A Thorn in the Heart: Cambodian Men who Buy Sex [-Staggering and shameful statistics]

Executive Summary

We interviewed 133 Cambodian men who had bought sex from adult women in prostitution, with 37% also acknowledging having bought sex from minor girls. Almost all (95%) of the men interviewed for this study stated that children were available for paid sexual abuse in brothels, bars, and massage parlors in Phnom Penh. In order to measure the men's attitudes and behavior, we used previously validated and standardized questionnaires, and a structured interview, yielding both quantitative and qualitative data. Conducted by a specially trained team of 8 interviewers, the interviews each lasted about 2-3 hours. Most of the men said that they had a wife or girlfriend when they used a woman in prostitution. They reported having many sex partners throughout their lifetime (21% had 21-50 sex partners and 35% had 50 or more sex partners). Prostitution was the first sexual experience of most interviewees, many of them having responded to peer pressure and the need to prove their manhood by using a woman in prostitution. Almost all of the men bought sex once a month or more often. Like men in other countries, they bought sex both indoors and on the street. Almost all the men bought women in brothels where they reported observing extreme violence, coercion and threats - evidence that may indicate sex trafficking. Thirty-nine percent of the interviewees described having seen trafficking of women and children. Almost all had bought sex from a woman who was controlled by a pimp. Most frequently the pimps were women but sometimes they were men.

In these interviews, the men dehumanized women in prostitution, seeing them as inferior to other women. They tended to blame prostituted women for the spread of HIV. The sex buyers believe that prostitution prevents rape, although there is no empirical evidence for that. In fact the opposite is more likely to be true: men's prostitution activity is associated with an increased incidence of rape. 1 The men who most strongly supported the institution of prostitution were also those men who had a hostile masculine self-identity. Such men think that dominance is important in love relationships and see relationships with women in adversarial terms. Those men with hostile masculine identities also tended to believe rape myths (for example they believed that women say no to sex when they mean yes, and women who dress provocatively are seeking to be raped).

The study found that men who bought women for sex generally lacked empathy for the women, failing to grasp the extremely negative feelings that the women say that they feel during prostitution. Most of the men in the study told us that in addition to acts of violence against the women they bought for use in prostitution, they had also committed sexually aggressive acts against their non-prostituted partners.

Pornography was used by almost all sex buyers. The men who watched the most pornography bought sex most often. The men who watched more violent pornography reported more frequent incidences of sexually coercive behaviors against both prostituted women and non-prostituted women. Most of the men explained that they copied what they saw in pornography with the prostituted women they bought.

An important component of this research study was the development of a greater understanding of gang rape/bauk prostitution, assumed by some to be a uniquely Cambodian form of gender based violence. From the men's narrative responses to the structured interview and also from statistical analyses, it is clear that viewing gang rape pornography from other cultures (especially western/Caucasian, Japanese, Chinese, and Thai) has a strong effect on some men's decision to perpetrate gang rape against women in prostitution. Many Khmer men reported that they watched gang rape pornography from other cultures and imitated what they saw when they perpetrated bauk against prostituted and non-prostituted women.

The sex buyers indicated that effective deterrents to prostitution would include greater criminal penalty and public exposure. Recommendations based on this research include enforcement of existing laws on prostitution and trafficking against buyers while at the same time decriminalizing women in prostitution, educational programs about the toxic influence of pornography in Khmer culture, and education and prevention programs for youth that challenge the notion that buying sex enhances masculinity.

https://www.box.com/s/4535374ec410a1d4fe32

Domestic Violence Against Sex Workers in Cambodia

December 16, 2010
By Chan Dyna and Keo Sichan and Melissa Cockroft
RH Reality Check

This article is part of a series published by RH Reality Check in partnership with the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) to commemorate the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, December 17th, 2010. It is excerpted from Research For Sex Work 12, published 17 December 2010 by the NSWP, an organization that upholds the voice of sex workers globally and connects regional networks advocating for the rights of female, male, and transgender sex workers. Download the full journal, with eight more articles about sex work and violence, for free at nswp.org. See all articles in this series here.

Much attention related to sex workers in Cambodia in recent times has focused on violence committed by police and local authorities since the passing of the Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation in 2008.(1) In sharp contrast, little attention has been given to violence experienced by sex workers from those closest to them: their husbands, boyfriends and partners. This article provides a brief discussion of intimate partner violence experienced by Cambodian sex workers and some of the challenges for the Cambodian Prostitute Union (CPU) to support them in addressing this issue. Established in 1998, the CPU is the first sex workers collective in Cambodia, providing support, advocacy for sex workers rights, and education on HIV prevention and health care to sex workers based in Phnom Penh.

