C S E C The Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/childprostitution/Jamaica.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of child prostitution are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring how children got started, how they survive, and
how some succeed in leaving. Perhaps
your paper could focus on runaways and the abuse that led to their
leaving. Other factors of interest
might be poverty, rejection, drug dependence, coercion, violence, addiction,
hunger, neglect, etc. On the other hand,
you might choose to write about the manipulative and dangerous adults who
control this activity. There is a lot
to the subject of Child Prostitution.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Child Prostitution
Widespread in Jamaica Jamaica Observer,
July 21, 2002 www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/29195_Child-prostitution-widespread-in-Jamaica [accessed 27 January
2015] Children, Some As Young As 10 And 11 Years Old, Are Engaged In Prostitution. Study listed nine
categories of children engaging in sex for gain and said they were pushed
basically by lack of economic support, love and affection. The first of
the nine categories listed was children living and working on the streets,
mostly boys between ages 12 and 18 Reasons for child
prostitution Dave Campbell,
Letter to the Editor, jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060617/letters/letters2.html [accessed 4 June
2011] old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060617/letters/letters2.html [accessed 11
November 2016] Children are now seen as bread winners for some families, as the parents realise that people are more responsive to a child's cry for help. As a result of
this, parents send their children, especially females, to hustle for the
family by engaging them in sexual activities with older men, while subjecting
them to both physical and mental abuse which will later have a greater
psychological effect on them in life. ***
ARCHIVES *** Human
Rights Reports » 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 10, 2020 www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/jamaica/ [accessed 1
September 2020] SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN - The law criminalizes the commercial sexual
exploitation of children and applies to the production, possession,
importation, exportation, and distribution of child pornography. It carries a
maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 JMD ($3,500).
The law prohibits child sex trafficking and prescribes a penalty of up to 30
years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both. There were continued reports of the
commercial sexual exploitation of children. The law
criminalizes sexual relations between an adult and a child–male or
female–younger than 16 and provides for penalties ranging from 15 years to
life imprisonment. Children have fewer legal protections than adults
concerning sexual assault. The legal definition of rape is penile penetration
of the vagina. A person who commits anal rape of a child is punished by only
10 years in prison. Similar to the situation for women, the distinction
created wide discrepancies between cases that had the same element of sexual
assault at their core. The risk of sexual assault reportedly was three times
higher for children than adults. Cases were widespread and varied, involving
children as young as age four. Law enforcement continued
to be implicated in reports of child rape. A police constable was taken into
custody following allegations that he raped a 15-year-old girl in protective
custody. 2018 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2019 www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2018/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 1
September 2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 652] Jamaica is a
destination and source country for commercial sexual exploitation of
children. Jamaican children are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation
and forced labor to countries including the United States, the United
Kingdom, and Canada. (9) Sources indicate that children, sometimes at the
behest of parents or criminal leaders referred to as “dons,” are forced into
commercial sexual exploitation. (1) Young girls, immigrant children,
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/intersex youth, children from poor families,
and children from rural areas are particularly vulnerable to human
trafficking and child sexual exploitation. (2,4) Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 6 June 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/jamaica2003.html [accessed 15
February 2011] [54] The Committee
is concerned at the sexual exploitation and trafficking of children, including
street children, and the lack of accurate data and adequate laws and policies
in this regard. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights International
Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, 30/11/2001 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/esc/jamaica2001.html [accessed 19
September 2011] [13] The Committee
is deeply concerned about the lack of laws, policies or programs to address
explicitly the proliferation of sex tourism and its consequences, which
include the sexual exploitation and prostitution of women and children, and
the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. In particular, the Committee is
alarmed that school drop-out rates have increased as young girls are induced
to leave school to enter the sex trade, sometimes even with the consent and
encouragement of parents who benefit from their earnings. Gateways to
exploitation Globe and Mail, Nov.
10, 2007 -- Source: ECPAT International www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/gateways-to-exploitation/article1089077/ [accessed 7 October
2012] JAMAICA - Male and female
sex workers operating in tourist areas are known as “beach boys” and “beach
girls.” Working on the beach, they make private contacts with tourists.
