BREAK THE CHAINS OF OPPRESION AND THE YOKE OF ...

study 5 of children’s attitudes to prostitution among pupils of the 2 nd , 6 th and 9 th
classes at elementary schools in Prague and Cheb. 42% of the children questioned
in Cheb characterised prostitution as a possibility of earning for people
without an education. In Prague by contrast it was 4,6 of the children 6 .
This result is alarming. In areas with a shortage of jobs and high unemployment,
where the prospects for personal development are poor and prostitution generally
widespread, the population can regard prostitution with tolerance or indeed
benevolence. The boundaries between what is desirable, tolerable or inacceptable
are visibly displaced. In socially weak families and areas where the demand for
sexual services is relatively strong, children can respond to the pressure of their
social surroundings (including the people closest to them) and consumers and so
fall prey to pimps and human traffickers. Accordingly poor future prospects and
unstable family relations play a dominant role in child prostitution and child
trafficking. Although this connexion does not look much different in the case of
children and young people compared with adult victims of human trafficking, a
further boundary is crossed here: the vulnerability of children who have no
choice is exploited in extremely degrading fashion. At this point the instruments
of criminal law are challenged in a special way.
The Roma
EXPLoita Tion
In connexion with human trafficking in border regions it is necessary to give
particular attention to the so-called Roma question. Because of the fact that
there are no statistics for the Czech Roma, statements about their numerical
presence in the scenes of prostitution and child prostitution are speculative. The
starting point for �further �reflection � can therefore �only �be
such experienced data
as are based on local observations. Representatives of local social services report
on entire living areas and whole communities where Roma clans live, for example
in the regions of West Bohemia, Chomutov or by Teplice. There are areas
here which are exclusively inhabited by socially marginalised population groups.
A range of these Roma families live from the prostitution of their very young
women, who in part can be under 18 years old, in some cases even much
younger. In this opaque environment child prostitution is on offer. Admittedly
this criminal market operates under cover, because it is also strongly bound up
with blackmail of the customers of the under-age prostitutes. This problematic
situation is the result of a completely failed attempt to reintegrate the Roma in
the Czech Republic in the second half of the twentieth century. The Roma were
uprooted from their traditional life-style without being offered alternative mod-
5 Eva Vaníčková, Dětská prostituce, Prague 2005, 2 2007, Grada.
6 1585 children were questioned; they were asked 23 questions.
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