My husband regularly beats me, every day. Usually he uses his belt or his hand, sometimes he kicks me too. He beats me because we have problems with our income. He doesn’t have a job and relies on me to support him. Even though we don’t have much money, he gambles and plays cards. He also uses yama [methamphetamines]. Sometimes I stay in a guesthouse or at my relatives’ house to try and escape his violence but he always finds me. He follows me everywhere so I cannot escape him. Every night he follows me to the long road where I get my clients. My husband says I should charge $10 per client. He always comes with me and waits for me. After I am finished with the client he collects the money from me. He says that I cannot be trusted with the money because I am stupid.

These are the words of CPU member Song Vann, 28 years of age. She has a 7-year old son who lives with her mother. Song Vann has been with her current husband(2) for over two years. She vividly remembers one particularly violent incident:

One night I only received $5 from a client. When my husband saw that I only had $5 he became very angry. He argued with me, saying that I had kept $5 for myself. He cursed me and pushed me onto the road. I was lying face down. He repeatedly stamped on the back of my head with his foot, banging my face into the road. It didn’t bleed but I got a very large bump on my forehead and scratches across my face. This happened on the side of the main road where sex workers stand to get clients. Maybe ten other women saw my husband do this but they didn’t do anything. It’s normal for a husband to beat his wife. You don’t interfere in one’s family business...

Karma

Like many other Cambodian women, Song Vann believes that she deserves to be beaten:

‘I think I experience violence because I am illiterate and not clever, also because of my past life. Maybe I committed a lot of sins in my past life and now I have to pay for them.’

The CPU sees cases like Song Vann’s all the time. Many members believe that they experience violence and other hardships in their lives because of karma, even though others realise that violence is not because of their sins but because their husbands are bad and Cambodian society tolerates violence against women and sex workers. Solving violence committed by husbands and partners is very difficult. Sometimes the CPU calls the police to intervene when members have experienced domestic violence. Officers then come to the house and say to the husband: ‘If you do this again, we will arrest you.’ But the next day they will say that domestic violence is a family matter that should be resolved in the family, and that they do not want to encourage divorce.

Weak Enforcement of the Law

The 2005 Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence and the Protection of the Victim provides legal protection for women in Cambodia. However for Cambodian women more generally, social and cultural attitudes that encourage silence around reporting of domestic violence and reconciliation between couples, combined with corruption and a lack of understanding of the law by police and local authorities, result in weak enforcement and implementation of the law. As a result, few cases of domestic violence make it to court and where formal complaints are made, frequently out-of-court settlements and non-legally binding divorce contracts are made.

For Cambodian sex workers it is even more difficult. As many Cambodian sex workers typically have no ID card and no permanent address,3 it is difficult for them to make a complaint to the local authorities. Sex workers are also commonly not legally married, which creates difficulties for proving the existence of the relationship to authorities. As sex workers often experience violence at the hands of the police, they are understandably reluctant to approach the police for assistance and do not trust them. Police officers are also likely to discriminate against sex workers, refusing to assist women once they become aware that they are sex workers. Due to the prevalence of corruption within Cambodian society, for sex workers who seek to make a formal complaint, they must also pay unofficial ‘fees’ every step of the way to the police, local authorities and court officials, which many sex workers cannot afford.

How Sex Workers Fight Back

The CPU provides education to sex workers and their abusive husbands about the domestic violence law as well as counselling between husbands and members. The CPU also assists the women to make a formal complaint to the local authorities and will accompany them to ensure that they are not discriminated against. Safe shelter with relevant women’s legal and human rights organisations will also be sought for women who experience extreme violence, at the request of the women. Whilst the CPU cannot provide direct legal assistance, it refers sex workers to supportive local legal or human rights organisations that can provide advice and a lawyer if a sex worker wishes to take the case to court. The CPU leader (Chan Dyna) also regularly talks on public radio to advocate for sex workers’ rights and to stop discrimination and violence against sex workers.

And what happened to Song Vann? The CPU had referred her to a local organisation that could assist her in accessing a safe house, legal services and support, but Song Vann decided to stay with her husband. We understand that it is difficult for her to escape the cycle of violence common in cases of domestic violence and we cannot force her to leave her husband. The CPU continues to provide counselling and support for Song Vann and her husband to try and minimise harm caused to her. We hope that in the future, with the support of other CPU members, she will have the strength and confidence to leave her husband.

About the Authors

Chan Dyna is the leader of the Cambodian Prostitute Union. Keo Sichan and Melissa Cockroft are with the Cambodian Women’s Development Agency, a local women’s NGO which provides technical support and assistance to the CPU.

