Improving international cooperation to combat transnational child sexual exploitation: an analysis of bilateral cooperation in child sex tourism cases involving Thailand and Canada

Thailand and Canada have an interest in improving international cooperation in child sex tourism cases as both countries have made international commitments to protect children from exploitation. Despite these commitments, child sexual exploitation by some Canadians still occurs in Thailand for complex reasons including a lower risk of detection, the availability of poor and vulnerable children, a lack of political will, and an established sex tourism industry. Key findings include the importance of interpersonal relationships between all involved officials in transnational cases, barriers in formal and informal cooperation exercises such as the admissibility of foreign evidence, translations, time delays, securing video testimony, corruption, locating cooperative witnesses, and the importance of online investigations.