Sex for soap? A contextual approach for understanding young girls’ involvement in sex in Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Tanzania has made strides to end gender discrimination and sexual exploitation, yet, studies have found that these practices continue. One distinct form of exploitation is transactional sex. Girls agree to sex – often with older men known as “sugar-daddies” – in exchange for basic needs like breakfast or soap, something that other researchers have written about it with concern. Herein, I provide an overview of the published research and then discuss my research on this issue, based on interviews with women and participant observation with girls in a remote part of Tanzania. My intention was to discover if and how girls are taken advantage of, discriminated against, or solicited for sex in and around schools. Transactional sex, a practice sometimes encouraged by family members, emerged as a pertinent theme. Ultimately, I focus on strategies for prevention using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model to consider interventions at multiple levels of these girls’ lives.     

A six-year analysis of sex traffickers of minors: exploring characteristics and sex trafficking patterns

ABSTRACT

Few studies have explored the characteristics and arrest patterns of sex traffickers, particularly sex traffickers of persons under the age of 18 (minors) in the U.S. The purpose of this study is to understand the behavior and characteristics of a national cross sectional sample of sex traffickers of minors during a six-year period. This study explored cases involving the arrest of sex traffickers of minors or persons under the age of 18 in the United States from 2010 to 2015. Sex traffickers of minors was defined as a person who facilitates and/or benefits by receiving something of value for the commercial sexual exploitation of a minor (person under the age of 18) or attempts to do so. During a systematic online search, 1,416 sex traffickers of minors were identified. The arrests were found in 46 states in the United States, two U.S. territories, and Washington D.C. The sex traffickers of minors were mostly males (n = 1067, 75.4%), and of those with race identified (only 51.6%), 71.7% were African American. Their ages ranged from 15 to 70 years old (M = 28.5, SD = 8.54). Characteristics of the sex trafficker and the sex trafficking situation are analyzed and implications discussed.     

Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: A Social Work Perspective on Misidentification,Victims, Buyers,Traffickers, Treatment,and Reform of Current Practice

Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) has been steadily on the rise in the United States, with estimates between 15,000 and 50,000 victims per year. Actual estimates of DMST victims are difficult to determine based on misidentification, conflicts between state and federal laws about age of consent and charges, perceptions of the victim, as well as lack of knowledge regarding the prevalence and dynamics of sex trafficking of minors. Oftentimes, child victims come from multi-problem homes and have already experienced abuse and neglect, which further complicates treatment and services. This article explores the emerging literature and defines the problem and identifies laws, statues, and definitions of the problem. It also reviews the literature on victim, buyer, and trafficker characteristics. Organized crime's role in this growing epidemic is explained as well as treatment options and recommendations for future social work practice at the micro-, mezzo-, and macro-levels.     

Trafficking of women for sexual exploitation in Mexico and their identity crisis

The main objective of this paper is to explore how sexual violence and exploitation cause identity crisis among victims of sex-trafficking in Mexico. Trafficking is a widespread phenomenon, where girls and women are forced or coerced into sexual exploitation. Victims of trafficking acquire not only adverse physical health; also there is a higher impact on emotional and psychological health and leads women to an‘identity crisis'. Once they're brought into brothel, their body is controlled by pimps, and seen as a source of income through prostitution. As Bauman said; commodification and consumption of female bodies is indeed useful to explain an individual's fragile identity. Moreover, my own scholarly interest in women trafficking has led me to turn towards defining the identity crisis among these victims as it is directly related to sexual exploitation. For this study, a total of 60 women were interviewed during 2007–2013 using a snowball method.     

Trafficked by a Friend: A Qualitative Analysis of Adolescent Trafficking Victims’ Archival Case Files

Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal - Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is the commercial sexual exploitation of a minor citizen within the United States. Previous research suggests that...     

Advertising Phuket's nightlife on the Internet: a case study of double binds and hegemonic masculinity in sex tourism

One significant human rights violation in Southeast Asia is the exploitation of women through sex tourism. Such sexual exploitation occurs in Thailand because institutions are complacent and society accepts the practice. This case study, guided by the concepts of double binds and hegemonic masculinity, sought to understand if Thai culture is symbolically constructed in ways to portray Thailand as a desirable "sex tourist" destination. Websites portray Phuket as a patriarchal world where men can live their fantasies of being perfect hegemonic males because Thai bar girls are young nymphomaniacs that have no need to be talked to or understood.     

