Richard Estes, MSW, DSW

Professor

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Research - Current Projects

The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico

Project Description:
The benefits of economic globalization, internationalization, and free trade have brought with them an unanticipated set of social problems. Among these new challenges is what appears to be a dramatic rise worldwide in the incidence of the "child sexual exploitation" (CSE)--including the commercial use by adults of children as the subjects of pornography, as prostitutes and as mobile "sex workers" in national and international sex "trafficking." Evidence also exists that the CSE may have increased appreciably in the United States, Canada and Mexico since passage in 1994 of the region's North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

This project represents an innovative approach to the systematic collection of first-generation data concerning the nature, extent and seriousness of child sexual exploitation in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The project was organized around the following objectives: 1) identification of the nature, extent, and underlying causes of CSE and the CSEC occurring in the three countries of the North American Free Trade region (hereafter "NAFTA")-the U.S., Canada, and Mexico; 2) identification of those subgroups of children that are at the greatest risk of being sexually exploited; 3) identification of subgroups of adult perpetrators of sex crimes against children-including pimps, traffickers, and adult "customers" of children for sex; 4) identification of the extent to which organized criminal units are involved in the CSEC; 5) identification of the modes of operation and other methods used by organized criminal units to recruit children into sexually exploitative activities; 6) identification of local, state and national laws relating to CSE and the CSEC; 7) identification of international agreements, covenants and declarations pertaining to CSE and the CSEC; 8) identification of the strengths and weakness of the country's current capacity for preventing CSE, or at least protecting children from its commercial manifestations; and, 9) with governmental and nongovernmental leaders, frame recommendations designed to strengthen the nation's capacity to prevent and protect the nation's and region's children from sexual exploitation.

Project Sponsors:
U.S. National Institute of Justice; Penn School of Social Work Research Development Fund; Penn School of Social Work Dean's Discretionary Fund; University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation; William T. Grant Foundation; Fund for Nonviolence.

Separate funding was obtained to support the Canadian and Mexican national studies.

Project Dates:
1999-2003

Project Staff:
Richard J. Estes, Principal Investigator
Neil Weiner, Co-Principal Investigator

Research Sites:
28 cities located in the United States, Canada and Mexico

Related Publications:
Richard J. Estes & Neil A. Weiner. The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in North America (in preparation, 2003).

Richard J. Estes & Neil A. Weiner. The Silent Emergency: The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the United States (in preparation, 2003).

Elena Azaola & Richard J. Estes. (2003). La Explotación Sexual de Niños en México, Estados Unidos y Canadá (The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Mexico, the United States and Canada), (Mexico City: Siglo XXI Editores)--in press.

Richard J. Estes, Sharon Cooper & Anthony Giardino. (2003). "Reducing Child Sexual Exploitation: An Agenda for Action," (with Sharon Cooper and Angelo Giardino) in Angelo P. Giardino, Sharon W. Cooper, Victor I. Vieth and Nancy D. Kellogg (Editors) Medical and Legal Aspects of Child Sexual Exploitation (St. Louis: GW Medical Publishing) [in preparation]

Richard J. Estes & Neil A. Weiner (2003). "The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the United States," in Angelo P. Giardino, Sharon W. Cooper, Victor I. Vieth and Nancy D. Kellogg (Editors) Medical and Legal Aspects of Child Sexual Exploitation (St. Louis: GW Medical Publishing) [in press].

Richard J. Estes, Elena Azaola, & Nicole Ives. (2003). "North American Regional Dimensions of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children," in Angelo P. Giardino, Sharon W. Cooper, Victor I. Vieth and Nancy D. Kellogg (Editors) Medical and Legal Aspects of Child Sexual Exploitation (St. Louis: GW Medical Publishing) [in press].

Project Web Site:
www.sp2.upenn.edu/~restes/CSEC.htm