Abstract
The current article represents an examination of commercial transactions involving the sale of children in contemporary Ghana. It presents the results of a criminological analysis of 20 cases of commercial transactions in children in Ghana. It describes the sociodemographic characteristics of offenders and victims, victim–offender relationships, offender motivations, public reactions to the phenomenon, as well as the criminal justice system’s responses to the crime. The data were extracted from Ghanaian print and electronic presses. The data show that more boys than girls were sold and that the ages of the victims ranged from 1 month to 19 years, although younger, prepubescent children were more likely to be sold than adolescents and younger adults. The results further show that the relationship between the offender and the child victim was a primary one, with parent–child relationships being dominant, followed by uncle–nephew. Pecuniary reasons were the primary motive for the crime, with offenders invariably expressing the need for money to satisfy pressing financial needs or personal enrichment. The data show that offenders were subject to prompt arrest, prosecution, and incarceration. A summary is provided for each of the 20 cases analyzed in the study.
Introduction
In recent years, the volume of media reports concerning the financial sale of prepubescent children in Ghana has increased significantly as evidenced, in part, by the number of citations provided below (Agbey, 2014; Anane, 2003; “Beans Seller Attempts to Sell Daughter,” 2010; “Court Confines Mother,” 2013; “Court Remands Father Over Attempted Sale of Daughter,” 2008; “Farmer Jailed 15 Years for Selling Stepson,” 2006; “Farmer Remanded for Attempting to Sell Son,” 2007; “Father Jailed 10 Years for Attempted Sale of Son,” 2012; “Man Arrested for Attempting to Sell 10-Year-Old Son,” 2014; “Man in Court for Offering Son For Sale,” 2010; “Man Jailed for Attempting to Sell Own Child,” 2010; “Man Jailed for Trying to Sell Son, 2005”; “Man Jailed for Attempting to Sell Nephew, 2014”; “Man Offers Son For Sale,” 2012; “Man Sells Sister for Sakawa Money,” 2010; “Man Sells Son for GHC9,000,” 2012; Owusu, 2014; “Stolen Child Offered for Sale,” 2009; “Taxi Driver Arrested for Attempting to Sell Friend,” 2014; “Two Remanded for Attempting to Sell Landlord’s Son,” 2013; “Two Who Offered Boy for Sale Jailed 40 Years,” 2008; Unemployed Farmer Remanded for Attempting to Sell Son,” 2007; “Woman Offers Son For Sale,” 2013).
Despite the collective revulsion associated with such crimes, no attempt to date has been made to systematically examine patterns of child sales or to identify the factors underlying this aberrant phenomenon. To rectify this omission in the literature and illuminate the factors undergirding the social anathema, this preliminary, descriptive study, sought to analyze 20 cases of child sales that appeared in Ghana’s print and electronic media from 2000 to 2015. More specifically, the article examines the pattern of behaviors associated with child sales, the sociodemographic characteristics of the offenders and victims, as well as the criminal motivation for offending. Another goal of the study was to examine societal responses to the crime as well as criminal justice outcomes. Given that commercial transactions in children, or child sales, fall within the ambit of human trafficking, the next section of the article offers a brief discussion of the literature on trafficking.
Human Trafficking
Frequently described as “modern day slavery,” the United Nations Trafficking Protocol defines “human trafficking” or “trafficking in persons” as “the recruitment, transport, transfer, harboring or receipt of a person by such means as threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud or deception for the purpose of exploitation” (Burke, 2013; United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2017). Currently, human trafficking is a social problem of grave magnitude, with almost every country in the world affected by it, whether as a country of origin, transit, or destination for the trafficking victim. In 2000, UNODC stated that trafficking in persons was the most booming criminal industry in the world and one of the most lucrative (Burke, 2013). At present, the United Nations estimates that more than 4 million people are trafficked every year around the globe. Trafficking occurs internally within a national boundary as well as internationally across nations. The UNODC posits that sexual exploitation is the most common type of human trafficking, accounting for 79% of all trafficking, followed by trafficking for forced labor which constitutes another 18% of human trafficking. Other forms of human trafficking include domestic servitude, forced marriage, organ removal, as well as the exploitation of children in begging and warfare. An important feature of human trafficking is that the trafficker and trafficked person often share a common nationality. In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children as a measure to combat human trafficking. The protocol went into force on December 25, 2003. At present, the vast majority of nation-states have signed and ratified the Protocol (UNODC, 2017).
