Uncovering Indicators of Commercial Sexual Exploitation

Abstract

It is estimated that annually 100,000 to 300,000 youth are at risk for sex trafficking; a commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or any such act where the person induced to perform such an act is younger than 18 years of age. Increasingly, such transactions are occurring online via Internet-based sites that serve the commercial sex industry. Commercial sex transactions involving trafficking are illegal; thus, Internet discussions between those involved must be veiled. Even so, transactions around sex trafficking do occur. Within these transactions are innuendos that provide one avenue for detecting potential activity. The purpose of this study is to identify linguistic indicators of potential commercial sexual exploitation within the online comments of men posted on an Internet site. Six hundred sixty-six posts from five Midwest cities and 363 unique members were analyzed via content analysis. Three main indicators were found: the presence of youth or desire for youthfulness, presence of pimps, and awareness of vulnerability. These findings begin a much-needed dialogue on uncovering online risks of commercial sexual exploitation and support the need for further research on Internet indicators of sex trafficking.

“Mongering Is a Weird Life Sometimes”: Discourse Analysis of a Sex Buyer Online Community

“…Bounds and colleagues (2017) investigated the discourse of sex buyers from different metropolitan regions in the United States in online communities, using a critical discourse analysis. They proposed the hunter–prey discourse dominated the narrative of sex buyers, primarily related to a sense of entitlement and permission to buy sex, as well as avoidance of becoming the self-described prey of women and law enforcement.…”

“…Bounds and colleagues (2017) explored indicators of sex trafficking in sex buyers’ online posts reviewing women escorts. They noted several specific markers that could indicate the presence of sexual exploitation and trafficking, such as the desire for youthfulness, explicit indication of the presence of pimps, and johns’ expressed awareness of vulnerability of women escorts.…”

Adapting a family intervention to reduce risk factors for sexual exploitation

“…Macrosystem level research has concentrated on public policy to examine the extent of CSE and evaluate the need for services to help individuals impacted by CSE [7,32]. Confusion about sexual exploitation, particularly indicators and definitions of sexual exploitation, has constrained the field [33,34]. In Pearce's exploration of sexual exploitation with practitioners in the field, she noted that lack of clarity and confusion amongst both practitioners and youth can contribute to missed and dismissed legal cases [35].…”

Identifying human trafficking indicators in the UK online sex market

“…The first approach involves identifying trafficking indicators within online sex workers' advertisements. The rationale for this approach is that the presence of indicators of trafficking can enable the identification of suspicious advertisements or potential cases of human trafficking (Bounds et al, 2020;Ibanez & Gazan, 2016;Ibanez & Suthers, 2014;Latonero, 2011;Skidmore et al, 2018). For instance, Ibanez and Gazan (2014) identified seven indicators of online sexual exploitation, including different ages and aliases reported across multiple advertisements, reference to specific nationalities/ethnicities, frequent movement to different locations, or the fact that the sex worker only provided in-call services.…”

“…As some studies underscore (e.g. Volodko et al 2020;Bounds et al 2020;Dubrawski et al 2015), at best, such research can simply flag up suspicious advertisements that deserve closer attention from law enforcement and practitioners. What it cannot do is identify cases of human trafficking.…”