Child prostitution became one of the key concerns of the international community in the 1990s. World congresses were held, international and national laws were changed and concern over "cemmercially sexually exploited children" rose dramatically. Rarely, however, were the children who worked as prostitutes consulted of questioned in this process, and the voices of these children brought into focus. This book is the first to address the children directly, to examine their daily lives, their motivations and their perceptions of what they do. Based on 15 months of fieldwork in a Thai tourist community that survived through child prostitution, this book draws on anthropological theories on childhood and kinship to contextualize the experiences of this group of Thai child prostitutes and to contrast these with the stereotypes held of them by those outside their community.

Heather Montgomery is a member of the Fertility and Reproduction Studies Group and a British Academy Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford. She has recently been appointed Lecturer in Child Studies at the Open University.

List of Tables
Acknowledgements

Introduction

• A Personal View
• Child Prostitution and Anthropology

Chapter 1. History and Context

• Myths and Stereotypes
• NGOs and the Discovery of Child Prostitution
• The Extent of the Problem
• History and Myth

Chapter 2. Cultural Constructions of Childhood

• A History of Childhood in the West
• Childhood in Thailand
• What Constitutes a Good Childhood?
• Childhood and State Intervention

Chapter 3. The Child Prostitutes of Baan Nua

• Data Collection
• Child Prostitution in Baan Nua
• Kinship and Reciprocity
• Reciprocity, Friends and Clients

Chapter 4. Struggles and Contradictions

• Children as Social Agents
• Prostitution and its Alternatives
• The Life-Cycle of Prostitution

Chapter 5. Identity and its Difficulties

• Status
• Sexuality and Identity
• Gender, Prostitution and Identity
• Social Identity

Chapter 6. Protecting Innocence

• Innocence and Freedom
• Buying Innocence
• Maintaining Innocence

Chapter 7. Conclusion

Bibliography
Index