The Context of Sexual Exploitation of Children by Tourists and Travelers: A Cross-National Comparison of Destination countries and Non-Destination Countries
Date
2022
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Criminal Justice Review
Abstract
Certain countries are well known for being destination countries for sexual exploitation of children
in the context of travel and tourism (SECTT). Various factors are assumed to be at play to increase
the vulnerability of countries, and the children that live within them, to being destinations for
SECTT. The current study uses a cross-national, quantitative approach to examine these assumptions, by investigating macro-level factors relating to tourism, children’s living conditions, governance, and economic development that may account for the variation in SECTT occurrence. Our
findings indicate that destination countries are, on average, characterized by lower economic wealth
and are located closer to the equator. Unlike assumed in previous literature, governance and tourism are not significantly related to destination countries for SECTT. The results for children’s living
conditions are unexpected: while bivariate analyses show that destination countries have poorer
children’s living conditions, a positive relation emerges in multivariate models when controlled
for economic development. More specifically, we find that within the group of countries with
poor economic conditions, SECTT is more likely to occur in countries with better protection of
children’s rights to life and education. We explore potential explanations for this finding.
Description
item.page.type
Article
item.page.format
Keywords
child sex tourism, child sexual exploitation, International Resources, Netherlands, economic development
Citation
Koning, A., & van Wilsem, J. (2022). The context of sexual exploitation of children by tourists and travelers: A cross-national comparison of destination countries and non-destination countries. International Criminal Justice Review, 10575677221081875.