Ji-Eun Kim: Child Prostitution (Research Proposal)

Ontario Superior Court’s recent ruling that struck down key parts of Canada’s prostitution law has again sparked the heated debate on the decriminalization of prostitution. While sex-work advocates praised that the ruling would set up legal grounds to protect the safety and security of sex workers, the opponents of decriminalization assailed the ruling as potentially stabilizing the sex industry and encouraging the sexual exploitation of women as well as children. Although Justice Susan Himel, the judge of this ruling, stressed that other provisions on prostitution can still be used to restrain child prostitution, the impacts of the possible legalization of adult prostitution on underage prostitutes have not been discussed extensively. 

Thus, my paper will examine the issue of decriminalizing prostitution from child rights perspectives. Underage prostitutes have been commonly seen as passive victims of sexual abuse or trafficking; however, there has not been much attention to child prostitutes who “choose” to enter and stay in the industry. For example, especially with the spread of the internet, child prostitutes are voluntarily advertising themselves. Cases like this add a complex dimension to the issue of prostitution and certainly make it harder to grasp the impact of the legalization of adult prostitution on current or future underage prostitutes.  

I will also explore this issue of child prostitution at a local level – Vancouver has been a known child-sex tourism destination. I would like to investigate why and how Vancouver has gained such a reputation and if there is any international dimensions to child prostitution in Vancouver.  

Research direction 

• Review the international law related to prostitution and child rights and observe if there is any contrasts 

• The UN Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (1949)

• The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979)

• The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)

• the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995)

• the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999)

• The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000)

• Analyze federal and provincial legislations and see if any parts of them are at odds with international ones  

• Examine empirical cases analyzing the impact of decriminalizing adult prostitution on child prostitution 

• Possible cases: Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Germany (Note that these countries were mentioned as successful legalizing cases in Himel’s ruling) 

• Work with local advocacy groups/activists to study the situation of child prostitution in Vancouver

• John Lowman (SFU Criminology)

• Janine Benedet (UBC Law)

• Save the Children Canada 

Bibliography

Barnett, Laura. “Prostitution in Canada – International Obligation, Federal Law, and Provincial and Municipal Jurisdiction.” Parliamentary Information and Research Service. 2008. http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublications/prb0330-e.htm  

Baron, Ethan. “B.C. Child Prostitutes Advertising Themselves Online,” National Post, http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=503857

Bindman, Jo. “Redefining Prostitution as Sex Work on the International Agenda.” Network of Sex Work Projects. 1997. http://www.walnet.org/csis/papers/redefining.html 

Raymond, Janice G. “10 Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution.” Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International. March 25, 2003. http://www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/issues/prostitution_legalizing.html   

Yohemas-Hayes, Leanne and John Chilibeck. “Out of the shadows: child prostitutes speak out.” Capital News Online. http://carleton.ca/Capital_News/16031998/story2.html

Comments

[Michael Byers]

This is a great proposal -- well done!

That said, I think you should work through it in stages, since the international dimension may raise enough issues and provide enough material for a project of manageable size.

Once the international dimension is done, you might wish to explore whether the international standards have in fact been implemented in Canadian law, or whether Canada's laws diverge. As part of this exercise, you could test Justice Himel's assertion that sufficient constraints on child prostitution still exist in Canadian law.

The Vancouver-focused research would be difficult to conduct, and might well require ethics approval from UBC, so please consult with me before you proceed on any of this.

All that said, you've made a superb start!

[shannon dooling]

Hi Ji-Eun,

I'd suggest taking a look at Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's book Half the Sky. It addresses issues of sex trade workers and particularly speaks to child sex workers, even more specifically to the element of choice that you mentioned in class.

I have a copy of the book if you'd like to borrow.

Best of luck. I look forward to hearing more!

[Matt Robinson]

I drive on East Hastings on a regular basis - there is ostensibly a greatly disproportionate number of Aboriginal women involved in the sex trade in that particular area of town. I wonder if that same proportion persists in the context of child prostitution?

Sorry for the lack of a useful comment here, just an angle you might want to consider... :)

[Hannah van Voorthuysen]

Hey Ji-Eun,

This is all looking great! I'm glad we've found a way to bridge our research.

I wonder if you may want to use the concepts by Mats Utas on strategic and tactical agency in this case to discuss the limitations of choices as well as explaining how children navigate.

I think Matt's comment on Aboriginal women is an important one and I think you will find that he is correct in his assumption. There is also research that shows that children of prostitutes are more likely to become prostitutes themselves. This report: http://vancouver.ca/police/assets/pdf/reports-policies/report-human-trafficking-2010-games.pdf contains some useful information on trafficking of Aboriginal children. The Native Women's Association of Canada says in this report that "Canada must do more to address the discrimination and systemic gendered racism that is the root cause of the widespread racialized, sexualized violence faced by Aboriginal women and girls.”

The age of consent issue is interesting here. The age of consent for consensual sex is 16, but it is 18 for prostitution which arguably creates a greyzone. I suppose it is this area that your paper will be most concerned with?

Finally, will you be mainly focusing on girls in your paper? I know that there is a real lack of research on men in prostitution and an even greater lack of research on boys. Much of the evidence suggests that many boys involved in the sex trade experienced some form of sexual abuse as children. The problem is that there aren't many programmes that deal with men or boys trying to exit the industry due a gender bias towards women and girls. I wonder if we could craft some recommendations to attempt to rectify this?

See you next week!

H

[JI-EUN KIM]

Thank you all!

Shannon, the books you mentioned will help me a lot! I've read some reviews on them, and sound very interesting.

Matt, I'm also aware of the disproportionate number of aboriginal women in the industry - given that Vancouver has a huge and fast growing aboriginal population, aboriginal child prostitution adds a unique dimension to my research.

Yes, Hannah, I also think the age of consent is one of the most tricky problems. It is quite ambiguous how the law defines sexual "expoitation" - sexual activity is considered expoitative based on the "nature and circumstances of the relationsihp."

And ditto for you mentioning boys in prostitution! I was just thinking we should refine our advocacy project that can help not only girls but also boys in the industry. It is difficult to find enough resources regarding boys in prostitution, but what I've gathered so far suggests that these boys are either very young (often being targets of trafficking for the purpose of pornography or prostitution) or 16-18 of age (tend to be "voluntary" and consensual). Are you including men in prostitution in your discussion at any point?

[Hannah van Voorthuysen]

14 year old girl arrested for luring girls into prostitution.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/girl-14-arrested-for-luring-teens-into-prostitution-using-craigslist-ads/article1805045/