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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:47 pm
Time: 8:47 pm
Results for commercially exploited minors
2 results foundAuthor: Maguire, Edward Title: Baseline Assessment for Project Lantern Summary: This report presents the findings from a study conducted in October 2006 to examine sexual trafficking in minors in Cebu, Philippines. The study was conducted by Crime and Justice Analysts, Inc. (CJA), an independent research and evaluation firm specializing in criminology and criminal justice. The International Justice Mission (IJM) retained CJA to support its work in reducing the number of sex trafficking victims by conducting a formal, scientific study collecting quantitative data that will help measure the impact of a new initiative, Project Lantern. The project is designed to reduce the incidence of sex trafficking in the target area by strengthening local capacity to successfully locate, arrest, and prosecute perpetrators, thereby leading to increased expectations of criminal sanctions for violating trafficking laws. The baseline study described here is the first of three waves of data collection designed to measure the availability of sex-trafficking victims in Cebu. Together, these three waves will be used by IJM and its contractors to evaluate the effectiveness of Project Lantern. IJM provided CJA with a list of eight indicators or proxies intended to measure the availability of child sex trafficking victims. CJA then deployed a team of 10 people (including eight investigators, one data collection expert, and one security expert) to the Philippines for training and data collection. The eight investigators each spent seven (and in some cases eight) nights visiting bars, brothels, massage parlors, malls, a red light district, and other locations where people seeking sex go to find prostituted or commercially exploited women and girls. The eight investigators posed as sex tourists and sought out prostituted or commercially exploited minors. They engaged in training on age estimation and used a number of age-confirmation processes to determine whether someone was in fact a minor. While conducting their covert observations, the investigators systematically collected data on a number of variables having to do with the people they were meeting and the places they were visiting. As they gathered the necessary data, they submitted it regularly to a centralized command center using cellular telephones (either by voice or by text). The data were entered into a series of databases by a data coordinator at the command center. Those databases, as well as the qualitative field notes written by the investigators at the end of their shifts, constitute the primary data sources for the findings presented in this report. During the course of the study, the investigators made 84 visits to bars, 12 visits to brothels, 19 visits to massage parlors, 16 visits (walk-throughs) to malls, and four visits to a busy red-light district. Out of the 94 bars, brothels, and massage parlors visited by the investigators (some were visited multiple times), commercially exploited minors were located in 35. Altogether, the investigators observed approximately 1,550 prostituted or commercially exploited women and girls. Of these, 103 (6.6%) were confirmed as minors. Across all attempts to locate minors, it took our investigative teams, on average, 113 minutes to locate a minor. The report presents a more detailed look at the study's findings. The results of the baseline study confirm the presence of prostituted or commercially exploited minors in Cebu. Although our investigators routinely encountered token resistance to their efforts to find minors, the fact that they were able to find them so quickly and so easily suggests that there are many to be found. The investigators were unable, despite their best efforts, to locate prostituted or commercially exploited preteens; most of the minors we discovered were 16 or 17 years old. Our findings also suggest that minors come to be employed in the sex trade through different routes, although all of them are considered "trafficking victims" under Philippine law. Some appear to seek the work out of economic necessity; several minors told us they forged their paperwork to get the job. Others fit the more conventional image of a sex trafficking victim in the sense that they were taken involuntarily from their homes, they are moved around to work in different cities depending on customer demand, and they show visible signs of maltreatment and poor living conditions. Over the past decade, there has been an increase in the extent to which criminological interventions like Project Lantern have been subjected to independent, external evaluation to assess their effectiveness. The new emphasis on evaluation research is part of a larger movement in several disciplines toward "evidence-based" policymaking. We applaud IJM and the Gates Foundation for their willingness to evaluate the effectiveness of Project Lantern. The result will be an increased understanding of sexual trafficking in minors and hopefully an enhanced capacity to implement effective solutions. Details: Fairfax, VA: Crime and Justice Analysts, 2007. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 21, 2019 at: Rutgers Criminal Justice Library. Year: 2007 Country: Philippines URL: http://www.edmaguire.net/Reports Shelf Number: 155953 Keywords: BrothelsChild Sex TraffickingCommercially Exploited MinorsHuman TraffickingProstitutionRed Light DistrictSex TouristsSex Trafficking |
