The rise of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) over the past several decades has caught the attention of activists and advocates around the world. Their work has contributed to a host of policies, initiatives, and legal doctrine that continues to shape public discussions of the issue as well policy responses to the problem at the international, national, and local level. According to a number of international monitoring organizations, Mexico stands as the prime destination for trafficked children and the country in the Western Hemisphere with the highest degree of CSEC. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted over the summer of 2010 in Mexico City, I explore the relationship between the work of civil society advocates campaigning against CSEC and the struggles, successes, and issues they face working in the context of Mexico City. My findings reveal important developments in the work of advocates as well as the revelation of critical areas in their work that deserve further investigation and research. At the same time, my research gives some insight into the way advocacy groups carry out their agendas in the face of a weak Mexican state, intensifying violence related to escalated war on drugs, and the inherent difficulties associated with working at the level of civil society. / text

This project examines the discursive-material construction of 'economic empowerment' at organizations serving survivors of commercial sexual exploitation (CSE). It uses multiple qualitative methods, including interviews, observations, and document analysis at 18 different organizations supporting CSE survivors.

Long dismissed as a third world issue, the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) has been a significant problem across the United States over the past two decades, causing major concerns for child welfare stakeholders. The literature has shown a broad range of adverse consequences associated with CSEC. These include—but are not limited to—malnutrition, severe trauma, physical and sexual assault, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancy, and medical neglect. The purpose of the study is to assess the readiness level of a large county in Southern California with regards to the well-being of children with a past or current record of victimization from commercial sexual exploitation. Embracing the Community Readiness Model, this case study aimed to evaluate (a) the county’s level of knowledge about programs and services to address CSEC, (b) the county leadership’s attitude toward addressing CSEC, (c) the county’s attitude toward addressing CSEC, (d) the county’s knowledge about CSEC, and (e) explore the county’s range of resources available to address CSEC. Results indicated that the county’s overall readiness score was 4.1 out of a possible 9. That is, the county had a low readiness level with respect to addressing the challenges associated with CSEC within its boundaries. Implications of the findings for theory, research, policy, and macro social work practice were discussed. Keywords: commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), community readiness model

<p>ECPAT is an organization that existed worldwide in more than 85 countries and focused at the work against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. The concept with this paper was to see how well ECPAT worked to try to achieve their goals and how organizational structure, distribution and PR work appeared. Literature review was used as a method to create a deep insight of how ECPAT looked at the global commercial sexual exploitation of children that existed. We found that ECPAT had continuous goals which was constantly present and that they never could be fulfilled. ECPATs goals and results could never be seen as something that was definitive, but it was under continuous development that continued throughout different eras.       </p>

ECPAT is an organization that existed worldwide in more than 85 countries and focused at the work against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. The concept with this paper was to see how well ECPAT worked to try to achieve their goals and how organizational structure, distribution and PR work appeared. Literature review was used as a method to create a deep insight of how ECPAT looked at the global commercial sexual exploitation of children that existed. We found that ECPAT had continuous goals which was constantly present and that they never could be fulfilled. ECPATs goals and results could never be seen as something that was definitive, but it was under continuous development that continued throughout different eras.

