Thesis (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (School of Criminology) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

This study focuses on children and youth who have been exploited sexually for commercial reasons and are currently in a rehabilitation programme. At the time of the study these children and youth were staying in safe shelters in the Gauteng province. The focus is specifically on four facilities, three in Johannesburg and one in Pretoria. The aims of the study is to determine how these children and youth were lured into prostitution; to determine the impact of the prostitution life on the child and youth and to examine factors that contribute to children and youth resuccumbing to prostitution after being rescued from prostitution. The researcher employed a questionnaire as an instrument of gathering data from children that were rehabilitated and associated with four shelters in Gauteng. Scheduled structured questionnaires were used in the study and were divided into six sections, with each section addressing each aim of the study. The findings of the study revealed that children were lured into prostitution because of poverty, unemployment, and a promise of a better life. They also got involved due to drug addiction. In turn, children faced great risks, including forced perversion, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

The current discourse on women who work in the sex trade is often viewed through a lens based on “victim and abuse” (Gorkoff and Runner, 2003, p. 15) positioning them as being helpless, needing to be rescued and reformed in hopes they will become upstanding citizens. Constructing a resilient identity of Indigenous women who have had involvement in the sex trade aims to shed new light on the identities of a population who are often portrayed negatively. One of the ways this reconstruction can be done is to focus on their familial relationships, thereby challenging the existing discourse that often blames the families of women in the sex trade as reasons for their involvement. Using narrative analysis, this qualitative study focused on the lives of five Indigenous women who have had involvement in the sex trade. The purpose of this study was twofold: First was to gain an understanding of the familial relationships of Indigenous women who have had involvement in the sex trade; second was to gain an understanding of how these relationships have contributed to their resiliency. The Indigenous women who participated in this study shared stories of their familial relationships highlighting the supportive and constructive aspects derived from their familial relationships. Secondly, they discussed the economic violence that found them making a constrained choice to engage in the sex trade as a means of survival. Thirdly, they spoke of how their familial relationships created family bonds, their connections to their families, and described their families as a source of strength, courage, and unconditional love, which positively contributed to their resilience. The fourth theme challenges the victim and abuse paradigm, as their narratives of resilience reveal how these women have sought to construct new identities and outlines the struggles they have encountered in their efforts to develop these new identities.

MPH / Department of Public Health / The exchange of money or gifts for sexual relationships, also called transactional sex, is considered a sexual risk behaviour worldwide and continues to pose sexually-transmitted infections,unwanted pregnancies risks and other health complications among people engaging in these type of relationships. The aim of the study was to explore the perceptions of students regarding transactional sex and its effects on health at the University of Venda. The study utilized a qualitative, descriptive phenomenological design to understand the perceptions of students regarding transactional sex. The target populations of the study were registered students at the University of Venda. Purposive technique was used to recruit 18 participants. Data was collected using in-depth interviews and analyzed using using Tesch’s thematic analysis. The study concluded that students at the University of Venda perceive transactional sex as a material-based relationship, prostutition, immoral behaviour and abusive relationship.Students perceived socio-economic status, social classes, behavioural aspects and peer pressure to be the driving factors pushing students to engage in transactional sex. Transactional sex is common among the University community and has far-reaching public health as well as social consequences. Students at the University of Venda perceive transactional sex an a bad behavior. This calls for the University to ensure that there are enough extra-mural activities for students to engage in,which could generate some pocket money, awarenesses and educate student not to engage in transactional sex and also provide health talks through printing of pamplets communicating massages against this practie.