Commercial Sexual Exploration, Annotated Bibliography Example

Curtis, R., Terry, K., Dank, M., Dombrowski, K., & Khan, B. (2008). The commercial sexual exploitation of children in New York City: executive summary. Retrieved from January 30, 2013, from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/225083.pdf

The authors dedicated their work to the overview of the commercial sexual exploitation experienced by children living in one of the largest US metropolitan areas. The authors revealed that such abhorrent crime as child sexual exploitation has become a real-life challenge that should be overcome by New York’s and international communities. The results of the report suggested that the number of children involved in pornography and prostitution is extremely high, and the solution to the problem is complicated by children’s unknown location, unawareness of their age and exploitation, and engagement of different institutions that reluctantly share information. Besides, the presented findings implied that the National Institute of Justice takes corresponding measures (including funding of the special social programs aimed to overcome the stated challenge) for overcoming the problem related to New York’s child commercial sexual exploitation.

From the critical point of view, the authors’ work possesses some strengths and weaknesses. The main strength consists in the presentation of the detailed qualitative and quantitative information associated with child commercial sexual exploitation. The principal weakness can be traced in a limited scope of the study focused on the investigation of the problem only in the New York City.

The covered information about commercially-based sexual exploitation and the presentation of the findings based on empirical data on children’s involvement in this crime in the essential US metropolitan area make the authors’ work significant. The authors’ presentation of the mentioned evidence-based information will extend the in-depth understanding of the study topic.  Hence, the present source is undoubtedly relevant, and should be used within the framework of the study dedicated to child and adolescent sexual exploitation and prostitution.

Finkelhor, D., & Ormrod, R. (2004). Prostitution of juveniles: patterns from NIBRS. Retrieved from January 30, 2013, from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/203946.pdf

The authors’ work focuses on prostitution of juveniles in the territory of the USA, in particular, from the perspective of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), one of the agencies involved in the United States Department of Justice. The article provided the idea that juvenile prostitution, supposing violent victimization and sexual abuse of children, is believed to be more disturbing than adult prostitution mostly caused by an individual voluntary initiative. According to the presented results, the impact of child and adolescent prostitution is devastating, since this crime leads not only to the neglect of young individuals’ interests, but also to multifaceted degradation, and even to disease and death. In addition, the findings suggested that juvenile prostitution can be effectively countered with the help of specially designed programs and approaches aimed to eliminate or at least decrease the considerable amount of the juveniles involved in prostitution.

It is essential to mention that one may trace some obvious strengths and weaknesses in the authors’ work. The major strength lies in the detailed presentation of crime victimization statistics, research findings of the studies on special needs of adolescents involved in prostitution, and descriptions of the specific programs designed to eliminate the problem of juvenile prostitution. The main weakness consists in the discussion of the problem from OJJDP’s point of view and absence of data related to juvenile prostitution in different countries.

The significance of the authors’ work for the present study cannot be underestimated. By presenting detailed empirical data, the authors contributed to the investigation of the topic focused on commercial sexual exploitation of children and prostituted teens. Moreover, this work broadens the in-depth understanding of the problem from the perspective of law enforcement agencies responsible for the elimination of this problem. The obvious relevance of this source for the present study points to the necessity to use this authors’ work.

Jeffreys, S. (2000). Challenging the child/adult distinction in theory and practice on prostitution. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 2(3), 359-379.

The article is dedicated to the distinction between child and adult involvement in prostitution as a form of commercial sexual exploitation. According to the author, the belief that adult prostitution is a result of voluntary personal choice, while child prostitution is the evidence of involuntary victimization is wrong. The findings presented in the work suggested that both types of prostitution must be ended regardless of the fact that commercial sexual exploitation remains a profitable business for both sexual industrialists and governments. The author concluded that child and adult prostitution are inseparably related because both share common features: the involvement of the same people (for example, a woman and a child may work together), abusers (that make no distinctions, since both adult and child prostitutes are profitable), and harm done to an individual (both physical and mental). Besides, the article provided the idea that eradication of men’s abusive prostitution behavior can mitigate child prostitution.

The critical view on the author’s article suggests that it has its own strengths and weaknesses. The main strength is traced in the presentation of a considerable bundle of empirical knowledge about child and adult prostitution as a single phenomenon of an industrialized world. The article’s distinctive weakness lies in the fact that the author overviewed prostitution mostly from the perspective of the United Nations; naturally, the excessive emphasis on the organization’s humanistic philosophy potentially narrows a range of objective views regarding the mentioned form of sexual commercial exploitation.

The content of the article seems helpful to provide a solid theoretical basis for the present study. Within the framework of the investigation focused on commercial sexual abuse of children and teenagers, this source should be used. The author’s detailed information about child sex tourism will attach a special value to the study.

Mitchell, K. J., Finkelhor, D., & Wolak, J. (2010). Conceptualizing juvenile prostitution as child maltreatment: findings from the national juvenile prostitution study. Child Maltreatment, 15(1), 18-36.

