The Lingha Boys of Siem Reap: A Baseline Study of Sexually-Exploited Young Men in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Abstract

The sexual exploitation of women and girls in Southeast Asia continues to be the subject of much research and remains a central concern among NGOs and anti-trafficking organizations. As these concerns remain central, sexual violence against men and boys is often little understood or acknowledged. This study aims to provide a baseline of information of young men working in the male to male sex industry in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It serves to uncover some of the vulnerabilities of the young men working in this industry in order for NGOs and social service providers to understand them better. Structured interviews were conducted with 50 young men from numerous massage establishments within a 1-km radius of the Siem Reap town center. The vulnerabilities of these young men regarding a number of areas, including financial security, sexual history and health, violence, faith, and future plans, were assessed. This information was collected to determine the needs these young men may have and to provide initial data as a basis for understanding and future research. This study serves as one of the few attempts to understand the situation of young males in potentially sexually exploitative careers in Cambodia, and serves as a complement to a similar study conducted in Phnom Penh in 2011. This previous research focused exclusively on sexual exploitation within male to male massage parlors. The present study expands that sampling to males working in both male to male and mixed gender massage establishments (locations having both male and female masseurs catering to both male and female clients). This was done, in part, to provide a broader understanding of the situation of males working in potentially exploitative careers, as well as to provide a comparison of the potential vulnerabilities of men working in both types of establishments. A recent surge in nightclubs, gay bars, and internet chat rooms where young Cambodian men can be “picked up” for paid sex seems to indicate a surge in demand for male sexual service. The research team believes that the data in this study provide merely a glimpse of the “tip of the iceberg.” It is their hope that this data will serve to provide a clearer picture of the male sex industry and provoke numerous questions for future research.