Enforcement
In many other countries, authorities are cracking down on the sex trade but in Cambodia it is thriving, mostly because of corrupt government. This makes law enforcement ineffective. Cambodian's top officials are opposed to interrupt what they call a thriving 'tourism' industry which brings in millions a year.
The sex trade in Cambodia had its origins in the capital city Phnom Pehn, where it was the largest market until enforcement began to break it up. Then pimps and owners of brothels had to resort to working more underground, operating out of hotels, casinos, and bars. Anti-trafficking divisions of police agencies believe it is harder to track them now and must resort to more undercover work in order to infiltrate.
Attitudes toward prostitution in Cambodia differ from those of Western nations like the U.S. The prostitute or the client cannot be arrested for their actions, but it is illegal to be forced into it (human trafficking) and it is also illegal for adults to have sex with children.
Many young sex workers, especially the children who are more vulnerable and gullible, are brainwashed and made to believe that the police will hurt them and to run from them if they were ever caught in a police sweep of a brothel, for example.
Some police are corrupt, however, and will take the prostitutes, keep them for about a week, and then sell them back to the brothels.
The sex trade in Cambodia had its origins in the capital city Phnom Pehn, where it was the largest market until enforcement began to break it up. Then pimps and owners of brothels had to resort to working more underground, operating out of hotels, casinos, and bars. Anti-trafficking divisions of police agencies believe it is harder to track them now and must resort to more undercover work in order to infiltrate.
Attitudes toward prostitution in Cambodia differ from those of Western nations like the U.S. The prostitute or the client cannot be arrested for their actions, but it is illegal to be forced into it (human trafficking) and it is also illegal for adults to have sex with children.
Many young sex workers, especially the children who are more vulnerable and gullible, are brainwashed and made to believe that the police will hurt them and to run from them if they were ever caught in a police sweep of a brothel, for example.
Some police are corrupt, however, and will take the prostitutes, keep them for about a week, and then sell them back to the brothels.
