Tourists planning to have sex with minors in the DR should read about 48-year old Vernon Lythcott’s recent experience. The New York Daily News reports that he was charged in court in New York for allegedly arranging to have sex with underage girls in the Dominican Republic. After a first trip in January, he was planning to travel here again but his trip was interrupted when he was arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. A complaint filed on Friday, 9 May 2014 at the Brooklyn Federal Court indicates that Lythcott, of Brooklyn, had paid two 15-year-old girls to have sex with him for US$80. As reported, a Homeland Security special agent stationed in the DR was tipped off about the tourist and interviewed both victims prior to placing the complaint.
It is a federal crime in the United States for US citizens to travel to other countries to have sex with children, regardless of whether they are breaking the law overseas.
In 2013, 19 people were arrested nationwide on sex tourism charges, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Nine people were convicted in that time period. In the past 10 years, 260 US citizens have been arrested and 205 convicted on sex tourism charges.
According to a US Justice report, as many as 80% of child sex tourists in Latin America and 25% in Southeast Asia are US citizens.
The Justice report says that US sex tourists travel to certain countries mainly because gaining access to children is frequently aided by parents or organized crime groups and because many predators believe their anonymity, transient status, and, in many cases, the limited attention to such crimes by local law enforcement officials makes their discovery unlikely. Within these countries, predators typically travel to very impoverished areas where they are more likely to be able to pay for access to children.
www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/tsa-supervisor-busted-sex-underage-girls-dominican-republic-officials-article-1.1786724
www.justice.gov/psc/docs/natstrategyreport.pdf