Additionally, there are reports of van operators who take passengers to safe
houses for sex with boys and girls. Some girls are sent out to the beach by
their parents to wait for men. In general, clients are mostly Westerners, but
local men are also involved. Boy prostitution, described as “rent-a-dread,”
also occurs. Companies involved
in human trafficking Howard www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070428/lead/lead5.html [accessed 15
February 2011] old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070428/lead/lead5.html [accessed 11
November 2016] "If you had
asked me three or four years ago, I would tell you that, 'Look, these things
don't happen in Jamaica'," he said. "But, believe me, it
happens." The Justice Minister
said that since the task force was set up by former Prime Minister P.J.
Patterson in 2005, many cases of human trafficking have been unearthed. Many
involve children. EXPLOITING THE YOUNG - Using the
sensational 'sale' of a teenage girl by her parents to a man in St. Elizabeth
as an example, Mr. Nicholson said the exploitation of young boys and girls in
Jamaica was widespread. He warned that, under the law, not only persons who
know of the deed can be jailed. The paedophiles are here Martin jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060608/cleisure/cleisure2.html [accessed 4 June
2011] old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060608/cleisure/cleisure2.html [accessed 11 November
2016] Whatever the law
may wish to say about age of consent, the majority of firstborns in this
country have been born to teen-age mothers, and a large proportion of these
to mothers under the age of consent. The age of first sex is well-documented
to be in the early teens. Transactional sex
in a rich variety of prostitutional commercial
exchange, from the onset of puberty, is a dominant feature of Jamaican
culture. Five Years After ECPAT: Fifth Report
on implementation of the Agenda for Action ECPAT International,
November 2001 www.no-trafficking.org/content/web/05reading_rooms/five_years_after_stockholm.pdf [accessed 13
September 2011] [B]
COUNTRY UPDATES – UNICEF
United Nations
Children's Fund UNICEF, June 22, 2005 www.unicef.org/jamaica/media_2097.htm [accessed 4 June
2011] The United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Violence Against
Children in Jamaica, W.I. A Cross Cultural Qualitative Study Dr. Joan Lesser, Dr.
Marlene Cooper, and Yunena Morales, 30 minute Paper
Presentation in English at the Third International Conference On New
Directions In Humanities, Humanities
Conference 2005, h05.cgpublisher.com/proposals/549/index_html [accessed 4 June
2011] Within the last
decade 22,000 youth were labeled "street children" who lived and worked
in the streets doing jobs such as machinery, welding, domestic work, care giving and newspaper delivery. Many turn to or are
forced into child prostitution and/or the drug trade in order to survive. My
Parent And My Pimp - Child prostitution in Jamaica Stephen-Claude
Hyatt, jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20011206/cleisure/cleisure5.html [accessed 4 June
2011] old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20011206/cleisure/cleisure5.html [accessed 11
November 2016] What is not known
is that there are Jamaica women who will send their daughters and sons out
nightly to "work the beat" and take money home to them. Many of
these children are not allowed back into the home unless a certain amount of
money is made nightly. Prostitution
In Paul Andrew Bourne,
able2know, 2 Sep, 2005 [accessed 4 June
2011] COMMERCIAL SEX
WORKERS - Street
and working children are a particularly vulnerable group to prostitution.
These children lack family and social support. (Dunn, 2001) posits that small
boys between the ages of 6 and 17 years were most exploited. They did not
have the protection of adult family members or institutional environment for
support and as such were exposed to extreme economic deprivation and abuse.
Those involved in sexual activity were between 12 and 18 years. The majorities
were from very poor backgrounds and were out of school; although a few
attended school regularly Dunn, (2001). The Children Of
Jamaica's Sex Trade Jamaica Observer,
June 26, 2005 www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/83123_The-children-of-Jamaica-s-sex-trade [accessed 27 January
2015] "In ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/jamaica.htm [accessed 15 February
2011] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - A 2001 study funded by ILO-IPEC found that children
as young as 10 years old are sexually exploited and engaged in prostitution,
catering to tourists. Young girls are hired by “go-go” clubs or massage
parlors. Children are trafficked internally for sexual exploitation and
pornography. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61733.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
- The Child Care and Protection Act passed in 2004 specifically prohibits the
sale or trafficking of minors and provides that violators receive the maximum
penalty under the law. This law subjects convicted traffickers to a fine or
imprisonment with hard labor for a term not exceeding 10 years, or both. It
also provides that no person under the age of 18 years may be employed in a
night club. Although authorities raided some night clubs, police tended to
arrest victims of trafficking rather than owners of the clubs. There were few
if any convictions under this law. Authorities reported that very few
children had been found to be trafficking victims. The International
Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that several hundred minors were involved
in the country's sex trade. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
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