How Have Systems Failed to Address CSEC? Essay Example

Though CSEC is a serious form of child abuse and a grave crime punished by law, there are a large number of problems regarding effective management of CSEC at the legal level. The first problem is associated with difficulty locating and reporting CSEC; even the victims of abuse such as children who participated in recording child pornography and prostituted teens are usually reluctant to admit their participation in CSEC activities, while child trafficking is a very serious form of crime that is hard to be detected, since children are transported to other countries where their traces are lost. Mostly, the organizations involved in child trafficking, pornography, and prostitution are covered by the influential politicians or commercial giants, which makes their detection and prosecution seriously challenged.

Second, the problem with CSEC is in the reluctance of various voluntary and legal organizations to participate in the prevention and intervention programs for former CSEC victims (Curtis et al., 2008). There is no proper reinforcement and motivation for workers, and some prevention strategies fail due to high staff turnover and bureaucratic delays, such as group home-based prevention strategy designed in the New York state. Finally, it is necessary to keep in mind that the attention of legal authorities is usually paid to the wrong stakeholders in the CSEC proliferation. As the research of Curtis et al. (2008) showed, only 8% of prostituted teens were recruited into prostitution by pimps, and only 10% of prostituted teens reported having a pimp, while the overwhelming majority of prostituted teens were urged to continue their criminal activities because of the adverse influence of customers creating demand for sexual services. Hence, this side of the CSEC system should be targeted with more precision.

References

Curtis, R., et al. (2008). The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, pp. 1-13.

Williams, L. M. (2009). Provide Justice for Prostituted Teens: Stop Arresting and Prosecuting Girls. In Frost, N. A., Freilich, J. D., & Clear, T. R. (eds.), Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice Policy: Policy Proposals from the American Society of Criminology Conference (pp. 227-306). Belmont, CA: Cengage/Wadsworth.