Sociology Unit, 6 Lillybank Gardens, University of Glasgow,
G12 8RZ, United Kingdom,
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Caroline Colaso, Bailancho Maneb, 11, Liberty Apartments, Feira Alta, Mapusa, Goa
403507, India.
Jeffrey Gauthier, Martin Monto, Department of Psychology, Sociology and Social Work,
University of Portland, 5000 North Willamette Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97203-5798,
USA (contact for information on SEEP).
Pessy Healy, The Public Interest Resource Center, Fordham Univerity, 140 West 62nd
Street, New York, NY 10023-7485, USA
Liz Kelly, Child and Woman Abuse Unit, University of North London, Ladbroke House,
62 - 66 Highbury Grove, London N5 2AD, United Kingdom
DI Tmi Reynolds, Scotland Yard, London, United Kingdom
Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor, Department of Sociology, University of Leicester, Leicester LEI
7RH, United Kingdom
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