ABSTRACT
As in many other countries, the sexual exploitation of children for commercial purposes is not a new phenomenon in Mexico. It has, however, largely escaped notice, and it was barely a few years ago, mainly as a result of the World Congress of 1996 and the visit to the country by the United Nations Rapporteur on the subject in 1997, that it is now being given certain attention (Calcetas-Santos 1998; End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism 2000). Indeed, there are no o cial statistics providing information about the number of children who are victims of sexual exploitation, and only a few studies on the subject have been performed by the small number of specialists who have shown an interest in it (Espacios de Desarrollo Integral 1996; Azaola 1998; Pérez Duarte 1998; Negrete 2000).
