I wasn't intending to do a full-blown review, but since I got tagged by June, I suppose I have to (boo!)

I attended an AWARE forum on child prostitution last Friday. Yu-mei was wondering if it was still possible to have anything reasonably politically incorrect to say about child prostitution.

Various concerns I had and points raised during the talk:

Philosophical problems with cracking down on Child Prostitution
- People love to use the blanket term of "Pedophilia" when the phenomenon of going for post-pubescent yet still under-aged individuals is more properly termed "Ephebophilia" (just see all my Emma Watson and, to a lesser extent, Daniel Radcliffe search referrals; no one looks for Rupert Grint!)
- One said if she wanted to eat and get shelter, she had to prostitute herself. If you take away the choice from such girls, does it make their lives any better? Presumably (for those who aren't coerced) they live better lives as prostitutes than they would otherwise. Perhaps it would be better to look into the (or at least the most major) ultimate cause of child prostitution - poverty; the forum didn't touch on this at all.
- One factor cited as causing difficulties was 'cultural conditioning'. At the very least, this raises a further complication and lies them open to charges of presumptuousness, since it can equally be argued that Muslim women wear tudungs because of cultural conditioning, and women in the West get plastic surgery and breast implants because of cultural conditioning.
- Once again, the ugly face of entrapment shows itself - take the case of Darwis Rianto Lim. Though in this case the law enforcement officials don't seem to have taken the first step in approaching him (he put out ads looking for young boys first)

Philosophical problems with extra-territoriality
- Extra-territoriality smacks of arrogance and presumptuousness: "Ah, our laws are better than yours", yet in many cases local authorities are unwilling or unable to take action. The issues of double criminality and double jeopardy bear a closer look though
- Double criminality is the principle that to prosecute someone on an extra-territorial basis, what you're prosecuting him for must be illegal in the country where the act was committed. Double jeopardy is the principle that you cannot prosecute someone twice for the same crime.
- One speaker, passionate about the cause to the extent of being gleeful, was in favour of spreading the net "as wide as possible" and thus ignoring these twin principles, yet as I pointed out, there is a very good reason why these legal safeguards exist. Her response was the double jeopardy is infeasible because the legal system in these Third World countries sucks; the judges can be bribed and the children can be bought off to withdraw their testimony (some fella paid off a child with US$7,000, who then withdrew his testimony. And so his punishment [a fine] got reduced). Fair enough.
- Her response about double criminality was deeply unsatisfying, though. She asserted that it impeded rather than promoted justice. Her example was that the age of consent in Canada is 18, and that in Cambodia it used to be 14 but has recently been amended such that having sex with a 14-16 year old is an offence only if the two parties are in a relationship which can be abused for sexual purposes (eg Teacher-student). I don't see how this supported her point, unless it was that the Canadian notion of Illegality was superior to the Cambodian notion - "You can't protect your children, so we will do it for you"

Problems with implementation
- How does one determine the age of the prostitutes? Often records are not available, and the girls don't know or won't say. Supposedly you can rely on appearance and medical opinion, yet there is always a margin of error (and South East Asian girls apparently don't look their age too). But even if there's only a 1 year margin of error, this can be enough to cross the line from jailbait to barely legal. Is it worse to convict 1 innocent man than let 10 guilty men go?
- One audience member raised the problem of what if the offender is also young. Even an 18 year old boy having sex with a 14 year old girl should be treated more leniently than a 38 year old man who does the same. A panelist responded that it is very unlikely that an 18 year old would travel overseas to have sex with children, but then in Singapore when an underaged boy has sex with an underaged girl in Singapore he goes to jail while the girl runs away scot-free, so I have no faith in judicial discretion on this type of issue; laws should be drafted out clearly and with the vagaries of reality in mind (See also: hanging someone who trafficked drugs because his mother would've been killed otherwise, D has a very good explanation of why the mandatory death penalty here is unjust)
- What happens if the men don't know the prostitutes are underaged? One interviewee said most guys did not bother to ask her her age. One UNIFEM interviewer interviewed 400 girls involved in underage prostitution, and none of them were asked their age. If the men don't know, it is ridiculous to hit them with this law. Not all underaged prostitutes look underaged and anyway they'd be motivated to lie to get business (assuming the men in question are not there for the purpose of having sex with under-aged girls). Bear in mind that if a man in Singapore has sex with a girl who lies about her age (or even forges an IC), he is still liable for conviction for underaged sex.
- One speaker spoke of the need to treat Child Witnesses differently and to protect them from the rigors of a proper criminal trial and cross-examination. Of course, there is a very good reason why such legal safeguards exist. More importantly, there are psychological problems with softcore information-gathering techniques. Children are susceptible to Suggestion and sometimes might say what they think the interviewers want to hear to make them happy. In extreme cases, there's also False Memory Syndrome.
- One speaker spoke glowingly of how in the USA, according to 2003's Protect Act, the mere intention of traveling overseas to have sex with minors is an offence (there's no need to prove that the sexual act took place). This seems to, at the very least, border upon a thoughtcrime and Minority Report, like the Singaporean law prescribing ">the Death Penalty for imagining "the death of or hurt to or imprisonment or restraint of the President" (and levies a fine on you to boot, though I doubt that'd bother you much if you were dead).