Sex Differences and HIV Risk Behaviors: The Interaction between the Experience of Multiple Types of Abuse and Self-Restraint on HIV Risk Behaviors

Adolescents with abuse histories have been shown to be at increased risk to acquire human immunodeficiency virus and sexually transmitted infections. In addition, teens with lower levels of self-restraint or higher levels of distress, such as those with psychiatric concerns, have also demonstrated increased sexual risk behaviors. This study explored sex differences in sexual risk behaviors among a sample of adolescents in a therapeutic/alternative high school setting. Moderated regression analysis showed that a lower level of self-restraint was associated with sexual risk behaviors in boys but not in girls. Rather, the interaction of self-restraint and multiple types of abuse was associated with greater sex risk within girls in this sample. Results suggest that girls and boys with abuse histories and low levels of self-restraint may have different intervention needs related to sexual risk behaviors.     

Adolescent American Sex

SUMMARY

Though there has been a decline in the percentage of sexually active high school students in the past decade in the United States, the rate of adolescents engaging in sexual behavior leading to orgasm has actually increased. Such orgasms are achieved without penetration and penetration is how most American adolescents define sex. Most adolescent sex also occurs within intimate relationships with partners at or near their own age but definitions of what constitutes intimacy is different than in the past. Sexuality is very important in the life of adolescents in the United States, and sexual activity broadly defined begins fairly early among teenagers although actual sexual intercourse usually takes place much later.     

Lost in Translation: Language,Terminology, and Understanding of Penile–Anal Intercourse in an HIV Prevention Trial in South Africa,Uganda, and Zimbabwe

Despite efforts to use culturally appropriate, understandable terms for sexual behavior in HIV prevention trials, the way in which participants interpret questions is underinvestigated and not well understood. We present findings from qualitative interviews with 88 women in South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe who had previously participated in an HIV prevention trial. Findings suggested that participants may have misinterpreted questions pertaining to penile–anal intercourse (PAI) to refer to vaginal sex from behind and subsequently misreported the behavior. Three key issues emerge from these findings: first, the underreporting of socially stigmatized sexual behaviors due to social desirability bias; second, the inaccurate reporting of sexual behaviors due to miscomprehension of research terms; and third, the ambiguity in vernacular terms for sexual behavior and lack of acceptable terms for PAI in some languages. These findings highlight methodological challenges around developing clear and unambiguous definitions for sexual behaviors, with implications not only for clinical trials but also for clinical practice and sexual risk assessment. We discuss the challenges in collecting accurate and reliable data on heterosexual PAI in Africa and make recommendations for improved data collection on sensitive behaviors.     

The Regulation of Exploitation

Feminist scholarship on exploitation in assisted reproduction focuses primarily on structural inequalities in society and, particularly, within the medical system. This approach most often determines that these technologies are universally oppressive toward women. This discourse, while valuable, overlooks the interaction between universal structural forces and local conditions that, together, shape exploitation within fertility medicine. This project provides an analysis of the local conditions that shape exploitation in surrogacy arrangements in Israel and the United States. The comparison focuses on the selection and compensation of surrogates to analyze the impact of local forces that define certain practices and regulations as exploitative. By providing a context-specific account, this project identifies the need to address exploitation through an analysis of the local experience of exploitation that occurs within an oppressive universalistic system. Thus, it introduces a framework that can be used to analyze the interaction between universal and local forces that lead to exploitation in surrogacy arrangements.     

Sex Composition,Masculinity Stereotype Dissimilarity and the Quality of Men's Workplace Social Relations

Previous research suggests that the quality of men's work group social relations varies depending on the sex composition of the work unit. Previous studies also suggest that men derive different benefits from working with other men than with women and that the higher status associated with men and masculinity advantages men in their relations with women workers. Previous sex composition studies tell us little, however, about the extent to which the quality of men's work group social relations with women and other men depends on how well a man fits dominant masculinity stereotypes. Drawing on sex composition and gender constructionist approaches to gender and work I investigate in this study the effects of men's individual similarity to masculinity stereotypes on the affective quality of their social relations with coworkers, given the sex composition of their work groups. The data for this study consist of male, mostly white, non‐faculty employees of a public university in the northwest United States. I discuss my results in terms of both individual outcomes and implications for understanding sex and gender inequalities in work organizations.     

Prostitution Ideology and Trafficking Policy: The Impact of Political Approaches to Domestic Sex Work on Human Trafficking Policy in Australia and the United States

Debates over the legitimacy and legality of prostitution have characterized human trafficking discourse for the last two decades. This article identifies the extent to which competing perspectives concerning the legitimacy of prostitution have influenced anti-trafficking policy in Australia and the United States and argues that each nation-state’s approach to domestic sex work has influenced trafficking legislation. The legal status of prostitution in each country and feminist influences on prostitution law reform have had a significant impact on the nature of the legislation adopted.     