Closely related to the issue of child trafficking is the phenomenon of illegal adoption. With the growing shortage of healthy babies available for adoption in wealthier Western nations, and a surfeit of parents eager to adopt children in those countries, fraudsters have entered the adoption industry, abducting or using deceit to obtain children and then offering them for sale to complicitous buyers.
The literature on human trafficking acknowledges that there are serious physical, social, and psychological consequences associated with being a victim of human trafficking (Aronowitz, 2009; Lugris, 2013). Victims used for commercial sex are at risk for contracting HIV-AIDS and other forms of sexually transmitted diseases. Those trafficked for their physical labor often suffer physical abuse, debilitating injuries from performing physically challenging and hazardous work (e.g., back problems, hearing loss, respiratory, and cardiovascular diseases), and other forms of depredations. Trafficked children typically suffer from malnourishment. From a mental health perspective, some trafficking victims suffer from social stigma (e.g., feelings of shame, humiliation, depression) associated with victimization as well as post-traumatic stress disorder emanating from the effects of kidnapping, injuries from physical and sexual assaults, threats to their lives, and myriad horrors associated with the phenomenon of trafficking (Lugris, 2013; Van Wormer, 2010). Lamentably, victims of trafficking are frequently left with little or no material or psychological resources to restructure their shattered lives (Aronowitz, 2009).
Child Sales Across the Globe
Child sales, or commercial transactions in children, appear to be a global phenomenon. The present research included extensive Internet search for cases involving child sales across the world. The search revealed that the sale of preadolescent children is not restricted to any particular country or geographic region of the globe (Bushell, 2002). Indeed, cases involving the sale of children were identified for numerous countries. Parents and guardians offered their children for sale for myriad reasons and under innumerable circumstances. To illustrate, a review of news reports across the United States revealed variable circumstances of illicit commercial transactions in children. For example, in several reported cases, children were exchanged for cash for their use in pornographic productions (“2 in Indiana” 2013); some children were sold for cash to be used for sex (“Natisha Hillard,” 2014). Some parents bartered their children’s sexual services for illicit drugs (“Woman Accused of Trafficking Daughter for Heroin,” 2015). An in-depth look at a few examples will be instructive. In June 2010, a California couple was apprehended by police for attempting to sell their 6-month-old infant for US$25 outside of a Walmart Department store. The defendants, a 38-year-old man and his 20-year-old wife, approached three separate shoppers in the store’s parking lot and asked if they would purchase their son for US$25. A bystander notified the police and the couple was apprehended. The case appeared to be an economic compulsive crime (Siegel, 2016). The police found that the errant parents were high on methamphetamines and intended to use the proceeds from the sale of the child to support their addictive drug habit. When law enforcement personnel subsequently visited the couple’s home, they found the house in total disarray. The wife admitted to police that she had breastfed the child while under the influence of illicit drugs (“Couple Tries to Sell Baby,” 2010).
In another case, in February 2014, an Indiana mother confessed to police that she sold two of her infant daughters to a 39-year-old male neighbor for sex on eight separate occasions. The offense occurred when the girls were aged 6 months and 9 months old. The purported male purchaser also operated an illegal child pornography business and intended to take pornographic snapshots of the infant girls. According to Indiana law, the mother faced a potential 30-year prison sentence (“Natisha Hillard,” 2014). In another media-reported case involving child sale, in March 2012, a Jacksonville Beach, Florida, mother was apprehended by law enforcement authorities after she was accused of repeatedly selling sex with her 6-year-old daughter in exchange for illegal drugs and money to two homeless men (“Junkie Mom,” 2012). Moreover, in May 2011, a 32-year-old Utah mother was apprehended by police for arranging to sell her 13-year-old daughter’s virginity to a man for US$10,000. The defendant, who was charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse of a minor and sexual exploitation of a minor, faced a potential sentence of life imprisonment (Goldman, 2011).
Commercial transactions in children have also been reported in India and China. In January 2013, a mother in India was apprehended by police for selling her 11-year-old daughter for US$12,000 to a couple who intended to traffic the girl. The mother confessed to law enforcement officers that she vended the girl to raise money to pay a financial penalty of about US$8,000 which had been imposed on her by the village council of the community where she resided. The police concurrently apprehended and brought criminal charges against the couple who purchased the young girl (Bareth, 2013). In another case, in May 2013, a woman in China was arrested by the authorities for selling four of her children for the equivalent of US$1,500. The woman, who was blind, claimed she was compelled by dire financial circumstances to sell her children. The defendant, who at the time of her arrest had six children, said her impaired vision prevented her from obtaining gainful employment, and that her husband could not maintain a steady job. She claimed she intended to use the money derived from the sale to support her two older children (“Chinese Woman Who Sold Four,” 2013). In another case, in December 2013, a 55-year-old Chinese obstetrician pleaded guilty to criminal charges for child trafficking. According to the authorities, after delivering babies, the doctor would lie to the mothers whose babies she delivered, stating that their babies had suffered congenital birth defects. She then persuaded the mothers to give up the infants whom she later sold to child traffickers. Although one of the seven children she sold was recovered by the police, another one that she sold for about US$165 died (“Chinese Doctor Admits,” 2013).
