Sexual Abuse
Sex tourism means that an individual travels to a country to engage in a sexual act that they pay for. Usually this sex involves children. Many of the participants are victims of sex trafficking or sexual slavery. Surprisingly, this type of tourism is fairly common, especially in third world countries. Even though it’s illegal in many places it doesn’t stop many individuals from accepting payment for sex. Here are a couple of reasons why someone might risk breaking the law in order to receive money for performing sexual acts on a tourist.
CNN reported that 4000+ sex offenders get US passports each year. It sound absurd but this is just another example of a system that doesn’t quite work. Unless it can be proved that the person is engaging in sex tourism, there is nothing to prevent them from getting a passport. It’s sort of like finding out that past sex offenders can work at children’s camps in Connecticut as long as they aren’t the director or assistant director. There needs to be more open communication between agencies to plug the gaps in how our society deals with sex offenders.
Extreme Poverty and Sex Tourism
Those that live in third world countries often experience extreme poverty. They don’t have a proper education and they have a difficult time gaining employment. Because of this, they will often take any job that they can get even if it means becoming involved in sex tourism. Their extreme poverty will influence them to do almost anything to earn money so that they can feed their family, even if it involves sexual acts. Those who participate in sex tourism know how dire their situation is and are willing to do just about anything in order to make money.
Lack Of Proper Education About The Consequences
Sex tourism is a dangerous business. Those who participate in it often don’t realize the legal ramifications that could come about if they get caught. Even though they may understand that it’s frowned upon, they don’t fully grasp that they could face a fine or even go to jail if they get caught. Also, they don’t realize that there could be health consequences as well. Unfortunately, in many third world countries there isn’t a lot of information about sexually transmitted diseases. For an individual that participates in sex tourism, they don’t always fully understand that they are at risk of getting an STD.
Not Enough Enforcement
It’s no surprise that in third world countries there tends to be a lot of crime. Because of this, something like stopping sex tourism is simply not a priority. If there are laws against it, they often aren’t enforcement. Law enforcement officials tend to have more pressing issues to deal with. As long as no other more serious crimes are committed, like rape or battery, sex tourism tends to be overlooked. Something like sex stopping sex tourism just isn’t seen as a priority.
Victims Don’t Speak Out
It’s not uncommon for those who are receiving money for sex tourism to feel forced to do so. They don’t know that they can speak out against it. Unfortunately, the money that they bring it from it greatly helps to benefit their families. Without it, these individuals wouldn’t be able to feed their children, brothers or sisters or parents. Even if they wanted to speak out, they have no idea where to turn to in order to get help.
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Let us know if we can help you dealing with your family’s sexual abuse situation. For ideas to get started please check out our book on what to do during the early days after disclosure.
Sexual Abuse
It always amazes me that problems much less common than sexual abuse like autism and cancer tend to get much more attention. I don’t know if they are any less scary, but anything sex related is difficult to talk about. And for many people, it’s just something that is better off not spoken of. Well, while people aren’t talking about it, the cost to society continues to go up.
Even if you somehow thought sexual abuse was OK wouldn’t it start to bother you as a tax payer that it is costing our society (just in the U.S) over $100 Billion dollars a year in medical, legal and other costs. The average rape cost society over $150,000. The figures on child sexual abuse tend to not be included because they are difficult to measure. It’s estimated that only about 15% of sexual abuse is reported even though it is happening to roughly 25% of children by the time they are 18. For more costs check out http://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/CostsConsequencesSV.pdf
Slavery today?
And for those of you who thought Lincoln ended slavery, think again. There are more people in slavery today than there were in 1865. Current estimates on just sex slavery currently put the number at around 27,000,000 people world wide. Looking at that another way, that’s every man, woman and child north east of Washington DC. Or sliced a different way – the entire population of Texas. It’s a problem almost too big to comprehend – and as a result people don’t want to talk about it. Beginning the discussion is the first step to making these problems go away. It’s also important to reframe how we look at the issue of sex slavery.
The word prostitution has a different connotation than slavery. It’s “the worlds oldest profession”, and that label seems to imply a choice of vocation. These women decided to make their money by being paid for sex – or at least that’s how it is portrayed by society. The reality is that most were bought or kidnapped and imprisoned and held through drugs or economically where they could never pay off what they owed to whoever bought them. It’s a difficult cycle to break, and the organizations that are doing it are going door to door and freeing one child at a time. If you would like to help, check out http://www.theexodusroad.com/
Let us know if we can help you dealing with your family’s sexual abuse situation. For ideas to get started please check out our book on what to do during the early days after disclosure.
