Highlights from ECPAT-USA’s paper about the forgotten many: sexually exploited boys
–Special thanks to Chris Anderson of MaleSurvivor.org
On 30 March 2013, ECPAT-USA, a policy organization that fights against the commercial exploitation of children, released a groundbreaking and desperately important report titled “And Boys Too.” The entire report can be downloaded as a PDF directly from their website. Here are some take-home points:
(1) “Most significantly, responses from service providers clearly indicate that the scope of CSEB (commercial sexual exploitation of boys) is vastly under reported, that commercial sexual exploitation poses very significant risks to their health and their lives; that gay and transgenders are over-represented as a proportion of the sexually exploited boys; and that there is a shortage of services for these boys.”
(2) “The John Jay College and the Center for Court Innovation study The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City in 2008 estimated that as high as 50% of the commercially sexually exploited children in the U.S. are boys.”
(3) “The invisibility of men and boys in scholarly discussions of the global sex trade was analyzed through a sample of 166 recent articles published in social science journals. Most failed to acknowledge the existence of male sex workers at all. When male sex workers were discussed, they were assigned considerably more agency than female sex workers, the chief danger ascribed to them was HIV rather than violence, and the question of their sexual orientation was always addressed, whereas female sex workers were always assumed heterosexual. The results are discussed in the context of world system theory, Orientalism, and heteronormativity.”
(4) “Policy makers and practitioners who are concerned about the growth of CSEC (commercial sexual exploitation of children) markets need to account for and respond to all of the youth that are swept into it, yet there is scant discussion about boys, and no services for them at all.”
(5) “The majority of buyers are men, mostly white and middle or upper class, professional and married, although some are women.”
(6) “In other categories, such as the age boys enter the life and their race and ethnicity, anecdotal information suggests that boys can enter the life at a similar or even younger age than girls, between 11 and 13 years for boys and young men compared to 12 and 14 years for girls and young women.”
(7) “Of the 40 informants contacted, 18 reported they would serve boys. Of 37 who have provided traffic-specific services, 15 said they are willing and able to serve CSEB and 10 already have provided services to boys. Looking only at organizations specifically focused on CSEC, the numbers are even lower: Only 4 out of 25 will serve boys and only two organizations provided services to more than five CSEB.”
See More in Social Justice
See Also: The Forgotten Many & The Other 20%
–Photo: epsos/Flickr