The authors of this work focused on the presentation of juvenile prostitution as a form of child maltreatment. The article presented several reasons for this conceptualization: illegal sexual activities by adults with children is a concern of the child maltreatment field; family abuse is commonly considered one of the causes of juvenile prostitution; juveniles involved in prostitution usually work under onerous conditions leading to major health problems. The major research findings indicated that juvenile prostitution cases are mostly rooted in adolescents’ sexual abuse or aggravated assault experienced in different circles including families.

It is worth admitting that some evident strengths and weaknesses can be traced in the authors’ article. The strength of this work lies in the presentation of the results based on real-life police cases on juvenile prostitution and evidence-based information received from them. The main weakness of the article is its limited scope, since the authors presented the research findings on prostituted adolescents relevant to the USA only.

The value of the article for the present investigation cannot be underestimated. The authors revealed the nature of juvenile prostitution by presenting its underlying causes and roots. For this reason, this source should be used in the study dedicated to child and adolescent commercial sexual exploitation.

Mitchell, K. J., Jones, L. M., Finkelhor, D., & Wolak, J. (2011). Internet-facilitated commercial sexual exploitation of children: findings from a nationally representative sample of law enforcement agencies in the United States. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 23(1), 43-71.

The article focused on the Internet as one of the primary sources facilitating child commercial sexual abuse. The authors revealed that today’s child pornography is a technology-facilitated crime. According to the results, more than thousand of Internet-based child pornography cases have been recently registered only in the USA. The findings indicated that some offenders usually use the Internet to sell their own child pornography production, while others (the majority) – to sell the production they possess but do not produce. It is essential to admit that all offenders often have been arrested for previous sexual or nonsexual offences, have had a history of violence, have produced child pornography images or videos, or have involved female victims. Overall, through the presentation of real-life cases, the article’s author evidently proved that individuals’ involvement in such profitable industry as child pornography is a punishable crime; hence, from this perspective, the Internet source should be treated as a facilitator of commercial sexual exploitation.

The authors’ work has certain advantages and disadvantages worth mentioning. The principal advantage of the article is the coverage of the detailed information related to child pornography as a form of commercial sexual exploitation. The disadvantage of the work lies in the authors’ excessive emphasis on the US cases of technology-facilitated child pornography; at the same time, everyone knows that since the Internet is a worldwide web, children of all countries can become the offenders’ victims.

Overall, the present source revealed essential information about commercial sexual exploitation of children; hence, it is obviously relevant to the study. The inclusion of the Internet as one of the grounds favoring the spread of child pornography will widen the focus of the present investigation of child commercial sexual abuse. Hence, the article presents a valuable and helpful source worth to be included in the study.

Putnam, F. W. (2003). Ten-year research updates review: child sexual abuse. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 42(3), 269-278.

The author dedicated the article to child sexual abuse (CSA) phenomenon, its prevalence, outcomes, risk factors, treatment, and prevention. The authors revealed that CSA is a challenging life experience affecting males and females throughout the world. For example, in 2000, 88,000 CSA cases were officially registered only in the USA, but according to the real-life tendency, their amount increases every year in the majority of countries. According to the results of the study, risk factors include age, gender, disabilities, and parental dysfunction. The findings suggested that physical and psychological harm, substance abuse, depression, and sexualized behaviors are the main outcomes of CSA. With regard to CSA treatment and prevention, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) remains the most effective treatment option, while child sexual education is a widely spread preventive measure worth being implemented. Overall, the article implied that CSA is a major economic, social, and moral burden that should be relieved in Western countries.

From the critical perspective, the author’s article has its own advantages and disadvantages. The principal strength relates to the detailed information about psychopathological and neurobiological features associated with CSA. The main weakness of the work is traced in methodological limitations (such as lack of sample-related information and understanding self-selection biases) and new thorny dilemmas (for example, a doubtful effectiveness of CBT in all CSA cases) about child abuse treatment provided by the author’s considerations related to the topic.

The relevance of this article to the study should not be underestimated, since the author provided an in-depth understanding of CSA. The author presented thorough science-based and empirical information about the nature of this complex phenomenon. For this reason, this valuable source needs to be included for the research purpose of the study.

Rafferty, Y. (2008). The impact of trafficking on children: psychological and social policy perspectives. Child Development Perspectives, 2(1), 13-18.

The author focused on the impact of sex trafficking on the victimized children from psychological and social policy perspectives. According to the author’s article, as any type of commercial sexual exploitation and extreme form of child maltreatment, sex trafficking remains an egregious crime and a major violation of children’s human rights. According to the findings, sex trafficking has an evidently negative influence on child developmental well-being; besides, the involvement in the dangerous world of sex industry leads to children’s emotional and physical trauma, educational deprivation, violence, humiliation, degradation (related to treatment as commodities), and unrelenting abuse and fear. The evidence of young victims’ risks to the physical, spiritual, psychological, and social–emotional development provides the practical implications for psychology and social policy in terms of designing prevention and psychosocial rehabilitation strategies for victimized children.

The author’s article has some strengths and weaknesses worth admitting. The main strength can be traced in the ability of the article to fill the gap in the literature focused on the impact of sex trafficking on victimized children. The obvious weakness lies in the fact that no economic and financial considerations associated with the implementation of the mentioned policy in real-life settings.

