Child Prostitution and Sex Tourism COSTA RICA - Consortium for ...

SUMMARY POINTSThe Organisation of Sexual Exploitation in Costa Rica1. Sexual exploitation in Costa Rica is arranged in a number of different ways:• independent prostitution - autonomous adult and child prostitutes solicit from a variety of settings, includingbars, streets, beaches, discos, casinos.• informal, independent prostitution - women and children enter into informal, non-contractual sexual exchangeswith tourists and expatriates.• third party organised prostitution - the work of some adult and child prostitutes is directly organised andcontrolled by a third party brothel owner, bar owner, hotelier or pimp.• third party promoted prostitution - adult and child prostitution is promoted by some third party bar owners,hoteliers, escort and domestic employment agencies, who benefit financially but do not arrange the details oftransactions.• sexual abuse of domestic servants - 28% of youths between the ages of 12 and 19 are employed as domestics,and there is reason to believe many are sexually abused and exploited by their employers.2. Formal, organised prostitution is vertically segregated in terms of payment, worker control and workingconditions, with child prostitutes generally at the bottom of the pile, earning small sums and exercising very littlecontrol over transactions with clients, and a small 'elite' of more fortunate adult women at the top, earningrelatively good money and exercising far greater control over the details of the prostitute-client exchange.3. The main factors pushing women and children into the most extreme forms of sexual exploitation are:• poverty• drug addiction• absence of alternative means of subsistence• coercion by parents, husbands, drug suppliers and/or employers.The main factors pushing adult women into 'elite' forms of prostitution are:• inadequate income from other employment• absence of alternative employment opportunities• absence of educational opportunities or of alternative means to support study• desire to migrate to economically developed countries.Types of Demand1. Local demand - there is local demand for both adult and child prostitutes in Costa Rica. Local use of childprostitutes may reflect the fact that access to children is cheaper than access to adult women, rather thandenoting a specific sexual preference for children.2. Sailors - adult and child prostitutes in port towns like Limon get a substantial portion of their business fromJamaican, Filipino and Argentinean sailors from ships that dock there weekly.3. Expatriates - large numbers of North Americans retire to Costa Rica, some of whom sexually exploit localwomen and children. There are also other expatriates who work or own businesses in Costa Rica (especially thoseconnected with the tourist industry) who do likewise. Expatriates are also known to be involved in the operationof paedophile rings and the production of child pornography, and the sexual abuse of children employed asdomestics by locals and expatriates is also of particular concern.