Research articleBoys are not exempt: Sexual exploitation of adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa
Introduction
Adolescent sexual relationships that involve the exchange of money, material goods, or services for sex, described variously as transactional sex, survival sex, or sexual exploitation, have long been linked to HIV/AIDS and other sexual risk behaviours (Dunkle et al., 2006, Luke, 2003, Pettifor et al., 2005). Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989) and one of its optional protocols (adopted in 2000), purchasing sex from adolescents under the age of 18 with money or other consideration is defined as child prostitution or sexual exploitation, even when the purchaser is also a youth (Office of the High Commission on Human Rights, 2000, 1989). Nearly all countries in the world have signed onto the optional protocol, which commits them to enacting laws and creating policies and programs to prevent sexual exploitation and assist victims. In this study, we use “sexual exploitation” when studies (including this one) describe transactional sex experienced by those under age 18, and transactional sex when the youth reporting exchanging sex include both those younger and older than 18.
Although there has generally been gender asymmetry in the prevalence of reported cases of sexual exploitation, with girls reporting higher rates than boys, evidence from more population-based studies in Western countries indicates that boys constitute a significant portion, sometimes even equal prevalence, of the sexually exploited population (see e.g., Edward, Iritani & Hallfours 2006; Homma, Nicholson & Saewyc 2012; Lavoie et al., 2010, Pedersen and Hegna, 2003; Saewyc, MacKay, Anderson & Drozda, 2008; Svedin & Priebe 2007). While the reality of boys’ sexual exploitation has been recognized and studied in Western research, albeit less commonly than among girls, it remains quite nebulous in the sub-Saharan African context where boys are often excluded in sexual exploitation victimization studies.
The neglect of boys in the sexual exploitation victimization literature in sub-Saharan Africa could largely be attributed to the often problematic description of transactional sexual behaviours as something akin to the traditional bride price system in sub-Saharan Africa. Though motivations for exchanging sex for material benefits are complex and not always made explicit by study participants, some researchers have tended to conflate transactional sexual behaviour among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa with the normative gift-giving common in traditional African marriages or romantic relationships (Nobelius et al., 2010).
Rooted in the “bride wealth” or “bride price” practice, where the groom and his kin group present monetary and other material gifts to the bride and her family as a token to certify the marriage, gift-giving within sexual relationships is common practice in sub-Saharan Africa. Even though these traditional bride price payments occur during the marriage process and involve formal negotiations between families (Dunkle et al., 2007, Nukunya, 2003), some researchers have explained and attempted to ‘normalize’ sexual relationships involving the exchange of sex for material resources among unmarried youth in sub-Saharan Africa by drawing on this traditional bride price system, and concomitantly perceiving adolescent transactional sexual behaviour in a unidirectional manner: females as recipients and males as givers (Masvawure, 2010, Nobelius et al., 2010).
Unsurprisingly, the general research on sexual exploitation in sub-Saharan Africa continues to focus almost exclusively on adolescent females as victims, with males as perpetrators. For instance, the most recent editions of the Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys (2008 and 2013) incorporated a question about sexual exploitation by asking male respondents whether they “have ever paid anyone in exchange for sex” but failed to enquire whether they have ever received something from anyone in exchange for sex. In the few available population-based surveys where adolescent boys were also asked (in their own native languages) whether they have received money or gifts from someone for having sex, some researchers have treated their affirmative responses with suspicion, arguing that the boys might have misunderstood the question, and then proceeded to exclude their data from further quantitative analyses, while assuming girls understood the question as worded (see e.g., Moore et al., 2007).
As a consequence, population-based research on adolescent boys’ sexual exploitation in sub-Saharan African countries is lacking. This neglect is unfortunate. As Saewyc (2012) argued, when we limit sexual and reproductive health research to only girls and young women, we effectively omit half of the sexually active population, and consequently miss them in health care practices, sexual health education, sexual health policies, as well as sexual violence support services. It is therefore important to analyze the responses of boys, to assess whether the factors associated with sexual exploitation are common for both adolescent boys and girls in sub-Saharan Africa.
Sexual exploitation is a form of sexual violence or sexual abuse, although not all adolescents will identify it as such (Edinburgh, Harpin, Pape-Blabolil, & Saewyc, 2015; Holger-Ambrose, Edinburgh, Langmade, & Saewyc, 2013), nor do some adults, even those in law enforcement (Mitchell, Finkelhor & Wolak, 2010). There are a number of antecedents or contextual factors that have been associated with sexual exploitation globally. Homelessness, extreme poverty, and family displacement (including through armed conflicts) increase the risk of sexual exploitation among children and adolescents (Ndulo, 2009; Chettiar, Shannon, Wood, Zhang, & Kerr, 2010; UNICEF, UNESCAP, & ECPAT, 2006). Sexual abuse by family members or other adults that is not explicitly sexual exploitation, i.e., without exchanging sex for material goods, has also been identified as a common antecedent to sexual exploitation (Saewyc et al., 2008, Walls and Bell, 2011), as has early onset of alcohol and other drug use (Saewyc, Drozda, Rivers, MacKay, & Peled, 2013; Edward et al., 2006; Edinburgh et al., 2015). These antecedents have been noted for both boys and girls in some studies; to the extent that boys reporting sexual exploitation in sub-Saharan Africa report similar backgrounds and risk exposures, it seems likely to expect their responses to have indicated victimization through selling sex, rather than being the exploiter who is purchasing sex.
