Child Sex Tourism
The sexual exploitation of children happens all over the world, fueled by the strong demand to have sex with children. This demand has given way to a new form of tourism: child sex tourism. The child sex tourism industry plays on aspects of both the pedophile/rapist/sex offender and that of the tourist. The nature of the tourist is to go into a foreign country, experience the culture, food, shopping, scenery, local attractions, etc; as well as living in the moment and enjoying rest and relaxation. The nature of the sexual exploiter varies: there are pedophiles who have a disorder that cause the attraction to children, and then there are situational child sex tourists. The situational child sex tourist is someone who may or may not prefer children sexually, however, when the opportunity to sexually exploit a child arises, they will take it. The situational child sex tourist can find this opportunity through tourism.
Child sex tourists feel a sense of safety when committing these horrific acts abroad because this violence is not where they live, not under the laws of their country, and not seen by anyone whom they will every see again. the toxic combination of the tourist seeking a good time, and the desire to sexually exploit a child has given rise to a new form of sex offender. This particular type of sex offender is only temporarily in the country of their offense, making it difficult for local law enforcement to track them down, and because this crime is committed abroad, the offender's native law enforcement may have difficulty even knowing about it. Child sex tourists contribute to the very prominent issue of human trafficking and add to the dangerous demand for child exploration all over the world.
Map of USA Child Sex Tourism
Source 1 Source 2
It seems to me that the sexual exploiter may feel more comfortable sexually exploiting a child in a foreign country for psychological reasons, as well. Just as the colonizers may view the atrocities taking place in their colonized land over seas, the exploiter can elect to view their sexual encounters as "out of sight, out of mind" when they take place so far away. The sexual exploiter can enjoy the child sex industry while on vacation, and feel reduced guilt upon returning home as their atrocious act happened in a foreign country, harming foreign children, and thus is less significant, is no longer relevant to their present life.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the often problematic relationship between the tourist and the place in which the tourism takes place through the lens of child sex tourism offers an extremely interesting way of looking at the function of governments in the tourist industry. Given that child sex tourism is part of the larger, multibillion dollar global sex tourism industry shows that working against the exploitation of children involves more than simply finding a way to identify and prosecute these predators. Also looking at the map of the current areas of high child sex tourism, the main countries all have deeply interconnected relationships with the United States. Whether they were involved in an armed conflict, financially supported during a military coup, or implicated in a strategic relationship with the United States in order to pursue our global interests, all of these countries where sexually-exploitative crimes against children are taking place have a historically murky tie to the United States. Maybe this is part of the reasoning behind the unhesitating nature of the predators committing these crimes, they are sure that their prosecution will be swallowed up in the unyielding bureaucratic red tape. How does bureaucracy of the diplomatic and political relations between global governments allow huge commercially-facilitated industries like child sex tourism to not only exist but flourish?
ReplyDelete