Child Prostitution and Sex Tourism
Date
1996
Journal Title
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Publisher
ECPAT International
Abstract
The South African Tourist Authority makes use of the phrase 'a world in one country' to conjure up images of the many and diverse pleasures to be consumed by affluent visitors to the country. More sanguine observers describe the country as a mixture of 'first' and 'third' world, however, and this is pertinent to understanding the many and diverse ways in which children are sexually exploited in South Africa. There is what might be described as a first world commercial sex 'trade' in South Africa and the individuals who are prostituted in this context are often below the age of 18 years. But this is not the only economic context in which children are sexually exploited. Many children live in communities which are, in effect, excluded from South Africa's free market economy (in some peri-urban areas, more than half the adult population is unemployed and those in employment are often earning below-subsistence wages) or else they live on the streets. In these settings, children's bodies are traded not for commercial gain or even always for cash but in exchange for basic survival. This report, which is based on nine days and nights of fieldwork in Cape Town and Durban, is divided into three main sections. The first is concerned with the commercial sex trade, the second with varieties of 'survival sex' and the third with the identity, motivations and attitudes of child sex exploiters in South Africa. We will begin with a brief note on methodology. (Author Abstract)
Description
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Article
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Keywords
child abuse, child sexual abuse, International Resources, South Africa, research
Citation
Davidson, J. O. C., & Taylor, J. S. (1996). Child Prostitution and Sex Tourism (Vol. 6). Bangkok: ECPAT International.