Bystander Attitudes to Prevent Sexual Assault: A Study of College Students in the United States,Japan, India,Vietnam, and China

College women are at a high risk of sexual assault. Although programs that aim to change bystander behaviors have been shown to be potentially effective in preventing sexual assault on campuses in the United States, little is known about bystander behaviors outside of the United States. The purpose of this study was to explore and compare factors affecting bystander behaviors regarding sexual assault intervention and prevention among undergraduate students in the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, and China. A total of 1,136 students participated in a self-reported survey. Results demonstrate substantial variations across countries. Bystander behaviors are associated with multilevel factors, including gender, knowledge of individuals who have experienced a sexual assault, and knowledge about campus or community organizations.     

Heterosexual Women’s and Men’s Labeling of Anal Behaviors as Having “Had Sex”

This study explored labeling of penile–anal intercourse (PAI), manual–anal (MA), and oral–anal (OA) behaviors as having “had sex” among heterosexual men and women with such experience residing in the United States (n = 3,218). Adult men and women completed an online questionnaire assessing sexual behaviors and whether each counted as having had sex. With the exception of anal intercourse, there was high variation in whether a behavior was labeled having had sex. There was not consensus on which anal sexual behaviors constituted having had sex, with attitudes varying across age, gender, and behavioral experience. Those who were older, male, and had the specific behavioral experience were more likely to label it as having had sex. Behaviorally specific assessments of the various anal behaviors as part of the sexual repertoire is critical to more accurate evaluation of sexual histories and assessment of risks to sexual health.     

Anthropological Perspectives on the Trafficking of Women for Sexual Exploitation

Abstract The sexual exchange of girls and women embodies deep cultural practices and is historically embedded in many family and kinship systems. Contemporary trafficking operations transform traditional bride wealth and marriage exchanges (prestations) by treating women's sexuality and bodies as commodities to be bought and sold (and exchanged again) in various Western capitals and Internet spaces. Such operations are also global with respect to scale, range, speed, diversity, and flexibility. Propelling many trafficking exchanges are political economic processes, which increase the trafficking of women in times of stress, such as famine, unemployment, economic transition, and so forth. However, the disparity between the global market operations, which organize trafficking, and the late nineteenth century social/public welfare system of counter‐trafficking suggests why the latter do not effectively address women's risks and may even expose them to increased levels of violence and stress. Drawing on historical accounts, anthropological theory, and ethnographic work in Viet Nam and Bosnia and Herzegovina, this essay examines how specific cultural practices embedded in family and kinship relations encourage and rationalize sexual trafficking of girls and young women in times of stress and dislocation. The essay also analyses how technologies of power inform both trafficking and counter‐trafficking operations in terms of controlling women's bodies, sexuality, health, labour, and migration. By analysing sexual trafficking as a cultural phenomenon in its own right, such an analysis seeks to inform and address the specific situations of girls and young women, who suffer greatly from the current migration regimes.     

The Relationship Between Cognitive Ability and Experiences of Vaginal,Oral, and Anal Sex in the United States

Few studies have investigated the sexual development of populations with low cognitive abilities in the United States. This article examines the relationship between cognitive ability and various sexual experiences from adolescence (ages 12 to 18) to early adulthood (ages 28 to 34). Data were from 13,845 respondents interviewed at Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a probability sample of adolescents in the United States followed from adolescence to adulthood. Adjusted logistic regression models were used to study relationships between cognitive ability, approximated by the Add Health Picture Vocabulary Test (AHPVT), and experiences of vaginal, oral, and anal sex. After controlling for biological sex, age, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES), individuals in the lowest cognitive ability group had significantly lower odds of experiencing each type of sex than those in the average ability group. Although individuals in the highest cognitive ability group had significantly lower odds of experiencing vaginal intercourse than those in the average ability group, this association did not remain significant when analyses were stratified by biological sex. These differences in experiences have implications for future health and warrant further study to understand policy implications for sexual health services and education.     

Absent men: paid domestic work,sexual exploitation and male domination in the family in the USA

This article analyzes the sexual exploitation of paid domestic workers in the US through the lens of male domination in employing families. Departing from the dominant tendency in studies of paid domestic work to focus on relationships between female employers and workers, the article addresses the role of male domination and patriarchal family structures within employing families in the sexual exploitation of domestic workers by male employers. Using materialist feminist approaches, the article argues that domestic workers’ experiences should be seen as embedded in the patriarchal environment created by male household heads who appropriate the labor of other household members, including wives, children and paid domestic workers. The sexual exploitation of domestic workers is then analyzed as being a result of the appropriation of women’s entire personhood by men within the relationship of sexage outlined by Colette Guillaumin.