Vulnerability Factors and Pathways Leading to Underage Entry into Sex Work in two Mexican-US Border Cities

Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk, Apr 2015

The current wave of interest in human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children has exposed a lack of knowledge about the vulnerabilities leading to underage entry into sex work. This knowledge is necessary for the development of effective prevention programs to identify girls who are most at-risk, especially in Latin America, a region that is believed to be a large source of persons moved across international borders for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. The objective of this study was to explore and increase understanding of the vulnerability factors and pathways leading to underage entry into sex work experienced by women currently engaging in sex work in two cities on the northern border of Mexico. From August 2013 to October 2014, 20 female sex workers (FSWs) with a history of entry into sex work prior to age 18 were recruited for in-depth interviews from a larger time-location sample of female sex workers (FSWs) participating in a quantitative survey in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. The median age of entry into sex work was 14 (range 10-17); 12/21 participants reported being forced into sex work and, of these, 7 were transported to another city where they began engaging in sex work. Family dysfunction (e.g., domestic violence between parents, parent drug use, neglect, etc.), sexual and physical abuse, and teen pregnancy were among the key themes that emerged as vulnerabilities to underage entry into sex work. Women’s narratives clearly illustrated that the vulnerabilities and pathways leading to underage entry are manifold, complex, and often intersect with each other. Our findings begin to lay the groundwork for understanding the potential vulnerabilities and pathways leading to underage entry into sex, and may have relevance to Latin America in general. This study also provides a foundation for further research to explore what may mitigate these vulnerabilities as well as creating evidence-based interventions to prevent commercial sexual exploitation of minors in the region.

A PDF file should load here. If you do not see its contents the file may be temporarily unavailable at the journal website or you do not have a PDF plug-in installed and enabled in your browser.

Alternatively, you can download the file locally and open with any standalone PDF reader:

https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1248&context=childrenatrisk

Vulnerability Factors and Pathways Leading to Underage Entry into Sex Work in two Mexican-US Border Cities

Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk Vulnerability Factors and Pathways Leading to Underage Entr y into Sex Work in two Mexican-US Border Cities Argentina E. Servin 0 Kimberly C. Brouwer 0 Teresita Rocha-Jimenez 0 University of California , San Diego , USA Recommended Citation - See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/childrenatrisk Acknowledgements The authors would like to extend a special gratitude to the women in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico who participated in this study for their trust and sincerity in making this work possible. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the entire multidisciplinary binational research team involved in this project as well as the contributions of the staff members at Prevencasita A.C., Federación Mexicana de Asociaciones Privadas (FEMAP) and Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juarez (UACJ) for assistance with data collection. Authors Argentina E. Servin, Kimberly C. Brouwer, Leah Gordon, Teresita Rocha-Jimenez, Hugo Staines, Ricardo B. Vera-Monroy, Steffanie A. Strathdee, and Jay G. Silverman This article is available in Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk: http://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/childrenatrisk/vol6/iss1/3 Vulnerability Factors and Pathways Leading to Underage Entry into Sex Work in two Mexican-US Border cities Introduction The current wave of interest in human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children has exposed a lack of knowledge about the vulnerabilities and pathways leading to underage entry to sex work in developing countries around the world. This knowledge is necessary for the development of effective and purposefully designed programs to prevent and respond to these deplorable acts. The United Nations Palermo Protocol defines trafficking in persons as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include… the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation.”1 This definition of “trafficking in persons” considers two major facets: involuntary and underage entry into sex work; the focus of this study is on the second component, underage entry into sex work. According to the United Nations 2014 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, one in three human trafficking victims is a child and most victims are female2; yet there is a dearth of studies exploring what vulnerabilities might increase the likelihood of underage entry into sex work versus entering as an adult. The majority of this research has been conducted in North America and Asia, and has focused on the health and social consequences of underage entry into sex work. This research has found that girls who enter sex work underage experience serious consequences such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD),3 mental health disorders (i.e., suicidality, anxiety, depression, etc.), 4-7 and heightened vulnerability to HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), in addition to other serious sexual and reproductive health consequences. 8-12 Experiences of childhood abuse and subsequent running away in adolescence have long been considered primary risks for underage entry into sex work in North America. 13-16 However, outside of North America, less is known about the factors that create vulnerability to underage entry into sex work. Due to its geographical location, Mexico is a large transit, source, and destination country for trafficked persons.17 It has been documented that migrants traveling from Central America on their route to the U.S. have been victims of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation within the country,18-20 and more recently, numerous cases of young girls from Mexico being trafficked to the US for sexual exploitation have appeared in the media.21,22 Despite all of this documentation, very little empirical research on human trafficking exists in this region.23,24 Empirical data is needed to identify girls who are at-risk in order to develop effective trafficking prevention programs, especially for Latin America, a region that is believed to be one of the largest sources of persons moved across international borders for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation.19To begin to address this need, this qualitative study aimed to explore and understand the vulnerability factors and pathways leading to underage entry into sex work experienced by women currently engaging in sex work in two Mexican-United States border cities. Methods Study Settings The United States-Mexico border, with (...truncated)


This is a preview of a remote PDF: https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1248&context=childrenatrisk

Argentina E Servin, Kimberly C. Brouwer, Leah Gordon, Teresita Rocha-Jimenez, Hugo Staines, Ricardo B. Vera-Monroy, Steffanie A. Strathdee, Jay G. Silverman. Vulnerability Factors and Pathways Leading to Underage Entry into Sex Work in two Mexican-US Border Cities, Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk, 2015, pp. 3, Volume 6, Issue 1,