The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

Characteristics of a Sex TouristAmong NDIC interviewees:• 42 percent of respondents reported that sex tourists usually have higher than averagesocioeconomic status. This gives them the opportunity to travel internationally on aregular basis.• 37 percent of respondents reported that sex tourists are usually adult Caucasian males.• 32 percent of respondents reported that sex tourists are usually professionals employed inwhite collar occupations.• 21 percent of respondents reported that sex tourists are usually middle-aged.Criminal Conduct of Sex TouristsAmong NDIC interviewees:• 64 percent of respondents reported that the extent of a sex tourist’s criminal conductinvolves the sexual abuse of minors in foreign countries.• 21 percent of respondents reported that the extent of a sex tourist’s criminal conductinvolves producing child pornography and transporting the images back to the UnitedStates.• 7 percent of respondents reported that sex tourists are usually more violent toward theirvictims in foreign countries because the offender feels that poorer foreign children haveless worth than American children and that he is shielded from law enforcement action inanother country.Link between Child Pornography and Sex TourismAmong NDIC interviewees:• 100 percent of respondents reported that the link between child pornography and sextourism is that the tourist produces images of the abuse in foreign countries and transportsit back to the United States.• Zero percent of respondents reported that there is no link between child pornography andsex tourism.Threat Posed by Sex Tourists in the U.S. and AbroadAmong NDIC interviewees:• 79 percent of respondents reported that sex tourists commit contact offenses abroad andengage in physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse abroad.• 43 percent of respondents reported that sex tourists commit contact offenses and sexualabuse in the U.S.• 21 percent of respondents reported that sex tourists may spread sexually transmitteddiseases abroad.• 14 percent of respondents reported that sex tourists may become desensitized and morebrazen after abusing abroad leading them to start abusing children in the United States.• 14 percent of respondents reported that sex tourism may make it appear acceptable forparents in the United States and abroad to sell their children’s sex for money.Challenges to Law EnforcementAmong NDIC interviewees:D-25