Child sex tourism: American perceptions of foreign victims

Child sex tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry that affects over 2 million children per year. While thousands of these sex tourists are American, this has been an issue that is largely neglected in the United States (U.S.). This study investigated Americans’ perceptions of child sex abuse and its relationship to the offense location and the victim’s culture. An online self-report survey randomly assigned subjects to one of three identical vignettes of child sex tourism, differing only by location: U.S., Netherlands, or Thailand. The study found that individuals perceived sexual offenses committed inside the U.S. as more severe than offenses committed outside the U.S. and that sexual crimes were viewed as less severe when occurring in an Eastern “Other” culture as compared to Western cultures. These results are discussed as they pertain to legislative efforts designed to reduce the prevalence of American child sex tourists as well as the creation of measures to increase awareness of Americans’ involvement in the child sex tourism industry.     

“Kind regards”: an examination of one buyer's attempt to purchase a trafficked child for sex

A call to awareness regarding sex trafficking has increased research, bolstered social justice efforts, improved education, and influenced federal laws that protect victims and prosecute traffickers. Federal laws on sex trafficking are now being used through undercover sting operations via the Internet to arrest and prosecute buyers who attempt to engage in commercial sex with minors. A narrative analysis was completed to create an in-depth case study outlining the correspondences between a buyer and an undercover agent advertising trafficked children for sex. Readers are afforded a rare opportunity to examine actual emails related to the purchase of a child for sexual exploitation. The emails were used against the buyer as evidence within the court of law. The authors assert that the following case study will contribute to the body of literature on the victim selection processes and cognitive distortions employed by buyers of children for sex.     

Charging children with child pornography – Using the legal system to handle the problem of “sexting”

No one would disagree that the purposes and aims of child pornography laws are legitimate and necessary. Recently, however, these laws, which have the ostensible aim of protecting children, are instead being used to punish children and dissuade the new phenomenon of “sexting” in the United States. “Sexting” refers to the use of mobile phones with built-in cameras to produce and distribute images of oneself in a sexually provocative or revealing position. The potential danger that this trend poses to minors is huge. Photographs produced by the use of “sexting” can be distributed to unintended third parties, often leading to embarrassment and harassment. Moreover, senders are also in danger of being charged with possession and distribution of child pornography, regardless of the fact that they are minors and the pictures are often of themselves. Not only is charging minors with child pornography a rather new phenomenon, it also appears to be a strategy that several states are adopting. This paper will look at the growing trend of charging minors who engage in “sexting” with child pornography charges by a case study of an actual prosecution, what the consequences of such a conviction entails in the United States, legislative responses, and an analysis of the appropriateness of using the legal system as a way of dealing with this problem.     

Research note: challenges of identifying female human trafficking victims using a national 1-800 call center

Human trafficking is a complex global and national crime problem harming victims physically, psychologically, and financially. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), Pub. La 106–386, and subsequent reauthorizations, provide assistance and benefits to foreign born victims of labor or sexual human trafficking who are here in the United States. The strategies used to encourage victims to come forward were modeled on those used in the anti- domestic violence (DV) and child protection movements. These include initiatives alerting the public to domestic violence situations through awareness campaigns to increase tips as well as calls for service to police. Other public service initiatives urge victims themselves to self-identify by calling 1-800 numbers. While these techniques have shown success in reducing incidences of domestic violence and providing help to victims, their use to combat sex trafficking has not produced the same level of results. This note explores the challenges for immigrant women victims to self-identify as trafficking victims and urges that evidence-based research is needed to determine the efficacy of a national call center approach.     

Cross‐Cultural Comparison of Two Serial Sexual Murder Series in Italy and the United States

Abstract: There have been few documented comparisons of serial murder cases committed in the United States with cases occurring internationally. The authors contrasted two unique serial murder series: one in Italy and one in the United States by examining the details of both series, including the M.O., motivation, crime scene interactions, sexual acts performed, and the general backgrounds of both offenders. The comparison revealed a number of similarities. Both offenders specifically targeted elderly women, who were attacked in their residences. The two series involved sexually motivated crimes, although the sexual interactions were different. Both offenders stole objects from their victims after the murders and each kept newspaper accounts of their crimes. In addition, both offenders claimed to have abusive upbringings, including sexual abuse.     

Ethical issues in child and adolescent forensic psychiatry: a review

Ethical challenges in child and adolescent forensic psychiatry arise, on the one hand, from the dilemmas commonly faced in forensic psychiatry with adult patients, such as the dual role of the forensic psychiatrist, questions of criminal responsibility, autonomy and competence and involuntary treatment, and, on the other, from the immaturity and dependent position of the minor. Child and adolescent forensic psychiatry deals with minors involved in crime, not only as offenders, but also as victims. In this review, we attempt to describe ethical challenges in child and adolescent psychiatry using as a frame of reference the principles of biomedical ethics according to Beauchamp and Childress.     

