Child sexual tourism and the commercial sexual exploitation of women are widespread and well-known practices in Thailand. A sexual tourist is a person who travels from a foreign country in order to commit sexual acts that are illegal or socially unacceptable in their home country and thus avoid prosecution or a personal sense of responsibility by paying for the “service” from an exploited woman or child. Commercial sexual exploitation involves the recruitment, manipulation and forcing of women and children into prostitution, in exchange for money (Vejar & Quach, May 2013) (Newman, Holt, Rabun, Phillips, & Scott, March 2011). Sexual exploitation can also include the transport of women from other countries under false pretenses, such as for …show more content…
It is obvious to me that by looking the other way and allowing women and children, who are members of the human community to be treated as vacation play things; we are on a slippery slope and the value of all humanity is diminished.
Thailand’s commercial sexual exploitation industry is also trading short-term financial gain for a long-term healthcare crisis. Thailand is becoming the breeding ground for HIV/AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases that sex tourists carry back to their homelands like unwelcome souvenirs (Fontanet, et al., October 1998) (Morinsky & Coan, 1998).
The mental health effects of chronic trauma and widespread sexual abuse of children may also have long-term consequences for Thai society. Elderly Thai men and women are relying on their daughters to care for them in old age. However, the repeated humiliation and emotional trauma experienced through a life of prostitution could leave these “good” daughters unable to care for themselves or anyone
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This can also be seen as a form of sexual servitude. These brides are leaving their home, their family, their culture and very often their children in order to make a lifetime commitment to sexual and domestic service to one man (Angeles & Sunanta, 2009). They are banking on the fact that this one man will treat them well, but they have no assurance that this is true. Many women find out too late that their new “husband” is actually a sex trafficker in disguise (Huda, 2006). Even women with true marriages are not equal partners. Their husband is entirely dominant in that he holds all the economic and situational power in the relationship. The new bride must continue to earn her place in the marriage more like a pet than a true
An estimated 20.9 million people are currently being trafficked worldwide (The Polaris Project, 2014). According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, reauthorized in 2013), sex trafficking is defined as, “A commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion, and/or in which the person induced to...
Crawford, M. and M.A. Kaufman (2008) ‘Sex Trafficking in Nepal: Survivor Characteristics and Long Term Outcomes’, Violence against Women 14(8): 905–16.
Sex trafficking accounts for more than 70 percent of all trafficking, or as many as 19 million people (Behnke 30). Which is a lot of people that have had to go through this traumatic experience at any age they were during that time and they don’t have no choice. There are a number of reasons why children and adolescents become prostitutes. In some cases, parents are in such extreme conditions of poverty that they see the sale of the child as the only way of ensuring its survival. (Hobbs). So most of the kids that are being forced into prostitution because they want their families to have a better life and make more money so they feel like it’s their only option. Sex trafficking and prostitution have always been a part of Thailand’s history, however, the Vietnam War contributed to an explosion of the issue between 1955 and 1975. With an influx of anxious, homesick, and bored soldiers into the country, spilling over from Vietnam, the demand for prostitution skyrocketed, resulting in the growth of the human trafficking industry which still remains today.
According to Van Wormer & Bartollas (2014), sex trafficking, “encompasses the organized movement of people, usually women, between countries and within countries for sex work” (p. 289). Sex trafficking is also a very lucrative business, it is estimated to make $31. 6 billion annually. This amount is estimated from the 2.5 million people who a trafficked each year. The exact number of people who are victims of the sex industry cannot be predicted accurately for all over the world. In the United States alone there is about 14,500-17,500 people trafficked each year. Human trafficking it the third biggest organized crime after drug and arms trafficking (Hodge, 2014). Young men make up about 44% of people being trafficked, while women and girls
Sex Tourists One very sad truth is that Americans travel to foreign countries to engage in sexual acts with children, acts that would be illegal in their native country and they are known as sex tourists. The United National International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) estimates that more than 1 million children are forced into prostitution every year. According to World Vision, a Christian relief organization, many of these children are either sold into prostitution to pay off family debts or forcibly recruited on the street to work in brothels, where they are required to have sex with as many as 30 men each day. Some prostitute children are just 5 years old (2006).
