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.

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.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) is a serious violation of the Human Rights with global and local implications. The multidimensionality of CSEC requires us to understand its historical elements, legal definitions, and psychosocial characteristics. International agencies, states, and national agencies (statutory and voluntary sectors) have agreed on an agenda of responses including research on CSEC, partnership and collaboration, legal changes and adjustment, promoting criminal prosecution, social policies and interventions for children and young people that have been made subject to CSEC. These interventions are diverse in their approaches, purposes, types of services, models, and critical points. In accordance with international agreements, the Chilean State recognised CSEC as a social problem and developed social policies, legal changes and intervention programmes across the country. In this context, practitioners have built a 'know-how' of social intervention in CSEC based on technical guidelines (social policy on CSEC), institutional directions and pragmatic decisions from fieldwork reflexivity. However, there is no clear evidence about the rationale, models, practices, strategies and critical points in the interventions and weakness in the monitoring and evaluations. Applied Discourse Analysis was conducted to explore the relationship between different levels of social intervention on CSEC: policy, intervention models and practices. The research purpose was to describe, understand, and analyse the programmes of social intervention in CSEC, the social intervention models, and the interdisciplinary practices in Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, implemented in the decade of 2004-2014 in Chile. Government and alternative documents were analysed (13 each), discussion groups with interdisciplinary professional teams in CSEC (3), and a focus group (1) composed of policymakers, academics, researchers, police and judicial representatives was undertaken. These materials were data-managed and analysed using the software dedoose. All University of Edinburgh Research Ethics procedures were followed. The findings indicate that Government documents highlight two discursive styles: Mandatory and Pragmatic, regarding the intervention and the approaches used. These discourses (1) defined the interventions as a part of a system or building a network of services, (2) established a condition of the intervention that recognised children as a subject of law or recognised the specialised character of the intervention, and (3) based interventions on guidelines and ethical principles or challenges, and evidence-based approaches. Alternative documents developed a discursive style of Monitoring and Evaluation that emphasised (1) the complexity of CSEC and the need to develop responses, (2) then recognised challenges such a making visible CSEC and problems with the interventions; and finally (3) recommended the basis for the intervention. Mixed Stakeholders group (1) emphasised CSEC characteristics, and the institutional responses (2) specified the structure of the intervention, and (3) identified tensions and challenges in the adjustments of social policies and intervention practices, methodological needs, and the judicial system rationale and practices. These findings are significant because they help us to understand the processes involved in building appropriate and situated responses for children and young people that have been made subject to CSE on a local, regional and global level.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) is the sexual exploitation of minors for commercial profit. The intersection between sex trafficking victimization and substance use has not yet been explored in clinical research and is not reflected in current clinical treatment of survivors when they exit their exploitation. The research question explored in this study focused on the substance use treatment considerations and challenges clinical social workers face when treating survivors of CSEC living in Massachusetts. Subquestions included understanding how cumulative trauma from CSEC impacts substance use treatment and how the coercive use of substances aimed at maintaining victim submission impacts substance use treatment. Contemporary trauma theory was the theoretical basis that informed this action research study. The sample included 5 clinical social work practitioners who had experience working with victims and survivors of CSEC. Data collected through a focus group was coded, compared, and analyzed for major and emergent themes using the constant comparison method. The key findings of the study include the lack of training and experience specific to the population, the impact of trauma, the effect of CSEC on substance use treatment, and the need for specialized treatment services. The findings of the study may create positive social change by increasing knowledge of the dynamics of substance use treatment with CSEC survivors, informing best practices for social worker professionals working with this population, and advising the development of trauma-informed substance use treatment for CSEC survivors.

Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is a significant issue that affects children, families, and communities throughout the United States. Due to the illegal nature of the problem, it is difficult for law enforcement to identify victims of DMST and when they are identified it is challenging to provide them with services. Because law enforcement often encounter DMST victims through first response calls or within juvenile hall, it is important to understand the collaboration efforts between social workers and law enforcement in order to provide effective services for this population. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of the perceptions of law enforcement officers regarding the involvement of social workers in DMST cases. This study used a qualitative design by collecting data through face-to-face interviews with 10 law enforcement officers from Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County. This design allowed participants the opportunity to provide a more in-depth explanation regarding the involvement of social workers in DMST cases. The study found that there is a need for social workers to collaborate with law enforcement agencies to provide and advocate for services for victims of DMST. The study also indicated the need for transitional housing or other placement options for youth because the current alternative is incarceration.