In addition to examining the potential differences and similarities in risk and protective factors for both boys and girls, another way to assess the reliability of boys’ responses to sexual victimization questions in surveys is to examine whether boys’ sexual exploitation is linked to similar risky sexual behaviours as those noted among girls. One potential marker could be the increased risks of concurrent multiple sexual partnerships among adolescents involved in exploitative sexual relationships. As Kuate-Defo (2004) noted, sexually exploited adolescents generally enter into sexual relations with their exploiting partners for financial or material gain, and not for sexual pleasure per se. Among sexually exploited youth, sexual fulfillment is often sought by keeping other romantic partners. Indeed, Silberschmidt and Rasch (2001) have observed that among adolescent girls in Tanzania, they do not consider sexual intercourse with financially endowed older men as an activity by which their own sexual desires would be met. Silberschmidt and Rasch (2001) noted the adolescents admitted they rather enjoyed sex much better with other partners.
This helps explain why research in a number of sub-Saharan African contexts has observed that girls who exchange sex for material resources are significantly more likely to be involved in other risky sexual behaviours, such as maintaining concurrent multiple sexual partners. We argue that adolescent boys who indicate that they have received money or gifts from someone for having sex will also manifest similar risky sexual behaviour since, like their female counterparts, they may also be trapped in situations where they would have otherwise not have chosen to be sexually active (Dunkle et al., 2007, Hunter, 2002, Kaufman and Stavrou, 2004).
This research therefore aims to contribute to the literature on adolescent sexual exploitation in sub-Saharan Africa by investigating whether there are differences in the factors associated with transactional sex among adolescent boys and girls in sub-Saharan Africa. We further ask whether boys’ sexual exploitation is linked with similar risky sexual behaviours such as having concurrent multiple sexual partners, as noted among girls in sub-Saharan Africa. Given the HIV/AIDS epidemic and other reproductive health challenges in sub-Saharan Africa, our findings could provide useful insights for the design and implementation of future research projects in the African context and inform policy guidelines for improving sexual and reproductive health outcomes in the region.
Section snippets
Data
The data used in this study were obtained from the 2004 National Survey of Adolescents conducted in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa—Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda. These nationally representative household surveys remain the only publically available population-based data with information on sexual exploitation for both girls and boys in sub-Saharan Africa. The data collection were carried out as part of the Guttmacher Institute-led study titled, “Protecting the Next Generation:
Results
Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics of the variables, stratified by gender and age. About 3% of unmarried young adolescent boys (aged 12–17 years old) had traded sex during the past 12 months, compared to about 8% of unmarried young adolescent girls, with significant gender differences in the likelihood of trading sex (χ2 = 19.2, p < 0.001). The pattern is the same for older adolescents (18–19 years old), with about 21% of the older adolescent girls reporting transactional sex in the past
Discussion
Using unique data on adolescents from four sub-Saharan African countries, we assessed whether the factors associated with transactional sex are common for both adolescent boys and girls, and whether boys’ sexual exploitation is also linked with similar risky sexual behaviours, such as having concurrent multiple sexual partners as noted among girls in sub-Saharan Africa.
Results from this study revealed that about 4% of unmarried adolescent boys had traded sex during the past 12 months compared
Conclusion
Evidence worldwide indicates that one of the serious risks adolescents face is sexual exploitation. Formally defined as the exchange of any sexual activities by someone under 18 years of age for money, drugs, food, shelter, or other goods, or even for services, such as transportation (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1989), adolescent sexual exploitation has several implications for the HIV/AIDS epidemic, unwanted pregnancies, and their associated impact on
Acknowledgment
This study has been funded in part by grant # TE3-138302 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute of Gender & Health.
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2021, Child Abuse and NeglectCitation Excerpt :Even though in the current study more females than males reported sexual violence victimization, the firm position of this study is that boys who experience sexual violence victimization should not be overlooked, as the estimates also underscore the fact that boys are not exempt from sexual violence victimization. Thus, perhaps, as recommended by UNICEF and leading researchers (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi, & Lozano, 2002; Moynihan et al., 2018; UNICEF, 2014b; Wekerle, 2018), it is now imperative to give equal attention – as given to girls – to the understanding and prevention of sexual abuse of boys, particularly, in LAMICs (Adjei & Saewyc, 2017; Hounmenou, 2017; Sumner et al., 2016). The finding that female gender was associated with nearly three times the odds of sexual violence victimization is consistent with the global evidence that girls, compared with boys, are at increased risk of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse (Finkelhor, Shattuck, Turner, & Hamby, 2014; Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi, & Lozano, 2002; UNICEF, 2014a, 2014b; UNICEF et al., 2020).
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