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Notes

1 How this law has provided justification for the use of force against sex workers has been highlighted through both local advocacy efforts and the report Off the Streets: Arbitrary detention and other abuses against sex workers in Cambodia, published by Human Rights Watch in July 2010.

2 Like many sex workers in Cambodia Song Vann refers to her partner as her ‘husband’ although they are not legally married.

3 In Cambodia to obtain an ID card you need to have a permanent address. Because sex workers frequently move to try to find work or escape crackdowns, they often do not have a fixed address, or they have no relatives whose address they can use. They are also reluctant to go to the authorities to obtain an ID card due to discrimination and mistrust.

Law puts girls at risk in Cambodia

Oct 18, 2010
By Laurinda Luffman
SOS Children

Across Asia, an estimated 10 million girls and women work in prostitution selling sex to around 75 million men. The regional director of UNAIDS in the Asia Pacific has expressed concern that many are being put at risk of infection from HIV/AIDS because of laws outlawing sex work. Worried about being arrested, many women are fearful to be found with condoms, let alone seek legal or medical help when they need it.

In Cambodia, policemen believe it is one of their duties to arrest sex workers. Even though possession of condoms is unlikely to be accepted as evidence in court, having condoms can be a factor in a woman’s arrest. According to a July report from Human Rights Watch, even those who distribute condoms can now be implicated in illegal sex acts. UNAIDS is worried such policies will discourage the use of condoms to protect against HIV/AIDS. Ironically, in Cambodia, the law specifically criminalises HIV transmission and exposure.

The situation in Cambodia used to be very different. A few years ago, the country introduced a 100 percent ‘Condom Use Programme’ which required condoms to be made available for sex workers and allowed for selective enforcement of anti-sex work laws. But in 2008, a new law against sex-trafficking was introduced in Cambodia. This resulted in the closure of most brothels and sent the sex industry underground.

According to a recent BBC documentary, there are an estimated 100,000 sex workers active in Cambodia today. Around one third of these are thought to be girls under the age of eighteen. Since brothels were closed, many girls now work in clubs and bars, where they dance on stages to be selected by male clients. Although the legal age for girls working in these bars is meant to be sixteen, many Cambodian girls start much younger and it is not uncommon to find thirteen or fourteen-year olds in the bars.

In the capital Phnom Penh, the BBC film crew found eighteen-year old Alang, who had been sold into the sex industry at thirteen. Alang’s aunt said she was taking her to the city to study, but instead the girl was sold into the sex industry and kept in a hotel for male clients. Even though Alang escaped more than once from the men who first bought her, she still works as a prostitute. With little formal education, Alang has no other way to support herself, though she wishes there was a way to escape her life in the industry.

As well as lobbying governments over how sex trade laws are being implemented, non-governmental agencies and charitable organisations try to offer support to vulnerable girls. But it is not always easy, particularly when children are often sold into the sex trade by their own families. And with an estimated 500,000 dollars spent every night by Cambodian men in the red light district of Phnom Penh, clearly there is no shortage of demand.

The sex industry in Cambodia: The traffic police

The wrong side of the street (Photo: Ryan Plummer)

Jun 11th 2009 | PHNOM PENH
The Economist

’Tis a pity, but she won’t go away

IN EERIE, deserted silence on the outskirts of Phnom Penh sits the Prey Speu detention centre. Barely legible on its grimy walls a few weeks ago were cries for help and whispers of despair from the tormented souls once crammed into its grimy cells. “This is to mark that I lived in terror under oppression,” read one message.

It recalls a Khmer Rouge torture centre from the genocidal 1970s. But in fact the building was used just last year as a “rehabilitation” centre, where detained sex-workers, along with beggars and the homeless, learnt sewing and cooking. They were rounded up in a crackdown on trafficking for the sex industry. At first an attempt to clean up Phnom Penh, it soon escalated into a violent campaign by the police against prostitutes and those living on the street. According to Licadho, a local human-rights group, guards at the centre beat three people to death, and at least five detainees killed themselves. Sreymoa, a trafficked sex-worker, detained in May 2008 with her four-year-old daughter, recalls daily beatings, rapes and one death.

Partly to allay the previous American administration’s concerns about trafficking, Cambodia in February 2008 outlawed prostitution. Three months later the State Department took Cambodia off its annual “watch-list” of human-trafficking countries. But the police read the law as entitling them to lock up all sex-workers, not help victims of trafficking.

