The Situations and Characteristics of Child Sex Tourism (CST) in Cambodia Thailand and Lao PDR and the Recommended Solutions

Abstract

This research qualitative aimed to study the situations and characteristics of Child Sex Tourism (CST) in Cambodia Thailand and Laos in order to provide the recommended solutions to this problem. Case studies, secondary analysis, and in-depth interviews were employed in this study. The 10 targeted key informants for the interviews were from Police Region 2, Police Region 5, DSI, FACE Foundation, CST-related police units in Cambodia and Lao PDR. The findings reveal that the CST offenders mostly found in Thailand and Cambodia were males from western countries. Meanwhile, the CST victims were not much different in gender, mostly from broken family, poor, uneducated, or homeless. The techniques to commit CST included using a broker to bring the victim in, using money to lure the victim, using online network to get access and lure the victim, pretending to be a teacher, a head charity foundation or a good guy to get access to the victim. The recommended solutions to the problems include establishing the more effective law enforcement measures for combatting CST in order to create a better guardian for children, which in turn makes Thailand, Cambodia and Lao PDR less attractive to the CST offenders.