Systematic Review of Social Norms, Attitudes, and Factual Beliefs Linked to the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents

"Context-specific social norms interventions are needed to address harmful norms, promote protective norms, and improve services for those who have experienced SECA."

In the global child protection arena, interest in social norms has grown, especially among groups interested in reducing harmful practices such as the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents (SECA). This practice involves taking advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate, or deceive a person under the age of 19 (per the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of childhood) into sexual activity in exchange for material or non-material benefit. SECA does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology. This systematic exploratory review identifies and synthesises data from studies published between 2009 and 2019 on social norms, attitudes, and factual beliefs that have been linked in the global literature with adult-perpetuated SECA. The goal is to inform future efforts to understand, reduce, and respond appropriately to this harmful behaviour.

This study conceives of social norms as people's beliefs about (i) what others in their setting do (descriptive norms) and (ii) the extent to which others in their setting approve of a given behaviour (injunctive norms). People comply with social norms for many reasons, including the anticipation of rewards for complying with the social norm (e.g., increased social status) and negative consequences for violating it (e.g., stigmatisation).

The researchers searched multiple database searches using controlled vocabulary and keywords referring to SECA; after applying exclusion criteria, 55 papers representing 49 studies that included over 14,000 participants from 37 countries and most world regions were included (see Table 1 in the paper). Table 2 summarises the themes that emerged; in brief, they include:

• Descriptive norms (belief about how common SECA is): Few studies explored descriptive norms of SECA; those that did showed notable variation by respondents and setting.
• Injunctive norms:
  • Young people who own certain goods have higher status among their peers: Many studies - most of which were conducted in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) - found that material goods (e.g., mobile phones) were associated with social mobility and status; in some cases, young people were driven to sell or exchange sex to obtain these goods and meet societal expectations.
  • Young people face social pressure from community members to be sexually active: Studies in South Korea, Thailand, and sub-Saharan Africa, for example, found that young people faced pressure from their peers to be sexually active and/or have many partners.
  • Community members expect the exchange of sex for favours: For example, girls reported not being free to refuse sex after receiving money, food, or other gifts.
  • Young people are expected by their communities to contribute financially to their families: Community expectations that young women should contribute to the household has led families to take girls out of school, which reportedly increased their vulnerability to SECA.
  • Sexually exploited young people are stigmatised by their communities: Studies found that stigma could perpetuate SECA in various ways, including by acting as a barrier to seeking help to leave sex work.
  • Perpetrators of SECA are socially tolerated by their communities: Evidence from the Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Nepal, Tanzania, and Uganda suggests that perpetrators of SECA are socially tolerated in their communities.
• Attitudes:
  • Acceptance of SECA when used as a way to provide for oneself or family: For example, participants in Uganda who described informal sexual exchange as "wrong" and "shameful" seemed to accept the behaviour when it was in pursuit of education.
  • Disapproval of the commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents: Social sanctions against sexually exploited young people were underpinned by pervasive reporting of negative attitudes towards the commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents across all regions covered by this review.
  • Acceptance of SECA when it occurs with older, or more physically developed, children or adolescents: For example, in Brazil and Uganda, participants reported greater community acceptance of perpetrators of sexual exploitation of young people when the child or adolescent was older or more physically developed.
• These attitudes, and the lack of negative social sanctions against SECA perpetrators, are underpinned by three factual beliefs:
  • Children's and adolescents' readiness for sex is determined solely by age or physical development.
  • Men have powerful sexual urges that are hard for them to resist.
  • Intergenerational relationships can be beneficial.
• Intersecting marginalisation (social class, homelessness, pregnancy, disability, sexuality, gender, ethnicity): Findings from all regions covered in this review suggest that marginalised young people are particularly vulnerable to SECA.

In reflecting on the findings, the researchers:

• Advocate for further research on context-specific descriptive norms surrounding SECA and how they connect to the behaviours of both young people and those who sexually exploit them.
• Note the stark difference between the stigmatisation of young people who have been sexually exploited and the lack of such stigmatisation of perpetrators. They explain that "[t]his norm is underpinned by adherence to harmful conceptualizations of masculinities, and research is needed to understand how men experience these social norms in specific contexts, and how they can be engaged to promote protective social norms around sex....[S]ocial disapproval and negative social sanctioning of perpetrators of SECA...could...play an essential role in combatting SECA."
• Argue that, to be effective, interventions to reduce SECA should consider individual, social, and structural factors, and how they interrelate. Such interventions "must also address norms sustaining perpetration, focusing on decreasing norms promoting male entitlement to sex. Structural interventions, on the other hand, are particularly relevant in poverty-affected areas, where lack of access to resources...often drive[s] SECA."
• Suggest that "[i]nterventions that target norms and attitudes in the population, including those of service providers, are needed to promote the acknowledgement that girls are not to blame for their sexual exploitation, and that boys and disabled young people can also be sexually exploited, in order to decrease barriers to services for these populations and provide environments free from exploitation."
• Urge attention to ethical issues, noting care must be taken "to ensure interventions incorporate local perspectives and engage the main beneficiaries in their development, including those from the most vulnerable, marginalized groups."