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Six keys to effectively
changing the CSE/CSEC system
The following are key components of the kind of systems change
that the crisis of commercial sexual exploitation of adults
and children (CSE/CSEC) requires:
Court mandated
reporters such as law enforcement, probation officers, judges,
lawyers must be educated and required to correctly define
and report child prostitution as child sexual abuse, to define
the so-called prostitutes as abused children, and to define
the so-called “johns” as child sexual abusers.
Mandated reporters need to clearly know what they are required
to report, when they are required to report sexual abuse,
how to report abuse and that to not report abuse is illegal.
After receiving training the mandated reporters need to be
held accountable for not reporting.
We also need to recognize the clear links between child and
adult prostitution on a global scale, and not presume that
ANYONE labeled a prostitute is responsible for a system in
which we allow people to buy human bodies. Only by transforming
our relationships to all forms of sexual exploitation and
abuse, whether child or adult, can we disempower a multi-billion
dollar sex industry in which the average age of entry is 13-14,
and many adult men are socialized, from boyhood, to feel entitled
to sexual service.
We need to utilize our existing laws and child abuse prevention
and treatment resources. There needs to be a mechanism to
move a child from the juvenile system into the family courts
so that whole families can receive services and counseling
and a child can be safely placed in a home and provided specific
care. We need to re-define child prostitution within its correct
legislative frame—child safety. We need dramatic legislative
reform, requiring total decriminalization of children and
increased prosecution of pimps. However we also need to recognize
that the pimps are exploiting, not creating the problem: we
need an intense focus on prosecution of the customers—the
people actually creating the demand for child sexual abuse,
and making it profitable. Adults who sexually abuse children
in prostitution must face prosecution and consequences already
afforded by our child protection laws, including becoming
registered sex offenders.
U.S. federal
laws, such as the Mann Act and the Protection of Children
and adults, mostly women) from Sexual Predators Act, are intended
to address the issue of interstate trafficking in children
for prostitution and pornography. However, though laws exist,
they are not being proactively enforced. Existing state laws
regarding the use of children for sexual purposes vary in
content and in the penalties for offenders. Enforcement and
coordination among local, state and federal law enforcement
officials is sporadic at best. Further, many child and youth-service
public and private agencies do not have policies, procedures
or resources to serve victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
In addition, these helping agencies are often unaware of the
federal laws or how to access the support of federal agencies.
The result is: 1) Children and youth are apprehended and treated
as offenders/perpetrators themselves and entered into the
justice system where services are typically do not exist or
are not available to them, or 2) Children and youth are redirected
to service agencies not prepared to provide the comprehensive
treatment necessary to address the trauma and healing surrounding
sexual exploitation, and 3) Exploitation prevention curriculum
does not exist and, 4) adults who exploit children and youth
are seldom prosecuted. This needs to change.
Legislative change
absolutely must be accompanied by a web of services, augmented
to include and respond to the torture, kidnap and extremes
of violence that characterize pimping, pandering and trafficking.
Without a safety net and resource base, taking children out
of the criminal justice system only means returning them to
pimps and perpetrators. Don’t use protection and safety
as an excuse to build more and better services for these youth
in detention. Be focused, vigilant, and logical in our approach.
Victims of Violent Crimes dollars need to be directed toward
the rehabilitation efforts of these children. When they are
not, we are clearly saying that these children and youth are
consenting to their own sexual and physical abuse and that
is a crime and they should be punished and denied services.
We need
a sustained attention to all the social causes of prostitution,
including but not limited to gaping problems in our social
response to child abuse within families and communities, extremes
of poverty, outdated legal doctrines and practices, gender
inequality, racial stratification, and a horrifying societal
tolerance for the definition of children—any child—as without
value or rights.
This piece is adapted from,
a speech given by The SAGE Project, Inc. Founder Norma Hotaling
on December 13, 2002, at the U.S. Department of Justice "town
hall," Protecting Our Children, Ending Child Prostitution.
To read Ms. Hotaling's speech in its entirety, or to review
other CSE/CSEC issue papers and resources, visit our Information
Center using the links above.
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