Overzealousness
- People tend to overreact and get overprotective whenever children are involved. The urge is to whack the wicked predators as hard as possible. Where alleged sex crimes are concerned, the man is always in the wrong, and this is doubly so when the alleged sex crime involves a minor. Of course, being seen to be tough on child sex offenders is not the same as actually being tough on child sex offenders, which in turn is not the same as actually reducing child sex crimes. (See also: Megan's Law; A scarlet letter, The JonBenet Ramsey case; The greatest fear)
- There is a good reason for the presumption of innocence, where one is judged innocent until proven guilty. Yet the prevailing attitude when it comes to child prostitution seems to be along the lines of "Whack the bastards!", "Castrate the scum!" and such. Inflamed passions do not make for sensible decision-making.
- One slide read: "Creating fear - our ammunition... Our greatest opportunity is Singaporean's [sic] natural fear of the law". This could have come from a dictatorship class at a School of Public Policy. The sentiments underlying this statement really trouble me.
- One speaker even proposed a sex offenders registry. I was quite horrified, since this doesn't do any good and just makes the erstwhile sex offenders miserable. I would imagine that the profile of someone who visits child prostitutes would differ from that of someone who preys on local children. And what happened to the Yellow Ribbon campaign and Unlocking the Second Prison?

Things missed out or overlooked
- UNICEF provides a very rough approximation of 1,000,000 child prostitutes in Asia. Yet nothing beyond assorted anecdotes were given about how many Singaporean men go to child prostitutes. How serious is the problem, really?
- If we have an extradition treaty with Indonesia or other Third World countries, won't local police take the opportunity to blackmail men who visit prostitutes?

Interesting points
- I am reasonably sure that the reason why Singapore has taken so long to plan/draft laws on extra-territorial legislation is the selfish, self-interested spirit that motivates our Foreign Policy. If child prostitution outside our shores doesn't harm us or our citizens, it's not our problem and it's not to our benefit to crack down on it - there's just no political will
- Singapore has extra-territorial laws on drugs, computer crimes and corruption. I knew about the first two, but not the last. Section 37 of the "Prevention of Corruption Act" deals with this. Now I know why Singaporean businessmen are not doing well in China. They should have extra-territorial laws on sedition and defamation as well, since these are such serious crimes affecting the integrity and very existence of our fair nation!
- One former (?) child prostitute said she refused to answer questions about herself and her family to depersonalise the experience
- One 15 year old was interviewed. She said 30-40+ year old men asked her her name, age, siblings and such, and she thought they were interested in her as a person and was disappointed when they walked off. Err.
- In Canada, the Criminal Code has such a wide definition of offence, which includes "any forms of sexual exploitation". Have they taken the ZipperFish.com "Like Jailbait?" game? ("This quiz does not condone pedophilia, but rather attempts to point out the hipocracy (sic) of America... Parents: Please keep your kids from wearing hot pants and belly exposing shirts.")
- A 86-year-old John Seljan was caught at the airport with 45kg of chocolates, sweets and sex toys and best (or worst, if you like) of all, letters written to pre-pubescent girls telling them to brace for sex
- Many pedophiles are caught because they brag
- They talked about AWARE's men's chapter and their white ribbon campaign about violence against women and children in the home. Curiously, nothing was said of men being the victims of domestic violence, or more subtle and non-physical forms of domestic aggression ("Reduce unemployment benefits, then they will become desperate. You know why you will become desperate? Every day, your wife nag and nag and nag."); high blood pressure and heart attacks are more deadly than being slapped.