Combatting Child Sexual Maltreatment: Advances and Obstacles in International Progress*

Child sexual maltreatment now violates international law. This is an incredible development. International law no longer limits itself to sex crimes that have explicit international dimensions, such as child abduction, child trafficking, and sex tourism. International law now aims to halt practices that are more clearly domestic. These practices include Western conceptions of “child sexual abuse” such as incest and child rape. More controversially, prohibited practices also include those that large segments of certain societies may view as normal and even necessary to proper socialization, such as child marriages and gender-related rituals. This article explores these developments and highlights obstacles that may be encountered in attempts to protect children from sexual maltreatment.     

Somnophilia and Sexual Abuse Using Vaginal Administration of Triazolam

Somnophilia is a rare paraphilia, a form of sexual fetishism which is characterized by the desire to have sex with an unconscious human object who is unable to respond. To the author's knowledge, this is the first case study concerning somnophilic sexual abuse associated with vaginal administration of triazolam. The perpetrator video‐recorded his sexual acts with two unconscious female victims with whom he also had normal sexual intercourse and who were unaware of his paraphilic activities. His Internet conversations with other persons whom he thought to be interested in somnophilic sex and his plans to kidnap a child were recorded by the police. It was evident that sex with an unconscious object played a specific fetishistic role for this man. He obviously used a combination of drugs mixed with alcoholic drinks to make his victims fall sleep and videotaped vaginal administration of triazolam used to deepen the victim's unconscious state.     

The Double Entendre of Juvenile Prostitution: Victim versus Delinquent and the Necessity of State Uniformity

Under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), minors performing commercial sex acts are deemed victims of human trafficking; however, prosecutors and judges continue to charge and adjudicate minors as prostitution offenders rather than as sexually exploited youth. To stop the perpetuation and victimization of sexually exploited children, states must join the movement in reform to match the standards of the TVPA. The federal law presumes that minors charged with prostitution are victims rather than criminals and are in need of specialized social services. To protect victims of sex trafficking, states should pass legislation in line with the TVPA, creating a presumption of immunity for all prostituted minors.     

Pat‐Downs But No Hugs: Why Prison Visitation Protocol Should be Changed to Help Keep Familial Structures Intact

In the United States there are almost three million children who have one or both parents incarcerated. Parental incarceration negatively impacts children in several ways. Visitation protocol varies across facilities nationwide with no modification in protocol for minors. Parental rights are disrupted by visitation protocol because of cost‐prohibitive access and extreme security measures. This Note proposes a model statute that would change visitation protocol to facilitate a clear‐cut set of visitation processes that are tailored to ensure prison safety while also fostering and maintaining a positive relationship between a minor child and his/her incarcerated parent.     

Social Policy and Sexual Offenders: Contrasting United States' and European Policies

This article contrasts US and European social policies with regard to sexual offending. The three waves of social policy which are discernible in the United States' history (sexual psychopath laws, the focus on the domestic sex crimes under the influence of feminism, and a renewed attention towards sexual predators) are first described. The most significant policy trend at present concerning sex offences focuses on government controls after release. The broad overview of European countries' solutions to the same problems, concentrates on the contrasts and similarities between Europe and the United States. At present, the United States and parts of Europe are both focused on ways to increase public protection from sex offenders, particularly in ways outside the context of the criminal law. The harm caused by sex offences, in combination with the persistent nature of some patterns of sex offending, has caused citizens and governments to push for specialised remedies and powers.     

The ‘Butner Study’ Redux: A Report of the Incidence of Hands-on Child Victimization by Child Pornography Offenders

This study compared two groups of child pornography offenders participating in a voluntary treatment program: men whose known sexual offense history at the time of judicial sentencing involved the possession, receipt, or distribution of child abuse images, but did not include any “hands-on” sexual abuse; and men convicted of similar offenses who had documented histories of hands-on sexual offending against at least one child victim. The goal was to determine whether the former group of offenders were “merely” collectors of child pornography at little risk for engaging in hands-on sexual offenses, or if they were contact sex offenders whose criminal sexual behavior involving children, with the exception of Internet crimes, went undetected. Our findings show that the Internet offenders in our sample were significantly more likely than not to have sexually abused a child via a hands-on act. They also indicate that the offenders who abused children were likely to have offended against multiple victims, and that the incidence of “crossover” by gender and age is high.

