1. Pathways and Precursors to CSEC
Module 2:
Pathways and Precursors to CSEC
“Growing up for me was a lot of pain. I don’t know how to explain it. It was just a lot of pain.
- CSEC Survivor

2. Pathways and Precursors to CSEC
Objectives…
To understand the various risk factors (environmental and psychosocial) that make youth vulnerable to CSEC.
To unpack the notion of “choice” in reference to youth’s involvement in the commercial sex industry.
To become familiar with methods of recruitment used by exploiters.

3. Children at risk for recruitment into CSEC are children who:
Are under 18 years old
Walk to school or to the store alone
Own or have access to a computer
Are attracted to consumer goods
Desire to develop romantic relationships
Sometimes feel insecure
Feel misunderstood
Fight with their parents
Sometimes feel their parents don’t care
Want more independence
Test boundaries and take risks
Question: According to this, who is at risk for recruitment into CSEC?

4. Answer: ALL CHILDREN

5. Risk Factors Individual: Environmental: Social:
events in, or characteristics of, an individual’s life
Environmental:
come from a child’s neighborhood or community
Social:
the foundation set up in our culture that makes CSEC possible or ways in which our society promotes or perpetuates sexual exploitation

6. Activity: Who’s at Risk?

7. Activity: Who’s At Risk?
Directions for Individuals/Partners
Decide if your risk factor card belongs in the individual, environmental, or social category.
Tape it to the diagram in this category.
Form a group with all the other participants who taped their risk factor cards in this category too.

8. Activity: Who’s At Risk?
Working Group Questions/Directions
How does each risk factor in your category impact a child?
Use the blank card to write in:
Other important risk factors your group thought of
Risk factors in another category that belong in yours too
Risk factors specific to your community

9. Multiple studies estimate that… 70 to 90 percent of sexually exploited children have a history of child sexual abuse.
1. Bagley, C. & Young, L. (1987). Juvenile Prostitution and Child Sexual Abuse: A Controlled Study. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health.
2. Annual Report. (1991). Council for Prostitution Alternatives. Portland, Oregon.
3. Murphy, Patricia. (1993). Making Connections: Women, Work, and Abuse. Paul M. Deutsch Press, Florida.

10. ©Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS)
Handout 2.2 Continuum of Sexual Abuse

11. Pathways to Entry Ways recruitment can happen:
Parents selling children
Violence and force
Kidnapping
Seduction and coercion
False advertising for “modeling,” “acting,” or “dancing” opportunities
Peer recruitment
Internet enticement through chat rooms or profile-sharing sites

12. Activity: Pathways to Entry Case Studies
Handout 2.4 Case Studies

13. Activity: Pathways to Entry Case Studies
Working Group Questions
What made this child vulnerable to CSEC?
How was the child recruited into the sex industry? What was his or her path of entry?
A commonly held belief is that children freely choose to be involved in the sex industry. Identify the choices that the child in your case study made?
Handout 2.4 Case Studies

14. Case Studies #1: Bethany, 12 year-old Caucasian female
Product of child sexual abuse
Mom is physically and verbally abusive
Mom has heroine addiction and exchanges sex for money to support addiction
Mom begins selling Bethany at age 9
B. sees school nurse due to pain during urination
Nurse diagnoses 2 STIs and extensive genital trauma
B. removed from home & placed in group home
Ostracized in group home for being a “ho”
Runs away from group home and meets up with former “john”
Stays with “john” in exchange for making pornographic videos
Takes small amounts of $$ she is given to her mother

15. Case Studies #2: Yesenia, 16 y/o Latina female
Mom & Dad split up at early age
Once into adolescence Y. argues a lot with her mom
Y. resents mom’s “controlling” ways & dreams about living with Dad
Fights with mom & mom slaps Y. in face
Y. decides to live with dad and dad agrees to change while things cool down btwn Y. and her mother
Y. takes bus to father’s house, but gets lost on route
Stops to ask directions at store and is approached by handsome guy who offers her a ride
Agrees to take ride and accepts dinner at McDonalds
Hesitates to get in but is grabbed and forced into van
She is threatened, taken to house, weapons & beating
Repeatedly raped & put on track

16. Case Studies #3: Quiana, 13 y/o African-American female
Father abandons family when she’s 5 y/o
Mom remarries and Q. is marginalized in family
Q. internalizes negative messages about self
Works to make boys at school like her
Hangs out at the mall after school and meets a “cute guy” in his 20’s named Tre
He shows her his license and says he’s a “good guy” and she accepts a ride home from him
For 2 weeks they meet every day after school
Q. loses her virginity to Tre, begins missing curfew, & eventually stops coming home at all
Tre tells Q. go to a club with him and “dance” to prove her love for him – she does
After a few more weeks he says that to really prove her love she has to work in the VIP room

17. Case Studies #4, Daniel 14 y/o Caucasian male
DCFS takes D. into custody after drug-addicted mom leaves him in a park at age 7
Placed in foster home -- beaten & locked in the closet
Begins to cycle through child welfare system
By age 12 he’s been in 7 homes - ends up in group home
An older boy named Seth befriends D. in the home
They talk about getting enough money to get out of group home and get a place of their own
Seth says he has “friends” who he does stuff with for money
D. accompanies Seth downtown where he’s introduced to some older men and taught how to negotiate sexual services for money
He’s disgusted but decides to stick with it to make enough $$ to get out of the system

18. Case Studies #5, Timothy 15 y/0 Caucasian male
Youngest of 5 brothers in hyper-masculine environment
Father takes son’s sports failure personally & tried to toughen him up with verbal and physical abuse
T. withdraws further and feels “different”
Has interest in things his brothers call “girlie”
Bullied & ostracized at school
When referred to school counselor he’s told he’s bringing problems on himself – begins staying home from school
Dresses up in mom’s clothing & brother discovers him
Dad brutally beats T. and throws him out of house
T. goes to City to find online community – raped on route
Meets a group of transgender youth who tell him about “street mother”
Agrees to sell sex to earn money to stay in house

19. Case Studies #6, Diana 16 y/o African American female
2 working parents often out of house
Caretaker for siblings
Spends a lot of time on Myspace
Worries about being unattractive & fat – wants to be sexier like “girls on TV”
Like her friends, Diana begins to add boys she doesn’t know to her Myspace page
Meets 23 y/o Eric online – says he’s in the music industry & she has “star potential” – begin talking online
Sneaks into City to meet Eric & records songs at a studio
Models sexy outfits & ends up missing bus home
Stays several nights and goes with Eric to hotel to meet producer
She is raped repeatedly at hotel & Eric takes money

20. Can you match the legal age?
In this state you have to be…
To be able to… 14 15
Drive a car 16
Get a drink in a bar 17
Buy cigarettes 18
Get married 19
Vote 20
Legally consent to sex 21

22. Inherent Contradiction: Statutory Rape & Prostitution Laws
Why do you think distinctions are made between sexually assaulted children and commercially sexually exploited children?

23. Activity: Self-Reflection

24. Activity: Self-Reflection
What were you wearing at this age?
What was your favorite song or group?
Who were you?

25. Activity: Self-Reflection
What were some of the individual, environmental, or social challenges you faced?
How did they influence your choices?
What protections, support, or lack thereof did you have?
How did these factors influence your choices, and the outcomes of your choices?

26. Film: GEMS’ Making of a Girl

27. Film: GEMS’ Making of a Girl
Debriefing Questions:
How do you feel after watching the film?
After all the activities we just did, how have any of your perceptions of children’s entrance into the commercial sex industry changed?