On-line Research and Resources

Full Report of the U.S. National Study

University of Pennsylvania study on child sexual exploitation in North America

September 18, 2001

http://caster.ssw.upenn.edu/~restes/CSEC_Files/Complete_CSEC_020220.pdf

Major Findings: Patterns of child sexual exploitation are fueled by:

1. 1. The use of prostitution by runaway and thrownaway children to provide for their subsistence needs
   2. The presence of pre-existing adult prostitution markets in the communities where large numbers of street youth
      are concentrated
   3. Prior history of child sexual abuse and child sexual assault
   4. Poverty
   5. The presence of large numbers of unattached and transient males in communities–including military personnel,
      truckers, conventioneers, sex tourists, among others
   6. The promotion of juvenile prostitution by parents, older sib-lings and boy friends
   7. The recruitment of children by organized crime units for prostitution; and, increasingly
   8. Illegal trafficking of children for sexual purposes to the U.S. from developing countries located in Asia,
      Africa, Central and South America, and Central and Eastern Europe

Further, the investigators confirmed that:

1. 1. Between 244,000 and 325,000 American children and youth are “at risk” each year of becoming victims of sexual
      exploitation, including as victims of commercial sexual exploitation (e.g., child pornography, juvenile
      prostitution, and trafficking in children for sexual purposes);
   2. as a group, sexually exploited children are quite heterogeneous and include children living in their own homes
      as well as children who are runaways and thrownaways;
   3. sexual exploiters consist mostly of men, but some women and juveniles (including older siblings) also sexually
      exploit children;
   4. the major groups of sexual exploiters of children include:
      • Family members and acquaintances
      • Strangers
      • Pedophiles
      • Transient males including military personnel, truck drivers, seasonal workers, conventioneers
        and sex tourists, among others
      • “Opportunistic” exploiters, i.e., per-sons who will sexually abuse whoever is
        available for sex including children, but who may sub-sequently focus on children
      • Pimps
      • Traffickers
      • Other juveniles
   5. criminal networks are actively involved in the sexual exploitation of children and profit signifi-cantly from
      that exploitation;
   6. substantial numbers of foreign children are trafficked into the U.S. for sexual purposes; and
   7. significant numbers of American youth also are trafficked for sexual purposes across the U.S. and, in some
      cases, to other economically advanced countries.

he report concludes with 11 recommendations that are designed to strengthen the nation’s (and region’s) capacity for protecting vulnerable youth from both CSE and the CSEC.

Crimes against Children by Babysitters (2001)

A new report on crimes by babysitters finds twice as many sexual offenses as physical assaults, with teenage babysitters responsible for nearly half of the sex crimes. The report, “Crimes against Children by Babysitters,” is the latest in a series published by the United States Department of Justice and prepared by the University of New Hampshire ‘s Crimes against Children Research Center .