Investigating the incidence of sexual assault in martial arts coaching using media reports

The rapidly expanding martial arts industry, which is presently unregulated within the United States, has seen multiple coaches convicted of sex offenses in recent years. However, there is currently no existing literature on sexual assault within the martial arts industry. We used major search platforms to collect media reports concerning martial arts coaches who were convicted of sex offenses within the United States. We analyzed the reports for information concerning the perpetrators, victims, and offenses as a first step toward filling the need for insight in this area. We found that a significant number of convicted sex offenders resumed martial arts coaching following initial law enforcement intervention.     

Gaze patterns to child figures reflect deviant sexual preference in child sex offenders—a first glance

Abstract

Research on non-offending heterosexual participants has indicated that men's gaze allocation reflects their sexual preference. In this exploratory pilot study we investigated whether naturalistic gaze behaviour is sensitive to deviant sexual preferences. We compared gaze patterns of convicted heterosexual child sex offenders (CSOs; n = 13) with female victims to heterosexual non-offending men (n = 13) in a task of free-viewing images of clothed male and female figures aged 10, 20 and 40 years. CSOs dedicated more fixations to the upper body of the female child than male child figures. The pattern was different for the control sample, whose gaze pattern to male and female figures could only be differentiated when viewing adult figures. CSOs showed significantly greater difference in their gaze towards the upper body of male and female children than non-offenders. Our findings provide preliminary evidence for eye-tracking as a potential method of assessing deviant sexual interest.     

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: an Assessment of Offender Characteristics

The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), specifically child trafficking, producers or consumers of child sex trafficking (i.e., prostitution), sexual abuse images, and enticement, has become a growing area of concern. The increasing profitability of CSEC, combined with the clandestine nature of the offenses, calls for immediate attention from international law enforcement and the mental health community. Paramount to the resolution of this global crisis is the identification of the perpetrators of various CSEC crimes. The research pertaining to these offenders is most frequently aggregated and limited to basic demographic data, providing a larger, more generalized picture of CSEC. The purpose of this study is to determine characteristics, within a sample of known CSEC offenders, that differentiate among offenders who engage in sex trafficking as trafficker; engage in sex trafficking as a producer or consumer; produce, distribute, or possess child sexual abuse images; and travel or use enticements to engage in illicit sexual contact with a minor. This observational, survey design includes a record review of 98 offenders who were processed through the FBI Miami Field Office. Results showed that males are more likely to engage in CSEC offenses compared to females. Offenders who collect child sexual abuse images tended to be employed, had no history of prior arrests, and were older than other CSEC offenders. Additionally, engaging in befriending strategies in order to gain access to a victim was also predictive of involvement in child sexual abuse images. Unemployment was the only statistically significant predictor of engaging in child sex trafficking as either a sex buyer or a producer. Finally, perpetrators who engaged in the traveling/enticement of victims were found to be younger, unemployed, single, and without a known history of contact offending. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Boundaries of Legitimacy: Sex, Violence, Citizenship, and Community in a Local Sexual Economy

Studies of prostitution have overlooked the role of law in constituting the identities and sexual practices of women in the sex trade and defining the boundary between legitimate and illegitimate violence in the sexual economy. Drawing on field work with sex trade participants in a northwestern United States city, this paper explores how the cultural logic of modern liberal law shapes women's identities and interpretations of their actions. In positioning women in the sex trade as "sexual outlaws" to be managed and subjected to the full scope of legal authority, the law simultaneously limits women's citizenship and withdraws its protection. Moreover, in restricting women's ca-pacity to invoke fundamental legal rights, the law effectively sanctions "private" or extralegal forms of discipline and creates a space for violence. Given the paradoxical position these women hold as sexual outlaws on the one hand and frequent victims of physical and sexual assault on the other, I explore how they negotiate consent and resist violence.     

Differences in Psychosexual Development Among Child,Peer, and Mixed Juvenile Sex Offenders

Researchers have examined a number of typologies of juvenile sex offenders, including victim age. Using data from psychological evaluations and the Multiphasic Sex Inventory-II (MSI-II; [Psychological assessment of sex offenders, 2010 ]), this study compared child offenders (i.e., victims were more than 4 years younger), peer offenders (i.e., victims were 4 years younger or less), and mixed offenders (i.e., both child and peer victims) on variables including victim, offender, and offense characteristics, and psychosexual development. Peer offenders had more severe sexual offenses, prior status/nonviolent charges, and issues with sexual functioning. Mixed offenders began offending at a younger age and were indiscriminate in gender and relationship of the victim. Mixed offenders were also more likely than child and peer offenders to have prior sex offender treatment, meaning they had previously failed treatment. As juvenile sex offenders are a heterogeneous group, these research findings suggest that child offenders, peer offenders, and mixed offenders’ treatment needs differ from each other.