Sexual Abuse
Over the next few months I’m going to be doing a series of posts on sex slavery. In southeast Asia it is basically an industry. Thailand actually has a tourist market for sex – mostly girls. Sri Lanka on the other hand is less well known to the public but has a huge sex trade for young boys. These are the areas that are among the most public. Eastern Europe has a much less public sex trade. And then there is the United States. Worldwide there are more than 20 million people in slavery. That’s more slaves than there were during the civil war.
We are starting to follow the efforts of The Exodus Road ( http://www.theexodusroad.com ) . They are a group helping women in Southeast Asia out of sex slavery. It’s one success story at a time, but the pipeline is being back filled almost as quickly as being rescued. While each success is important, the real value is that this is one of the more active regions for creating awareness of the problem. In contrast, the last real attention Sri Lanka got was when one of it’s more famous residents – Arthur C. Clarke had his knighting ceremony quietly rescheduled off the Queen’s schedule. Apparently he wasn’t living there for the tropical climate.
Sex Trafficking at Home
The sex trafficking and slavery going on in the United States is much more subtle and doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it should. In my work with social service agencies, I see girls in residential care regularly being targeted for exploitation. Promises of money quickly turn to drugs and debt and eventually slavery. It’s happening in almost every major city and we barely see it. There is a perception that prostitution is a crime, and that the women performing sex for money are doing that of their own free will. Pimps aren’t just for protection and handling the money, they are generally the ones calling the shots. Girls are bought, sold, and traded like baseball cards. It’s not unlike what is happening in other parts of the world. We just need to wake up and start seeing the problem.
Let us know if we can help you dealing with your family’s sexual abuse situation. For ideas to get started please check out our book on what to do during the early days after disclosure.
Sexual Abuse
A recent report from Britain’s Office of the Children’s Commissioner found an alarming number of sexual abuse cases attributed to gangs. The study identified 2,409 victims in the first year of the study. Of those, 155 were also identified as also being perpetrators. The abuse consists of both multi-person attacks and various activities as a part of gang initiation. And the problem isn’t limited to the UK.
If you are like most people, your view of gangs is a slightly updated version of West Side Story. The gangs we generally think of are generally ethnically or geographically specific and have identifying clothing. Usually there are enough gang members to make identification easy. That was more or less my view of gangs, and I have indirectly worked with gang members for the last few years. Unfortunately, that is an outdated view of gangs.
What is a gang?
Gangs in 2012 are more like terror cells. A gang can be as little as 3 people. They also aren’t hierarchical like they were 20 years ago. It’s more a matter of self association than an organization where you work your way up the ranks. Individuals may be associated to multiple gangs over time. This apparent lack of structure makes dealing with gangs all the more challenging. While people are expecting large groups of marauding youths, they don’t see the small groups and the dangers that they bring. As an example, 80% of all crime in the State of Massachusetts is gang related. Other states are starting to note similarly high rates of gang involvement.
The issue of increasing sex abuse in gangs probably is connected to the smaller more fluid structure. Most sex abuse is not about sexual preference or interest. It’s actually about power and control. What better way to exact control and authority in a way that is not obvious to the outside world.
Changing Landscape
The changing nature of gangs is just starting to be understood. The UK study is actually one of the first looks at sex abuse within the gang community. Gangs are not a new concept, but the criminal focus has been on drugs and weapons usage. It’s possible that the sexual abuse component has been around for a while, especially given the percentage of abused that become abusers. It’s a learned behavior of control, and both in and out of gangs, it is a cycle that perpetuates itself over time. Sexual abuse is a complicated subject. Much like gangs, we are just starting to get educated on sexual abuse as to what is really happening.
Let us know if we can help you dealing with your family’s sexual abuse situation. For ideas to get started please check out our book on what to do during the early days after disclosure.
Sexual Abuse
Sexual assault is the only crime where victims are often blamed for the crime. There are an assortment of reasons for this. Largely it is a cultural fear and a way of saying “This couldn’t happen to me” . Therefore it must be the victim’s fault. Human trafficking gets the same reaction, but it goes a bit further in this case.
Bias
Even for people who view sexual assault victims as victims, the term “prostitution” carries it’s own cultural biases. In most cases the reality is that they started out as one in the same. We generally wouldn’t think of jailing a sexual assault victim, but this is usually the fate that ultimately awaits those involved in prostitution. In this case not only is the abuse orchestrated, it is a source of profit for those who facilitate the process. The number of teenage girls who find themselves in this situation is in the tens of thousands.
Watch CNN’s “Selling the Girl Next Door,” at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET Sunday, the culmination of a yearlong investigation into the devastating realities of the business of underage sex.
Let us know if we can help you dealing with your family’s sexual abuse situation. For ideas to get started please check out our book on what to do during the early days after disclosure.
