NCJ Number
205053
Journal
Journal of Trauma Practice Volume: 2 Issue: 3/4 Dated: 2003 Pages: 133-146
Date Published
2003
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study examined the psychosocial and cultural context for brothel prostitution in Cambodia.
Abstract
In Cambodia, the honor and reputation of a woman and her family are based first on her virginity and later on her marital fidelity. Despite the ideal of virtue, more women and children have been prostituted in Cambodia since the early 1990’s than ever before. Most women and children who are trafficked into the sex industry are paying off the debts of their parents or relatives. The author interviewed six women and adolescent girls living in brothels during April and July 1996. Participants ranged in age from 14 to 23 years and their length of time in the brothel ranged from 3 weeks to 1 year. Interview questions focused on demographics, childhood history and quality of familial relationships, account of entry into prostitution, and living conditions within brothels. The psychological impact of prostitution was probed and health concerns, including HIV and condom use, were discussed with the participants. Finally, interviews focused on the meaning of prostitution for the participants and their families; areas of strength, coping skills, and hopes for the future were assessed. The results, analyzed qualitatively, reveal the participant’s histories of being sold into prostitution and their ensuing sexual trauma and victimization. Most women and girls working in brothels are between the ages of 15 and 20, thus the psychological impact of being forced into sexual slavery disrupts normal adolescent development. The consequences of sex work in terms of shame, trust versus betrayal, self-blame, grief, depression, and fear are all examined. Strategies the captive women used to enhance their survival are reviewed and include flirtatious behavior toward clients and attempting to make clients feel sorry for them. The cultural duties of the “good daughter” are discussed and implicated in the sexual exploitation of adolescent girls and women. Finally, resilience and coping strategies among prostituted women and girls are briefly sketched and the International Catholic Migration Commission’s New Life for Young Women project is introduced as a residential facility for adolescent girls rescued from brothels. The prostitution of women and girls must be addressed at a global level in order to stop the institutions and individuals that support and maintain prostitution. References