In this dissertation, Foucault’s methodologies, archaeology and genealogy, are used to explore the links between silence, knowledge and power in the area of therapeutic sexual exploitation. Underpinning this task is Foucault’s theoretical assumption that knowledge is not scientifically constructed through objective and rational methods. Knowledge, under Foucault’s theoretical framework, is influenced by the more obscure conditions of possibility which affect power relations and, therefore, power-knowledge. Therefore, New Zealand’s scientific discourse around therapeutic sexual exploitation is analysed by moving between the discursive and the extra-discursive. This is undertaken to highlight the more obscure conditions of possibility which may have affected the political construction of knowledge and its material effects in the area of therapeutic sexual exploitation. New Zealand’s academic discourse on therapeutic sexual exploitation is examined with reference to the social conditions which have influenced the origins of counselling and psychotherapy in New Zealand. This includes an exploration of the links between counselling and psychotherapy to other New Zealand based psy-professions. In particular, an investigation is conducted as to how disciplinary procedures have been applied to those connected to, and affected by, therapeutic sexual exploitation. This, however, is studied by locating New Zealand’s discourse within an international discourse on therapeutic sexual exploitation. This wider lens shows how New Zealand’s discourse around therapeutic sexual exploitation, as other countries’ discourses on this matter, has developed in response to local social conditions and changing power relations. Through this broader analysis of New Zealand’s discursive formation on therapeutic sexual exploitation one can see the interplay between silence, knowledge and power, and its material effects on the lives on people. This dissertation highlights not only what knowledge-power might be restricting, but also what it might be producing in the area of therapeutic sexual exploitation, the impacts of which, it will be argued, extends well beyond the particular domain under examination.

A prostituição infanto-juvenil tornou-se um fenômeno independente da adulta nos idos de 1990, tanto em nível nacional quanto internacional. Percebida sob os signos da gravidade e da urgência, suscitou denúncias, intervenções e saberes especializados. Na busca por compreender as condições de surgimento desses novos discursos, seus fundamentos e perspectivas hegemônicas acerca da prostituição infanto-juvenil, a presente dissertação percorre quatro etapas. Inicialmente, elabora uma genealogia das três principais fontes brasileiras sobre a exploração sexual na década de mil novecentos e noventa: documentos do CECRIA, a série de reportagens Meninas Escravizadas da Folha de S. Paulo e a CPI da Prostituição Infantil de 1993. Sob inspiração foucaultiana, elabora nova genealogia, agora sobre o sexo, em sua relação com o cristianismo, o direito e as ciências humanas e médicas. Visando a perceber novos olhares sobre a prostituição infanto-juvenil, em seguida ouve prostitutas adultas, uma militante dos direitos das prostitutas e também adolescentes envolvidas com o mercado sexual. A última etapa, de feições ensaísticas, constitui uma tentativa de vislumbrar possibilidades para uma sexualidade mais livre e de apontar trajetórias mais interessantes para a prostituição adulta e infanto-juvenil / The juvenile prostitution became an adult independent phenomenon in the 1990s, both nationally and internationally. Being realized by its gravity and urgency, it aroused denunciations, interventions, and specialized skills. This dissertation covers four stages which aim to understand the conditions in which these new discourses have sprouted as well as their foundations, and the juvenile prostitution perspectives. Initially, it elaborates a genealogy of the three main Brazilian sources about the sexual exploration in the 1990s: documents of the Child and Adolescent Center for Reference, Study and Action (CECRIA); the series of news articles entitled Slaved Girls from Folha de São Paulo; and the investigations conducted by the legislative branch (CPI) about the juvenile prostitution in 1993. Keeping the Foucaultion inspiration, it elaborates a new genealogy, but now about the sex in relation to the Christianity, the human rights, and the medical and human sciences. Some adult prostitutes, a militant of the prostitutes rights, and adolescents involved in the sexual market were heard with the aim of realizing new views on the juvenile prostitution. The last stage, with essayistic features, constitutes an attempt of glimpsing possibilities for a freer sexuality, and of pointing at more interesting paths for the adult and the juvenile prostitution