African countries have also reported cases of commercial transaction in children (e.g., “Man Sells His Three-Year Old Son,” 2013; “Mother Arrested for Sale of Baby,” 2015). In December 2013, a 26-year-old Nigerian father admitted to police that he sold his 3½-year-old son to a woman for 260,000 Naira (US$1,500). According to the defendant, he intended to use proceeds obtained from the sale to pay for expenditures associated with the burial rites and funerary obsequies of his deceased father (“Man Sells His Three-Year Old Son,” 2013). In another case, in May 2014, a 52-year-old woman was apprehended by Nigerian police for arranging the sale of the newborn baby of her son’s girlfriend to another woman for 350,000 Naira (US$2,100). The purchaser, who had three biological sons, told police that she bought the neonate because she needed a daughter to complement the three sons she already had with her husband. The money derived from the sale was supposed to be given to the young mother to continue her college education (“Woman Sells Son’s Baby,” 2014).
In July 2013, the Kenyan newspaper, Daily Nation, reported two cases involving commercial transactions in children. In the first case, a 17-year-old mother was remanded into police custody, pending prosecution, when she was apprehended by the authorities for selling her 2-month-old son for Sh5,000 (US$50). According to the teenage girl’s father, his daughter, who had a previous out-of-wedlock child for whom he was providing care, was facing financial challenges related to taking care of the second child and sold the baby to alleviate these difficulties. He said his daughter was also addicted to alcohol and may have attempted to sell the baby to support her drinking habit (Nyarora, 2013a). In the second case, a woman was sentenced to a 3-year prison term following a guilty plea in which she admitted to selling her 2-year-old daughter for Sh13,000 (US$130) to a married but barren woman. At the time the case came to the attention of law enforcement authorities, the buyer had made a Sh3,000 (US$30) advance payment toward the purchase. According to the mother, she sold the baby because her husband had abandoned her and her baby, and she did not have the financial wherewithal to singlehandedly take care of the baby (Nyarora, 2013b).
In sum, commercial transactions in children constitute a crime that spans the entire globe. In societies where child sales have been recorded, the behavior is viewed as highly deviant. In none of these societies is the behavior approved or deemed normative. Indeed, in each of these countries, the phenomenon of child sale constitutes a serious crime. There is therefore a need for systematic studies of the phenomenon across the globe to shed light on the phenomenon to develop effective policies and programs to combat this illegitimate transaction. The current study is one step in this direction.
Ghana: The Research Setting
Located in West Africa, Ghana is a developing country with a current estimated population of 28.4 million. The society is multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious, with the Akan (45.3%), Mole Dagbon (15.2%), Ewe (11.7%), and Ga-Dangme (7.3%) being numerically the major ethnic groups in the country. About 68.8% of the population is Christian, 15.9% Muslim, and 8.5% subscribers of traditional religion, mainly ancestor veneration. Males and females comprise 49.5% and 50.5%, respectively, of the population. In 2015, life expectancy at birth was estimated to be 61 years for males and 64 years for females. The population of Ghana is predominantly rural, with about 54% residing in rural communities of less than 5,000 persons. It is estimated that 74.1% of the population aged 11 years and above is literate. About 60% of the country’s workforce is employed in agriculture and fishing, and 15% in industry; the remaining 25% are employed in the service sector, particularly trading, transportation, and communication. Like many developing countries, unemployment is a major social and economic problem in the country. In 2007, 28.5% of the population was determined to be living below the government’s established poverty line (Ghana Statistical Service, 2012).