171 p. / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2013-01-07T17:48:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 11.pdf: 588338 bytes, checksum: 70cc281d4dca5d777b0fbc9b50d803b5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-01-07T17:48:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 11.pdf: 588338 bytes, checksum: 70cc281d4dca5d777b0fbc9b50d803b5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / O objetivo desta dissertação é compreender o fenômeno do turismo sexual em Salvador, BA, e o envolvimento de crianças e adolescentes neste universo complexo e repleto de tramas que dificultam desdobramentos acerca do dimensionamento de sua realidade. O fenômeno do turismo sexual vem ganhando espaço nos debates ao longo dos últimos anos, em âmbito internacional e nas discussões realizadas no Brasil acerca da exploração sexual na infância e adolescência. A partir de 2003, o Ministério da Justiça instaurou o chamado “Disque 100”, uma ferramenta para que a população possa denunciar situações onde crianças são expostas à violência física, psicológica e sexual. Além disso, na Bahia há o “Disque Denúncia”, onde a sociedade pode se manifestar por meio do registro de notificações. Apesar da disponibilidade dos serviços e de um crescimento substancial de denúncias relacionadas à violência contra a população infanto-juvenil, no que tange o turismo sexual, especificamente, praticamente não há delações. Em virtude das limitações na apreensão da participação de crianças e adolescentes na dinâmica do turismo sexual, esta pesquisa teve como base empírica a apresentação de dados secundários sobre a temática, e a análise primária das percepções de pesquisadores, especialistas e profissionais relacionados, para o entendimento da questão em três eixos: a emergência do fenômeno, o envolvimento, a mobilização e articulação de organizações governamentais, nãogovernamentais, da rede de turismo, e por fim, sobre a escassez de registros de denúncias do envolvimento de crianças e adolescentes no turismo sexual no município. Inicialmente, são apresentadas as principais idéias e dilemas conceituais inerentes ao processo de compreensão do tema. Em seguida, são realizadas conexões entre diversos aspectos do fenômeno estudado e temas que contribuem para o seu aprofundamento teórico, como sexualidade e violência, já que a dimensão estudada do turismo sexual se refere à exploração sexual infanto-juvenil. Posteriormente, são apresentados elementos referentes à análise dos dados coletados, e conclui-se que: 1) o turismo sexual é observado como imbricado à exploração sexual, quando há participação de crianças e adolescentes em seu contexto. Além disso, há diversas causas apontadas como determinantes na inserção de uma região ou país na rota do turismo de sexo, como o contexto histórico, a relação da sociedade com a sexualidade e a família, além da desigualdade social. 2) ainda que as ações de enfrentamento do turismo sexual infanto-juvenil estejam passando por um processo de maior valorização, há uma expectativa de que estas manifestações, tanto no âmbito governamental, não governamental, da sociedade em geral, quanto da rede de turismo, sejam mais efetivas e assertivas. 3) a inexpressividade de registros de notificações capazes de dimensionar o fenômeno em Salvador aparece vinculada à não percepção deste fenômeno como uma forma de violência, dentre outros fatores. Esta pesquisa contribui para as discussões realizadas acerca da temática apresentada, e as idéias aqui expostas não encerram nem esgotam as possibilidades conceituais acerca de suas dimensões, sendo necessário o aprofundamento de pesquisas na área. / Salvador

Victims of child sex trafficking in prostitution in the United States are often overlooked, misidentified, and among the most underserved type of child victim of crime. The majority of previous research on child sex trafficking has been conducted without a theoretical framework or reliable sampling methods. In this study, a schematic composed of a series of stepping-stones from childhood abuse to prostitution, which has been described by gendered pathways researchers, served as a sensitizing template for the study's development of a strain-reactive pathway into child sex trafficking. Agnew's general strain theory provided the primary theoretical basis for the proposed pathway, supplying both explanations of the generative factors of the pathway and the mechanisms operating within the life trajectory terminating in child sex trafficking in prostitution. Based on this theoretical framework, this study utilized structural equation modeling to examine the pathway by investigating the effects of caregiver strain, child maltreatment, and risk-inflating responses to strain on vulnerability to victimization in child sex trafficking in prostitution. Four structural equation models, incorporating different forms of child maltreatment, were assessed using data from a matched sample of 174 minority females who were residents of one U.S. city and participated in a longitudinal study on the effects of child sexual abuse. Findings show that the occurrence of child maltreatment including child neglect, child physical abuse, and juvenile sexual victimization increased with caregiver strain. Consequentially, neglected and abused children were more likely to have engaged in the risk-inflating responses of running away and earlier initiation of drug or alcohol use, and they also reported higher levels of relational shame. Both running away and early initiation of substance use impacted vulnerability to victimization in child sex trafficking in prostitution. Lastly, implications of the findings related to protection and intervention strategies that are projected to obstruct the progression of minors along the analytically identified pathway into child sex trafficking in prostitution are presented for criminal justice professionals, child protection investigators, and social service providers.

This thesis interrogates García Márquez’s representations of sexualities in the following selected novels: Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981); The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975); One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967); The Sad and Incredible Tale of Innocent Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother (1972); and Memories of My Melancholy Whores (2004). It is argued here that García Márquez’s employment of the sexuality motif enables him to delve into many worldwide current concerns such as the irrelevance of some socio-cultural sexual practices; commercial sexual exploitation of children; the different manifestations of prostitution; and female powerlessness under autocratic rule. Earlier literary critics have tended to narrowly interpret García Márquez’s employment of the sexuality motif as just a metaphor for colonial exploitation of the colonised. The study also explores the writer’s artistic role and concludes that García Márquez speaks against commercial sexual exploitation of children as he concurrently speaks on behalf of children so exploited. Similarly, the writer speaks on behalf of prostituted womanhood by showing how prostitutional gains do not seem to cascade down to the prostitutes themselves. García Márquez also invests female sexual passivity as a coping mechanism against a dictator’s limitless power over the life and death of his citizens. However, the writer also constructs female agency that grows from the rejection of an initial victimhood to develop into an extremely flawed and corrupt flesh trade that co-opts and indentures children into sex work with impunity. Thus the study breaks new ground to show that García Márquez’s representations of different sexualities are not merely soft porn masquerading as art. His is a voice added to the worldwide concerns over commercial sexual exploitation of children in the main and also the recovery of a self-reliant female self-hood that was previously inextricably bound to male sexual norms. Quite clearly, García Márquez demonstrates that female prostitution is driven by a lack of social safety nets, a lack of other economically viable options and also a distinct lack of educational opportunities for female economic independence, hence the flawed female agency. / English Studies / African Languages