In order to understand how sex trafficking affects its victims, one must first know the severity of sex trafficking and what it is. The issue of sex trafficking affects 2.5 million people at any given time (Abas et al., 2013). The form of sex slavery affects many women and children across the world. Even though both males and females are sexually trafficked and exploited, there is a deep emphasis on the sexual exploitation of women and children. This is due to gender discrimination (Miller, 2006). This is because women and children are more vulnerable and appeal to the larger populations of brothels and the so-called “clients” since the majority are men. Ecclestone (2013) stated that children as young as age three are trafficked. Sex trafficking has changed over time; “Today, the business of human sex trafficking is much more organized and violent. These women and young girls are sold to traffickers, locked up in rooms or brothels for weeks or months, drugged, terrorized, and raped repeatedly” (Walker-Rodriguez & Hill, 2011). It is found that many of the victims of sex trafficking are abducted, recruited, transported and forced into involuntary “sex work”. These sexual acts include prostitution, exotic dancing, pornography, and sexual escort services (McClain & Garrity, 2011). What happens to these sex trafficking victims is extremely traumatizing.
“Human traffickers often use a Sudanese phrase ‘use a slave to catch slaves,’ meaning traffickers send ‘broken-in girls’ to recruit younger girls into the sex trade” (“55 Little Known” 1). Sex traffickers will often train girls themselves by teaching them sex acts and raping them. Significantly represented as perpetrators, victims, and activists fighting this business, human trafficking is the only crime that occurs across the nation that women can take part in every role. Today, the business of human sex trafficking is way more violent and organized. A victim that has been with her trafficker the longest and earned his trust is known as the bottom. The bottoms perform many jobs such as collecting the money from the other girls, disciplining them, talking others into the industry, and handling the day-to-day business for the trafficker. By taking part in this industry, victims face many physical risks (“55 Little Known” 4). Some of the risks include alcohol and drug addiction, sterility, contracting STDs, miscarriages, forced abortions, and anal and vaginal trauma. Often times, they suffer from malnutrition, sleep deprivation, and lack of medical care. Psychological effects are very common once you become involved in the industry as well. They may develop depression, personality disorders, suicidal tendencies, and Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (“55 Little Known” 4). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder causes the individual to experience terrible dreams or memories of what happened to them. Anxiety, phobias, and panic attacks are also common after these horrifying experiences. Paradoxical psychological phenomenon occurs when a victim has been abused over an extended period of time so they being to feel an attachment to the perpetrator. Emotional effects are a major problem once you’ve taken part in this industry (Walker-Rodriguez 1). Most of the
Human trafficking is prevalent throughout the world, especially in Asia and more specifically in China but the government and non-governmental organizations (NGO) are taking measures to put an end to it. Human trafficking involves exploitation of human beings; either sexually or by coercing them to work in unfavourable conditions for little pay or nothing at all. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) defines human trafficking as “the acquisition of people by improper means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them.” Women and children, especially girls between the ages of fourteen and twenty constitute the majority of victims of human trafficking. “China is a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking; the majority of which is internal trafficking” (www.humantrafficking.org).
Barry, Kathleen. The Prostitution of Sexuality: The Global Exploitation of Women. New York: New York University Press, 1996. Print.
Sex trafficking is essentially systemic rape for profit. Force, fraud and coercion are used to control the victim’s behavior which may secure the appearance of consent to please the buyer (or john). Behind every transaction is violence or the threat of violence (Axtell par. 4). Just a decade ago, only a third of the countries studied by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had legislation against human trafficking. (Darker Side, par.1) Women, children, and even men are taken from their homes, and off of the streets and are brought into a life that is almost impossible to get out of. This life is not one of choice, it is in most times by force. UNODC estimates that the total international human trafficking is a $32-billion-per-year business, and that 79% of this activity comprises sexual exploitation. As many as 2 million children a year are victims of commercial sexual exploitation, according the the U.S. State Department.-- Cynthia G. Wagner. (Darker Side, par. 4) The words prostitute, pimp, escort, and stripper tend to be way too common in the American everyday vocabulary. People use these words in a joking manner, but sex trafficking is far from a joke. Everyday, from all different countries, people are bought and sold either by force or false promises. Some are kidnapped and others come to America with dreams of a dream life and job. The buyers involved in the trade will do anything to purchase an innocent life just to sell for their own selfish profit. Many people wouldn’t think of a human body to be something you can buy in the back room of a business or even online. But those plus the streets are where people are sold most often. There are many reasons and causes for sex trafficking. The factors behind sex traffic...