A prostituição infanto-juvenil tornou-se um fenômeno independente da adulta nos idos de 1990, tanto em nível nacional quanto internacional. Percebida sob os signos da gravidade e da urgência, suscitou denúncias, intervenções e saberes especializados. Na busca por compreender as condições de surgimento desses novos discursos, seus fundamentos e perspectivas hegemônicas acerca da prostituição infanto-juvenil, a presente dissertação percorre quatro etapas. Inicialmente, elabora uma genealogia das três principais fontes brasileiras sobre a exploração sexual na década de mil novecentos e noventa: documentos do CECRIA, a série de reportagens Meninas Escravizadas da Folha de S. Paulo e a CPI da Prostituição Infantil de 1993. Sob inspiração foucaultiana, elabora nova genealogia, agora sobre o sexo, em sua relação com o cristianismo, o direito e as ciências humanas e médicas. Visando a perceber novos olhares sobre a prostituição infanto-juvenil, em seguida ouve prostitutas adultas, uma militante dos direitos das prostitutas e também adolescentes envolvidas com o mercado sexual. A última etapa, de feições ensaísticas, constitui uma tentativa de vislumbrar possibilidades para uma sexualidade mais livre e de apontar trajetórias mais interessantes para a prostituição adulta e infanto-juvenil / The juvenile prostitution became an adult independent phenomenon in the 1990s, both nationally and internationally. Being realized by its gravity and urgency, it aroused denunciations, interventions, and specialized skills. This dissertation covers four stages which aim to understand the conditions in which these new discourses have sprouted as well as their foundations, and the juvenile prostitution perspectives. Initially, it elaborates a genealogy of the three main Brazilian sources about the sexual exploration in the 1990s: documents of the Child and Adolescent Center for Reference, Study and Action (CECRIA); the series of news articles entitled Slaved Girls from Folha de São Paulo; and the investigations conducted by the legislative branch (CPI) about the juvenile prostitution in 1993. Keeping the Foucaultion inspiration, it elaborates a new genealogy, but now about the sex in relation to the Christianity, the human rights, and the medical and human sciences. Some adult prostitutes, a militant of the prostitutes rights, and adolescents involved in the sexual market were heard with the aim of realizing new views on the juvenile prostitution. The last stage, with essayistic features, constitutes an attempt of glimpsing possibilities for a freer sexuality, and of pointing at more interesting paths for the adult and the juvenile prostitution

This thesis explores the role and relevance of the concepts of participation and service user involvement for work with sexually exploited children and young people. The central research questions are: how do young people at risk of, or affected by sexual exploitation, experience their rights to involvement in decision-making processes about their care? What is the meaning and value of the concept of participation from service users’ own perspectives? And what are the gains of involving these young people in decision-making processes about their care? The research involved in-depth qualitative interviews with twenty young service users and ten practitioners. Three theoretical frameworks underpin the study; a constructivist approach to childhood; sociological approaches to agency, and discourses of children’s participation rights. The analysis of data was informed by both narrative and grounded theory approaches. The thesis argues that young people’s perspectives on professional welfare, though rarely recorded or allowed to inform policy and best practice, shed new insight onto the efficacy and limitations of existing child protection practice with adolescents at risk of sexual exploitation. Consideration is given to how young people experience and respond to services, including their decisions about disengaging from or circumventing professional support. The thesis concludes that these demonstrations of agency and power, though often interpreted as deviant, are essentially rational and often protective. Through this lens young people’s agency is recognised as a resource rather than a problem. The thesis concludes by arguing that the ability of support services to protect young people affected by sexual exploitation is contingent on the degree to which they involve young people in decision-making about their care. Rather than standing in opposition to paternalistic approaches to protection, the narratives suggest that participation and empowerment are necessary conditions of a protective service, especially for those considered most marginalized or vulnerable.

While commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is widespread, little research has been conducted regarding parents’ knowledge of, beliefs about, and protective actions against CSEC. Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model as a lens and a quantitative survey, this study explored four questions: how knowledgeable of CSEC are parents in Mississippi and the surrounding states; what beliefs do parents have toward CSEC; how are parents taking protective actions against CSEC; and how are parents’ knowledge, beliefs, and protective actions correlated? Results from 13 participants were examined for frequencies and correlations. Findings indicated that parents have a basic knowledge of CSEC, beliefs favorable to CSEC prevention and intervention, and parents take protective actions. However, gaps and inconsistencies existed. In future, practitioners should target parents and church staff for CSEC prevention and intervention education and training.