NCJ Number
229254
Date Published
2003
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This VHS video tape is a documentary that uses narration, environmental images, and victim comments to portray the commercial sexual exploitation of children and youth living in the poverty-stricken areas of Central America and the Dominican Republic.
Abstract
This documentary first portrays the environments that place these children at risk for trafficking to the United States for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Narration accompanies images of poverty and family abuse in areas of Central America and the Dominican Republic in order to show why these children are responsive to traffickers' promises of a better life in America. Instead, they become commercial sexual objects for pornography, prostitution, and sexual abuse by their handlers and even corrupt police whom the victims turn to for help. The documentary consists largely of victims' descriptions of their physical and sexual abuse, as well as their emotional abuse. The intent of the video is to present a frank and accurate description of what is happening to these young victims, so that nations singly and in cooperation will act to counter the conditions that spawn desperate children and attract criminal groups that abuse and exploit them for personal appetites and financial gain.