The most widely accepted definition for sex tourism is the act of travelling to a foreign country to procure sexual services (Davidson and Taylor 2). Sex tourism takes place in many parts of the world and is undoubtedly the basis for many ongoing trafficking, physical abuses, and child prostitution. By defining sex tourism as “consisting of people from economically developed nations travelling to underdeveloped countries ‘specifically to purchase the sexual services of local women and men’” it correspond better with the modern sex tourism image (Davidson and Taylor 2). Increasingly more tourists have traveled to South East Asian countries for sexual pleasures, making them the typical sex tourists that nourished the multi-billion dollar industry. Just looking at Thailand alone, about 70% of all tourist men who travelled there came specifically for sex (Green 1).
Moreover, the government of Netherlands supported a program to combat sex trafficking by placing anti-trafficking public service announcements on a website regulated by seeking women in prostitution (Trafficking in persons., 2008). To sum up, there are several effective solutions that these two countries have experienced in trying to solve each problem occurring in their countries, which the Thai government can adapt and use to solve the same problem in Thailand. To prevent the exploitation of prostitution, the Thai government should introduce a stricter penalty for prostitution similar to the law referring to Saudi Arabia. Moreover, in the case of sexual trafficking, the solutions from the two countries are both suitable for Thailand. Even though, many countries around the world have been trying many different ways to solve this global problem, the exploitation of prostitution still arises and seems to be out of control for many countries.
Presently, these arrangements are usually made by men to coerce and persuade women into a sexual relationship. Unfortunately, given the rise in high profile men, holding positions of power in a religious institution, leads me to further believe this act is a gateway to “religious prostitution.” This is an insult to the sanctity of marriage . The same practice is still available for men today, even if they aren't travelling or going to war. A man can make a contract with a woman to be his temporary wife for a certain period of time, which could be several hours, days, weeks or months.
Trafficking is recognized as a major health problem and tragic transnational crime (Muftic). Most people think the physical abuse from trafficking is the worst part about it. What most people do not know, is the mental abuse can be just as horrifying if not more. The women who are trafficked have poorer health outcomes, and more intense and prolonged psychological reactions to abuse than women who are not trafficked (Muftic). When a woman's sexuality is violently used or abused, it is far more damaging to her than words, fists, or any other abuse that could be heaped on her. It is an invasion of the essence of who they are. Women were reported having suicidal thoughts/attempts, feelings of anger/rage, depression, inability to feel, difficulty sleeping, self-blame/guilt, and loss of appetite (Muftic). These poor women have no idea what the trafficking life can hold for them, not just while being there but also after they have left that life. Casey Roman noticed a coping mechanism for some of the women. They will laugh off information or past memories, telling their brains that what is or was happening to them is not as bad as it really is (Roman 2). Most of these women in the life have actual disorders. In 2008, the United States Department of Health and Human Services identified the serious and complex mental health problems of sex trafficking victims. The disorders included, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety and mood disorders, dissociative disorders, and substance related disorder (Muftic). The women might not even realize they have a disorder until they are out of the sex trafficking life and living in the normal world. It is evident that the mental effects take a negative toll on the women in sex
On February 25, 2013, an American Arthur Benjamin was arrested for running underage prostitution “Crow Bar” in Subic Bay in the western Philippines. Many of the bars, established in that area, are packed with older foreign men, looking to engage in sexual affairs with younger Filipinas. Arthur has been known for pulling girls from high school and forcing them into the prostitution. He has denied it publicly, but reporters with hidden cameras caught him admitting to all allegations. Although, prostitution is illegal in the Philippines, it thrives in parts of capital Manila filled with the tourists, suggesting that perhaps most of the tourists visit the Philippines for sex tourism.