A Qualitative Analysis of the JudicialAspects of Child-Sex Tourism inThailand

Abstract: Every year Thailand is invaded by tourists seeking the sun and white beautiful beaches. Most of them come for the inexpensive travel and lodging, good food and kind inviting people. For some of them the purpose of visit is somewhat different: every year there are people travelling to Thailand with the purpose to sexually exploit children. The world wide globalisation has contributed to a massive growth in tourism which has brought an economical growth to the country. This in turn has had some negative effects, where the poor rural areas are largely affected by inequality and the dream of a better lifestyle. Economical disadvantage, lack of education and the absence of capable guardians affect children’s vulnerability and make them an easy target for child-sex tourism. I argue that potential child-sex tourists travel to Thailand due to a perception of the prevalence of easy targets affected by people in a society that is not always aware of what is happening around them as well as due to a common perception that Thailand has a weak legal system. Based on this assumption and with the theoretical basis of routine activity and rational choice I research if there is a reason to believe that the legal system is corrupt. I believe that a combination of the three elements provided routine activity as well as analysing a phenomenon through rational choice can open up to answers of why perpetrators chose Thailand as their child-sex vacation hot-spot. To address the aim of my study I conducted six semi-structured interviews with people working in Bangkok, Thailand. From these interviews I first explain the process leading to the prosecution of Swedish child-sex tourists in Thailand and, second, uncover and examine potential difficulties in this process. In the result of this study a few of the answers differ substantially from previous studies as well as some of the interviewees sharing controversial opinions. The results of the conducted interviews show three identifiable weaknesses that play a large part in the problems of the judicial process. These three are: education, bail and cooperation between authorities.