Sex Tourism

Abstract

Sex tourism is the complicated nexus of prostitution and tourism. Sex tourism is a sector of the international tourism trade. More specifically, offenders utilize the tourist industry to travel to different countries for the explicit purpose of engaging in sexual acts with minors in nations where child prostitution and exploitation laws are more lax than those in the United States. Essentially, it links global offenders with local victims to facilitate sexual exploitation of minors without the threat of prosecution. Sex tourism is often present in countries that offer lower ages of sexual consent, legalized prostitution, and where extradition laws are absent. Research has identified Asia, Central America, and South America as primary hubs for sex tourism. Offenders can either be preferential or situational abusers. Similar to the mechanism of prostitution, sex tourism includes both procurers and facilitators. Sex tours can be booked and planned in a manner similar to typical family vacations. Tourists can independently plan their vacations via the Internet, or sex tours can be organized by travel agencies. Unlike previously discussed CSEC crimes, the actual exploitation and fiscal exchange occurs in foreign countries with foreign-born children. Victims of sex tourism are characterized by the same vulnerability factors as other CSEC victims but by definition are not United States citizens. Lack of education, poverty, disintegrated or neglectful families, and physical or sexual abuse are common risk factors for children coerced into sex tourism.