Author: Maguire, Edward Title: Wave 3 Assessment for Project Lantern Summary: This report presents the findings from a study conducted in May 2010 to examine sexual trafficking of minors in Cebu, Philippines. The study was conducted by Crime and Justice Analysts, Inc. (CJA), an independent research and evaluation firm specializing in crime and criminal justice issues. International Justice Mission (IJM) retained CJA to support its work in reducing the number of child sex trafficking victims by conducting a formal, scientific study collecting quantitative data to help measure the impact of its Project Lantern initiative. The project is designed to reduce the incidence of child sex trafficking in the target area by strengthening local capacity to successfully locate, arrest, and prosecute perpetrators, thereby leading to increased expectations of criminal sanctions for violating trafficking laws. The wave 3 study described in this report is the final of three waves of data collection designed to measure the availability of child sex-trafficking victims in Cebu. Wave 1 of this study was conducted in October of 2006 and wave 2 was conducted in August 2008. We also present findings here comparing data across the three waves of data collection. Together these three waves of data will be used by IJM and its contractors to evaluate the effectiveness of Project Lantern. IJM provided CJA with a list of eight indicators or proxies intended to measure the availability of child sex trafficking victims. During wave 3, CJA deployed a team of 11 people (including eight investigators, two data collection staff, and one security director) to the Philippines for training and data collection. The eight investigators each spent seven nights visiting bars, brothels, massage parlors, malls, red light districts, and other locations where people seeking sex go to find prostituted or commercially exploited women and girls. The eight investigators engaged in training on age estimation and used a number of age-confirmation processes to determine whether someone was in fact a minor. They then posed as sex tourists and sought out prostituted or commercially exploited minors. While conducting their covert observations, the investigators systematically collected data on a number of variables having to do with the people they were meeting and the places they were visiting. As they gathered the necessary data, they submitted it regularly to a centralized command center using cellular telephones (either by voice or text). The data were entered into a master database by two data coordinators at the command center. This database, the qualitative field notes written by the investigators at the end of their shifts, and photographs and audio/visual footage taken of suspected and confirmed minors, constitute the primary data sources for the findings presented in this report. During the course of the wave 3 study, the investigators undertook 114 visits to bars, 7 visits to brothels, 8 visits to massage parlors, 12 visits to malls, 13 street encounters, 8 pimp encounters, and 6 dates. Out of the 68 bars, 5 brothels, and 8 massage parlors visited by the investigators (some were visited multiple times), commercially exploited minors were located in 10. Altogether, the investigators observed approximately 1,369 prostituted or commercially exploited women and girls. Of these, 21 (1.5%) were confirmed as minors. Across all attempts to locate minors, it took our investigative teams, on average, 7 hours and 29 minutes to locate a minor. This report presents detailed findings from wave 3, while also providing an overview of findings from all waves of the study. Results from the wave 1 and 2 studies confirmed the presence of prostituted or commercially exploited minors in Cebu. Wave 3 also confirmed the presence of prostituted or commercially exploited minors in Cebu, though in reduced numbers: 21 (1.5%) in wave 3 compared to 29 (2.2%) in wave 2, and 103 (6.6%) in wave 1. Our investigators routinely encountered token resistance to their efforts to find minors in wave 1. It took longer for our investigators to locate minors during wave 2. During wave 3, investigators found locating minors to be even more difficult than in the two previous waves, suggesting that the prevalence of minors in the sex trade has decreased over time. As in waves 1 and 2, the investigators were unable, despite their best efforts, to locate prostituted or commercially exploited preteens. The majority of minors discovered across all three waves of this study were 16 or 17 years old. Based on our interviews with minors, we know that many enter the sex trade through different routes, although all of them are considered "trafficking victims" under Philippine law. Some appear to seek out the work out of economic necessity; several minors told us they forged their paperwork to get the job. Others fit the more conventional image of a sex trafficking victim in the sense that they were taken involuntarily from their homes, they are moved around to work in different cities depending on customer demand, and they show visible signs of maltreatment and poor living conditions. Over the past decade there has been an increase in the extent to which criminological interventions like Project Lantern have been subjected to independent, external evaluation to assess their effectiveness. The new emphasis on evaluation research is part of a larger movement in several disciplines toward "evidence-based" policymaking. We applaud IJM and the Gates Foundation for their willingness to evaluate the effectiveness of Project Lantern. This investment in quantitative research is sorely needed to shed light on human trafficking, a topic about which much has been written but little is known. Even relatively straightforward questions like whether prosecuting traffickers will reduce trafficking have still not been settled. For instance, one commentator noted "there is little evidence that prosecutions have any significant impact on aggregate levels of trafficking." The culmination of the Project Lantern evaluation will help improve knowledge about sexual trafficking in minors, and contribute to an enhanced capacity to implement effective solutions. Details: Fairfax, VA: Crime and Justice Analysts, 2010. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 21, 2019 at: Rutgers Criminal Justice Library. Year: 2010 Country: Philippines URL: http://www.edmaguire.net/Reports Shelf Number: 155954 Keywords: Brothels Child Sex Trafficking Commercially Exploited Minors Human TraffickingPhilippines Prostitution Red Light District Sex Tourists Sex Trafficking |