Citation

Ossa-Estrada DA, Muñoz-Echeverri IF. Salud Colect. 2017; 13(1): 19-34.

Vernacular Title

Explotación sexual comercial de niños, niñas y adolescentes: significados y prácticas de trabajadores/as y residentes del centro de Medellín (Colombia), 2015.

Affiliation

Candidato a Doctor en Salud Pública. Docente-Investigador, Facultad Nacional de Salud Pública, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia. ivan.munoz@udea.edu.co.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Universidad Nacional de Lanús)

DOI

10.18294/sc.2017.1107

PMID

28562723

Abstract

The commercial sexual exploitation of children is a public health problem and a serious violation of the rights of children and adolescents. The response to this problem has been affected by the meanings and practices of the actors involved. In order to contribute to a better understanding of the problem, a qualitative social study using a grounded theory approach was carried out between 2014 and 2015. The aim was to understand the meanings and practices regarding this issue of people who spend time in an area of the city center with a high presence of commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. The techniques used were participant observation and semi-structured interviews. We found that the predominate conceptions lead to practices that aggravate and perpetuate rights violations. Although practices of protection towards victims were identified, these were limited to critical aspects of the context. Actions to eradicate commercial sexual exploitation should work with the community and the meanings within the community regarding sexual exploitation so as to potentiate the victim protection practices carried out and reduce barriers to such practices.

Language: es