The content and empirical topic-related data presented by this article make it relevant to the present investigation. Overall, the value of the author’s work should not be underestimated, since the in-depth understanding of the impact of sex trafficking on teenagers has been clearly provided. Therefore, it is reasonable to use the article as a source for the purpose of the study.

Williams, L. M. (2009). Provide justice for prostituted teens: stop arresting and prosecuting girls. Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice Policy, 297-306.

In the article, the author focused on the problems underlying teenagers’ prostitution.  According to the article, victimized prostituted teens should not be criticized, but should be protected by law enforcement agencies. By claiming this statement, the author also suggested that it is senseless to arrest and prosecute teenagers involved in prostitution; instead, the authorities need to make efforts to solve the deep social problems underlying teenagers’ prostitution phenomenon. The findings indicated the need for a comprehensive approach that should be implemented by the criminal and juvenile justice systems; this approach should address the social conditions (for example, lack of financial and material resources, family violence, sexual socialization of males that create favourable conditions for commercial sexual exploitation, etc.) that lead to teenagers’ engagement into prostitution and help pimps to have a power over female teenagers.

Besides major findings, some strengths and weaknesses of the author’s article need to be mentioned, as well. The main advantage of the article lies in the author’s deep and even philosophical perspective on the problem of teenagers’ prostitution and its comprehensive solution.  The distinctive weakness of the author’s work consists in the excessive emphasis on female cases of adolescent prostitution; the information about male victims of prostitution was totally ignored.

Taking into consideration the content of the article, its significance for the study partly dedicated to commercial sexual exploitation of teenagers is evident.  The author provided different views (social, law enforcement, cultural, philosophical, etc.) on the same phenomenon (teenagers’ prostitution). Hence, the inclusion of this valuable source into the present investigation will ultimately lead to the thorough comprehension of the selected topic.

Williams, L. M. (2010). Harm and resilience among prostituted teens: broadening our understanding of victimization and survival. Societal Policy 7 Society, 9(2), 243-254.

The author dedicated the article to harm, resilience, and survival among prostituted teens; besides, she focused on some recommendations related to policy implementation. In the author’s work, one may reveal that numerous runaway, homeless, and sexually victimized teenagers are involved in prostitution and trafficking. Black or African American, Hispanic, White, Asian American, Native American, and other ethnic and immigrant groups of teenagers aged from 14 to 19 often become victims of pimps. The recent investigations in the area of commercial sexual exploitation of children demonstrated that a prostituted or trafficked teenager has three identities; in other words, this adolescent is a victim, a survivor, and an offender rolled into one. According to the results, the life of teenagers involved in commercial sexual industry is tightly related to survival and coping; their experiences reveal the stories of hurt, violence, resilience, and unsuccessful attempts to rescue. The author offered to implement a specially designed program meeting prostituted and trafficked teenagers’ urgent needs. In addition, the implementation of policy communities responding to human prostitution and trafficking within and across the borders is necessary.

Some advantages and disadvantages can be noticed in the author’s article. The obvious advantage of the work lies in the detailed presentation of prostituted and trafficked adolescents’ real-life narratives reflecting the true nature of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The main disadvantage consists in the limited scope of the study; although the problem of commercial sexual abuse is of global character, the author selected only the US cases for overview.

The detailed and evidence-based information about teenagers’ engagement in commercial sexual abuse seems to be of great value for the present study. In addition, the author presented several perspectives on the phenomenon of adolescent prostitution and trafficking making one understand how it is viewed by law enforcement agencies, pimps, and victims themselves. This way, the author’s article needs to be used as a source providing a solid theoretical background for the investigation.

Willis, B. M., & Levy, B. S. (2002). Child prostitution: global health burden, research needs, and interventions. Public Health, 359, 1417-1422.

In this article, the authors were interested in the presentation of child prostitution as a significant global problem affecting numerous countries and posing a threat to health and even lives of millions of children worldwide. According to the major results, prostitution is a great challenge of the modern world that should be overcome as soon as possible. First, children involved in commercial sexual exploitation have a high risk of undesirable pregnancy, mental illness, infectious diseases, violence, and substance abuse. In addition, child prostitution maintains the violation of children’s rights and dignity. Overall, the findings suggested that the intervention into this global problem should be realized through the implementation of the effective strategy involving medical professionals, governments, and non-governmental organizations to mitigate dangerous health, economic, and social consequences of child prostitution.

One may admit that the article has its own strengths and weaknesses worth mentioning. The wide scope of the study embracing all countries where the mentioned form of commercial sexual exploitation is spread, and the presentation of detailed empirical data on health outcomes for prostituted children are the evident advantages of the author’s work. The main disadvantage of the article can be traced in unreasonably increased attention to medical data relevant to the prostituted children from the third world countries.

The authors’ findings on child prostitution are obviously relevant to the study dedicated to the same problem. Since this form of commercial sexual abuse is of global scale, the article’s focus on health consequences of child prostitution and a comprehensive preventive strategy makes this source valuable. This way, the significance of this source should not be diminished within the framework of the present investigation.