Prostitution clients: Social representations of human trafficking

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a research conducted in the community of La Merced, located in Mexico City, where trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation combine to victimize girls, adolescents and adults, in face of the community's passive gaze and active participation of prostitution clients, since they usually do not question the process that led them to be immersed on sex trade. Analysis of the interviews made with men who identified themselves as prostitution clients, shows the existence of elements that account for trafficking and sexual exploitation of prostituted women in their social representation, however, they do not recognize participation in the felony, seeing that they use women trafficked for sexual exploitation purposes.