Is CSEC Child Abuse? Essay Example

The majority of law enforcement officials and even researchers consider commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) a crime in which children are offenders; this mostly refers to the prostituted teens, while child pornography and trafficking presuppose viewing children as victims. Judging from the report of Curtis et al. (2008), victims of CSEC are difficult to locate, reluctant to acknowledge their age, and engaged in multiple institutions, which makes the information sharing on CSEC very complicated. As one can see from this initial opinion, some children and adolescents are seen as voluntarily involved in prostitution. However, Williams (2009) offered viewing prostituted teens not as offenders but as victims. CSEC victims are maltreated because the offenders use and manipulate children without the ability of the latter to assess the risks of criminal activities in which they are involved.

CSEC is a grave form of child abuse because children are not fit for sexual activity; they are not properly developed physically and emotionally, and their majority has not yet reached the state of puberty, so involving them into sexual activities is abuse and maltreatment. The sexual attraction to children is a perversion, and is considered an inappropriate sexual practice punished by law. Hence, there is no reason to regard CSEC a different form of abuse other than physical and emotional abuse and maltreatment of children. The basic needs of children for physical and psychological comfort are not met, hence CSEC is also a form of child abuse that should be targeted through planned and comprehensive response of child protection and law enforcement services. Moreover, it is a crime punished by law, which makes it a matter of much closer attention from the side of law enforcement officials.