The Oldest Professions: A History of Abuse

Prostitution is often characterized as the “oldest profession.” It is a story that has haunted the world for centuries: women with limited economic options sell their bodies to survive.
 
One group with a historically close relationship to prostitution has been the other oldest profession: the military. Opinions on prostitution aside, supply increases where demand increases (simple). Historically, the areas of highest demand were ports, where sailors, soldiers, and shipping workers would dock for extended periods of time. Men in transit were the consumers – women in poverty were the supply.
 
Today the entire world is in transit, especially military personnel and their contractors. From war zones to peace-keeping missions, soldiers and their support systems are stationed around the globe for years, and sometimes decades. And while it may not be stately to discuss, the demand for sex follows – and with time, grows.

In 1991, prior to the arrival of 15,000 UN troops in Cambodia, there were an estimated 1,000 prostitutes in the capital. Today there are approximately 55,000 sex slaves – 35 percent of which are under 18. Cambodia’s illegal sex trade now generates $500 million per year. (The Protection Project)
 
In today’s interconnected world of high-speed movement, global transit and rapid communication, the “oldest profession” has morphed into a monster far more sinister than prostitution: Trafficking. Unfortunately, much of that trafficking is facilitated in some form by military and peacekeeping bases around the world.
 
The use of brothels by military service men and subcontractors is nothing new – it has been going on for centuries. What is new is a surge in sex trafficking, also known as sex slavery. Slavery is quite simple: a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.
 
I want to be clear: I do not condone prostitution, or its use by members of the military, but it is important to distinguish between “voluntary” prostitution and sex-trafficking in order to effectively combat sex slavery.
 
Shocking Statistics

• More than 5,000 women and children have been trafficked from the Philippines, Russia, and Eastern Europe to work as prostitutes in bars servicing the U.S. military in South Korea. (The Protection Project)
• In 2001, soldiers with the UN peacekeeping mission to Eritrea were caught purchasing 10-year-old girls for sex in local hotels. (The Protection Project)
• In 1992, there were about 18,000 registered and 9,000 unregistered Korean women around U.S. bases.
• In the duration of military presence in the Philippines, about 17,000 women were prostituted in Olongapo City alone – the site of one the largest U.S. military bases outside of the U.S.

Military conflict creates bases. Where there are bases, there are areas nearby for “rest & relaxation” (R&R). And where there are areas for R&R there are women. During the Vietnam War, soldiers took their R&R in Tokyo, Bangkok, Manila, and Taipei – these cities are now some of the largest hubs of sex trafficking. To make matters more complicated, officers and policy-makers often turn a blind eye and simple say “boys will be boys.”
 
“Doing a massage is almost a rite of passage for male sailors when they get to Yokosuka [Japan] … the sex trade is more permissible here than at home and easily available. The younger guys get here, they want to try it out – they’re curious, like an experiment … but some keep going back. Some get addicted and blow their paychecks here.”
                                                                              — USS Kitty Hawk sailor
 
At one point, the South Korean government even negotiated militarized prostitution as a foreign policy attempt to keep U.S. troops on the peninsula.
 
In Japan, attempts have been made to curb the growing “massage” business (a business that costs anywhere from $30-$170 and involves some sort of “happy ending”), but to no avail. In 2006, a police raid on a “massage” shop found a 7th fleet sailor naked on the bed, next to contraceptives and lotions. The sailor was released so he could make it back to the base in time for midnight curfew.
 
The correlation between military bases and the sex industry is easy to see, but difficult to prove. An unwritten policy of the U.S. military (and militaries the world over) has been to turn a blind eye, as sexual recreation is often viewed as vital for soldier morale. In recent years, the U.S. military, the U.N., and NATO have been trying to change this through awareness training courses, and more frequent reporting. But to date, statistics from within these agencies (or trials) are scant.
 
So what can we do?

Anti-trafficking measures in South Korea have made a visible impact. According to the Korean Women’s Development Institute, prostitution decreased from 170 million transactions in 2002, to 94 million transactions in 2007. In the same period, money traded for prostitution decreased from 24 trillion to just over 14 trillion South Korean won. This still constitutes about 1.6 percent of GDP, but it is clearly an improvement.
 
In March 2002, a reporter from a Fox affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio reported that women trafficked from the Philippines, Russia, and Eastern Europe were forced into prostitution in bars servicing the U.S. military in South Korea. Since then, a zero-tolerance policy was passed in 2003, followed by a 2004 Pentagon anti-prostitution policy aiming to reduce sex trafficking around U.S. military bases abroad. Although initiatives are being taken to curb demand on the military side, there is little to no data available about prosecutions that have resulted from the new policies.
 
The U.S. Department of Defense has taken a step in the right direction by defining “trafficking” as:

The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability, or giving or receiving payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, as a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, or the removal of organs.

Another excellent initiative has been made by Men Can Stop Rape, though the Our Strength campaign – a campaign aimed at curbing sexual violence in the military. This campaign would be a great starting point for combatting sexual violence between military members and the local communities they serve in.
 

Combatting a relationship as old as that between the military and prostitution is a daunting task, but awareness of the problem is the first step. Now, we must encourage our military and peacekeeping institutions to continue the momentum, and do more to ensure that they combat the trafficking of women and children into sexual slavery.
 
For more about sex slavery in the United States, read Slavery in the 21st century – and in the United States.