Prostitution of Children and Child Prostitutes

whoredom Prostitution is delimit as the bout, practice or commerce of offering the ashes for know leadgeable traffic for silver. (New Websters Dictionary 1995802). The Encyclopedia Ameri displacea (1997) defined harlotry as the performance of sexual acts with an some an different(prenominal)(prenominal) person in fork away for the pay custodyt of a fee. Child harlotry is thence, whoredom embarked upon by babyren who argon under the be on of 18 and ar supposed to be catered for by their pargonnts.It is commonly hold that acts of harlotry are performed by women for men nevertheless occasions arise when the acts are d hotshot by men for men. The mise en scene of this work tidy sums particularly with distaff squirt prostitution. UNICEF considers kidskin prostitutes as young daughters in sex trade, who are between the get on with bracket of 8 and 16. (Jubilee legal action tell 1995). In the Nigerian milieu, prostitutes below the age of 18 are regarded as k idskin prostitutes, since only persons above 18 age of age are statutorily regarded as adults.Child prostitution is the sexual exploitation of girls and adolescentrs ( brace February 8, 20036). getable data show that al to the highest degree 1. 5 cardinal boorren in India, 1 million in Asia, 100,00 children in United States and 500 children in Latin America are in drill(p) in prostitution (Healy, 199535). Awake (February 8,20032) reported,there were most 300,000 child prostitutes on the tracks, in a nonher land where drug trafficking flourishes. According to Jubilee Action report (199510), up to 1 million female children join prostitution each(prenominal) year around the globe.However, the clandestine character of child prostitution deems it impossible to draw a bead on the exact number of working prostitutes, stock-still the International Labour physical composition (ILO) comp finish up (1993-1994), estimates that between 0. 25% and 1. 5% of the derive female popula tion are engaged in this trade. Globally, child prostitution is hot and it is also regarded as a bestial crime, yet it persists. Why? Child prostitution does not just happen. It is caused by a variety of figures some are perpetrated by the prostitutes themselves, while other components are eruptside(a) to the prostitutes themselves.This is really a growing chore in developed world and evolution world analogous Nigeria (Quintanilla, 199720). CAUSES OF CHILD harlotry IN Owerri Municipal Council 1. Misery and mendicancy Poverty is the most common argue why most families sell the work of their female children to augment their in go into in align to buy food or clothes and other necessities of life. (Janssen, 200110). The case of child labor party is a typical factor that exposes children to prostitution. The leased female children are sent out to hawk food items on the streets, motor parks, and mechanic garages thereby exposing them to snipes as surface as sexual har assment s.Barnes H. C. (195995) ascertained that some females discern to prostitution callable to sheer destitution. Awake (February 8,20035) reported that some street children resort to prostitution because they devour it as their only federal agency of survival. The Awake further related an experience of a beat of 14-year-old girl who lured her daughter into this black trade. The char said about her daughter, she was delightful and that men would like her very much. Besides, she would authorize a lot of coin. In the evenings, the char contains her daughter to a motel where they make contacts.The mother stays nearby to receive the payments. separately night, this girl has sex with three or four men. 2. UNEMPLOYMENT Unemployment of either the parents or the child results in unreliable source of income thereby forcing children into prostitution as an alternative means of income to support the family. Ironically, the International Labour Organization ob assists that a ch ilds talent to ingest money is limited. It is estimated that the money realise by the child only imparts to approximately 10% of the familys overall income and therefore has minimal effect on the familys monetary gain (Dimenstein, 199412).Due to high full point of unemployment, the whorehouses employ some female children who serve in their drinking musca volitans to fight their business. 3. HUMANS TRAFFICKING Human trafficking is another abhorrence leaders to child prostitution. Human trafficking which mean the worlds third largest turn activity following only after(prenominal) drug and weapons trafficking is some propagation purported to send teenagers to other countries to work. These would-be workers who sometimes end up prostitutes actually work and repatriate money to their respective basis countries (Awake, February 8, 2003 5). more times, hard times hit these fellows as they are deported to come and continue this handicraft at home. round of the female prostit utes come home to take some younger females to their places either to divine service them or to make them their servants and at the long run they get converted to prostitution, which is their brag profession. 4. DECEPTION ENCOURAGES harlotry Pimps or brothel induceers deceive some parents by gainful them money and assuring to enlist their children in their domestic services, which later turns to be prostitution.These brothel owners who are termed the girls owners take control of the childs activities. moreover, these owners do everything possible to retain these girls who earn money for them to maintain their lavish life-style (Robinson, 200150) and (Dimenstein 199410). Apart from the pimps, other intermediaries who benefit from child prostitution do anything possible to tick off the act continued. Most females are led into this act of prostitution by their masters. or so of them could be anaesthetized by their masters in state to have fun with them and when eventually the woman of the house gets to know about the act she will be thrown out side to continue the act with other men including the master. 5. DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY ENVIRONMENT PROMOTES PROSTITUTION Children of broken homes sleep wherever they put on space to do so in the day, and go to the disco and nightclubs in the night. Ekejiuba I. K. (199613) ascertained that ill treatment of children at home might make them to take to the street in order to find solace.Then the end result whitethorn be the monger of their body to support themselves. 6 unforesightful EDUCATION Some children cannot support themselves materially in view of low educational training they received, so they resort to prostitution as their only profession (Rodriguez- Garcia, 199955). Girl-child grooming Initiative In Africa (January 200320) highlights the effect of myopic education in the whole of Africa. In connection with poor education, peer gouge, incompetent association The causes and effects of child prostitutio n in Owerri Municipal Council and street ganging contribute to child prostitution.Identifiably, a girl may end up as a prostitute by her association, peer pressure and by running with a street gang (Okebugwu, 198925) Adetore, (197460) Oti (198415) and Daily Times ( may 15,199912). 7. AIDS SCARE PROMOTES CHILD PROSTITUTION The high incidence of sexually patrimonial diseases like AIDS make customers of prostitutes to get a line for children who are considered to be of low risk, and most probably virgins (Robinson, 200113). Patrons of child prostitutes are ordain to pay a great deal of money to be a girls first client.In the streets, brothels and drinking spots these days a lot of female children are being employed to athletic supporter lure more male customers to their spots. Places like Amaram by Tetlow Road and some places in Onyeche Street in Owerri have a high number of female child prostitutes who are employed only to avail their business. This is because there is the fear that other previous(a) female prostitutes in the same profession could have various STDs. 8. DRUG nuisance AND ADDICTION ARE PRO-CHILD PROSTITUTIONThe influence of drugs can subject a child to prostitution and to certain indignifying acts of prostitution which she may other never agree to given her profound mind (Lewis 198070) and Udechi (198715). 9. REBELLION AND FEELING OF freedom This is another factor promoting child prostitutions. Some girls are shamelessly bold. What is more, they feel that the body is theirs thus they should decide what to do with their body. (Bennet, G and Robert, P. 1985207). 10. PORNOGRAPHY AGGRAVATES CHILD PROSTITUTION carbon black also puts viewers at change magnitude risk for developing sexually unnatural tendencies. Awake July 22, 20037). Pornography is place as promoting the rape myth which is a persuasion that women cause and enjoy rape. Additionally, the repeated use of pornography interferes with the ability to enjoy and insert in normal married intimacy. Dr. maestro Cline, who specializes in treating sex addiction claims that deviant sexual acts results when a viewer tries to act out the pornography-based fantasies. 11. Incestuous violation and rape in homes as a factor Some youths were raped in their own homes, which act changed their outlook in life.Some of such(prenominal) ones give vent to prostitution. Two other closely related causes of prostitution are glamor associated with it and insatiable sexual urges in some females. Blag(197668) observed that some prostitutes take to this lifestyle because of their innate desire for beguile or that they want to maintain a standard of life, which is impossible by average means of earning, a life reverberating of Greek aether. On the other hand, Ekejiuba(199614) identified other females, nymphomaniacs, who engage in prostitution for the sake of fun or delight they derive from it. 2 SUDDEN image Furthermore, illicit love affairs in the presence of children may subj ect them to earlier prostitution. Some parents perform extra marital affairs in the presence of their wards. This exposes the children to archeozoic sex life. The premature death of one or both of the parents has also been discovered as one of the causes of child prostitution. Because of the chasm created by such loss, a teenage girl may be fraught with the hard task of catering for herself and other family members. More importantly, no one may pull through to give stern guideline on her.One Owerri girl who returned from Kumasi Ghana claimed that her father died when she was eight-spot years. This demise of his father left her with the responsibleness of catering for her younger siblings and her mother who hails from Kumasi, Ghana. These challenges make her to dabble into prostitution. Child prostitution is not without its consequences, some of which are adoptmingly pardonable, whereas others are taboo at mere pertain of them. High patronage of child prostitutes by wealthy m en is another factor that has caused and sustained child prostitution ( Ekejiuba 1996 13).Some teenage girls find it difficult to resist the temptation of prostitution because of huge sum of money they receive there-from. This accounts for why some IMSU, Alvan and FUTO ladies quick avail themselves for this business. Marxist oriented scholars see prostitution as an outgrowth of capitalism. Many of these see the gradual removal of allowance from petroleum, which is the main balance of Nigerian parsimoniousness as exposing many persons to difficulty and leading to sexual promiscuity.