Reports of abuses soon surfaced, at first denied by the government. But in August it halted the raids as the United Nations and NGOs expressed mounting concern. One worry was that they would endanger HIV/AIDS-prevention programmes. The prevalence of HIV in Cambodia had fallen to 0.8% of the population since the government adopted a campaign in 2001 for “100% condom” use. Now, however, fearing the brothels where they worked would be raided, many sex-workers had started plying their trade on the streets or in karaoke bars, where health-care workers could not find them to distribute condoms.

Tony Lisle, of the UN’s AIDS organisation, says that since the raids stopped, HIV-prevention efforts have resumed with more success. Sex-workers in bars as well as brothels are to be covered, and the police to be encouraged to teach sex-workers about condom use. But those campaigning for sex-workers’ rights have objected, fearing that this might give the police a pretext to renew the raids. Jason Barber of Licadho says that for years the government has stopped arbitrary detentions when a fuss has been made, only to restart them as soon as attention has shifted.

Indeed, just before a regional summit in Phnom Penh in late May, the police again herded up beggars, sex-workers and drug-users, and sent them back to Prey Speu, newly reopened (with the graffiti painted over). Detaining sex-workers is much easier than arresting the traffickers. But the global slowdown is adding to the ranks of the unemployed. The World Bank forecasts that 200,000 Cambodians will fall below the poverty line this year. Many will fall into prostitution or beggary, whatever the law says and high-minded donors hope.

New sex law brings problems

Dec 26, 2008
AFP

Cambodia faces problems enforced new sex trafficking law

PHNOM PENH - CHANTHA said there was nothing else she could do in Cambodia but become a prostitute.

'If you don't even have a dollar in your pocket to buy rice, how can you bear looking at your starving relatives?' she said.

'You do whatever to survive, until you start to realise the consequence of your deeds.'

Chanta, in her early twenties, was working in a small red-light district west of the capital Phnom Penh several months ago when she was arrested under Cambodia's new sex-trafficking law.

Police nabbed her in a raid and charged her with publicly soliciting sex, fining her nearly US$2 (S$3). Then, Chanta claims, the arresting officers gang raped and beat her for six days in detention.

Bruises covered her body, but none of her assailants were brought to court, she said.

The Cambodian government began prosecuting a new 'Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation' in February after years of pressure from the United States to clamp down on sex trafficking.

Since then, authorities have conducted brothel raids and street sweeps, but rights groups complain the new law has in many ways worsened the exploitation of women.

'The law allows police of all levels to arrest and punish sex workers,' said Mr Naly Pilorge, director of local human rights group Licadho.

'The sex workers are arrested to police stations and rehabilitation centres and then they are abused.'

More than 500 women were arrested for soliciting sex in the first nine months of 2008, according to anti-trafficking organisation Afesip, with many of them forced into rehabilitation centres.

Rights groups say the new law makes women easier prey for traffickers, and could increase rates of sexually-transmitted infections as prostitutes stop carrying condoms out of fear they will be used as evidence against them.

They also allege that detainees are regularly abused at the two rehabilitation centres controlled by Cambodia's ministry of social affairs, Prey Speu and Koh Kor.

Koh Kor has the added grim reputation of being on an island which was the site of a prison and execution camp under Cambodia's murderous 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime.

Despite Chanta and others testifying to instances of rape, beatings and extortion at the hands of police in the rehabilitation centres, authorities have repeatedly denied the abuses.

Major General Bith Kimhong, director of the interior ministry's anti-trafficking department, said he does not believe anyone has been abused under the new law because he has received no complaints from victims.

More than 100 people were arrested this year, as human trafficking prosecutions increased by 50 per cent, Bith Kimhong said.

The raids on brothels and streetwalkers proved a commitment by the government to end sex trafficking, he said, vowing they would continue.

'We'll continue to cooperate with local authorities to enforce the law,' General Bith Kimhong said.

The new law is one of several moves by the Cambodian government over the past year to show that it is cracking down on sexual exploitation.

In March it imposed ban on foreign marriages amid concerns of an explosion in the number of brokered unions involving South Korean men and poor Cambodian women, many of whom were allegedly being set up for sex slavery.

There have also been a string of arrests of alleged foreign paedophiles, as Cambodia seeks to demonstrate sex tourists are not welcome.

Ms Pich Socheata, deputy governor of one Phnom Penh district, leads 'clean-ups' of prostitution on the streets but said she empathises with sex workers.

'They are female and I am too, so I do understand no girls want to do that job. But we are only practising law,' she said.

But Ms Keo Tha, a staff member at sex workers' rights group the Women's Network for Unity, says many more Cambodian women are still being forced into prostitution as jobs dry up amid the global financial crisis.

A more sensible law, she said, would legalise prostitution.

'We are sandwiched right now - we are oppressed by the police, the law and rising living costs,' she said.