Status of Children in Ghana
Children make up a substantial proportion of Ghana’s population. In 2010, 48.9% of the population was aged 0 to 14 years old (Ghana Statistical Service, 2012). Despite the high premium and esteem that the society places on fertility, children in Ghana occupy a subordinate status relative to adults in practically every aspect of Ghanaian life. Although attitudes are changing, generally, children are viewed more as the property of their parents than as distinct and autonomous individuals with special needs, rights, and entitlements that must be given priority. In addition, there is a general expectation that children show respect and submissiveness toward adults. Reports of child neglect, abuse, and abandonment are commonplace. Also, rates of births outside of marriage are high and many noncustodial fathers fail to provide needed financial and material resources for their wards. Children who come from large and economically deprived homes often suffer hunger, malnourishment, and other deprivations arising from stretched economic and financial resources (Mensah-Bonsu & Dowuona-Hammond, 1994). Several media reports profiling cases of child abandonment, child neglect, and the actual sale of prepubescent children further reflect the challenges that confront some parents in providing for the maintenance and care of their children. Likewise, due to financial constraints besetting some families, some children drop out of school early and are enlisted by parents or guardians to sell wares or take up a trade to supplement the family’s income (Adinkrah, 2015). In addition to the aforementioned problems facing children and youth in the society are the problems of corporal punishment and child sexual abuse. Although there is protective legislation to promote child welfare and protection in Ghana, enforcement of such laws is deemed weak (UNICEF, 2017).
Research Methods and Data Sources
The data on which this article is based were obtained from various Ghanaian media sources. It must be emphasized that in Ghana, as in many developing countries, local law enforcement data on criminal actions are inadequate and unreliable due to the paucity of logistical resources, inadequate professional training, and erratic recording of information. Hence, newspapers and other media sources have emerged as an indispensable complement to police data on criminal activities, criminals, and crime victims. In Ghana, a vibrant tradition of thorough media investigative reporting of crime and other deviant activities exists. In fact, based on the experience of researching crime issues in Ghana over the last quarter century, this author finds that oftentimes media reports on crime, deviance, and delinquency issues are much more extensive than police reports on the same phenomena (Adinkrah, 2012, 2014).
For this research, all major local Ghanaian print and electronic media spanning the period 2000-2015 were perused for reports of incidents of child sale. Newspapers with countrywide circulation such as the Daily Graphic, the Ghanaian Times, and The Daily Guide were scrutinized, as were national weeklies such as The Mirror and the Weekly Spectator. In addition, Ghana-based Internet websites such as Ghanaweb.com, Ghanamma.com, and Ghanatoday.com were scoured for information on the phenomenon. Each identified case was printed or photocopied. A content analysis of each case report was then conducted. The purpose of the analyses was to identify the sociodemographic characteristics (sex, age, and employment status) of the assailants and victims, the patterns of sale, as well as the motives underlying the sale.
Results
Ghanaian Law and the Sale of Children
In Ghana, the sale of children is proscribed under Act 694 of the country’s criminal code. Titled Human Trafficking Act, 2005, Section 1 of this Act prohibits the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, trading or receipt of persons within and across national borders by (a) the use of threats, force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, the abuse of power or exploitation of vulnerability, or (b) giving or receiving payments and benefits to achieve consent.
Section 3 of the Act states that “Placement for sale, bonded placement, temporary placement, placement as service where exploitation by someone else is the motivating factor shall also constitute trafficking.” Section 4 of the Act stipulates that Where children are trafficked, the consent of the child, parents or guardian of the child cannot be used as a defense in prosecution under this Act, regardless of whether or not there is evidence of abuse of power, fraud or deception on the part of the trafficker or whether the vulnerability of the child was taken advantage of.
With respect to penalties for contravening the law, the Act states that “A person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than five years” (Human Trafficking Act, 2005. pp. 3-4).
Extent of Child Sales
The data show that media reports of commercial transactions in children have become a common occurrence. Despite this, it is impossible to obtain a precise figure on child sales that occur in Ghana because these transactions are often shrouded in secrecy. Due to the illegality of the transaction, parties involved in the trade go to considerable lengths to conceal the crime. Indeed, in nearly all cases examined, it was only by chance that the incident was discovered by a concerned citizen who later reported it to law enforcement personnel. It should be noted that in Ghana, scores of children are reported missing each year. However, there is no national information or database on missing children. No agency in the country currently collects or collates data on missing children or monitors the status of such children.
Public Reaction to Child Sale
Publicized incidents of child sale were typically followed by intense media coverage (radio news, newspaper coverage, talk-show discussions) and public disbelief. This was followed by expressions of outrage as to how or why such crime could take place. Interestingly, each of the cases profiled in this study received national attention via newspaper coverage, as a story on radio news, or as a featured story on radio talk shows. Each press report of a child sale was greeted with negative societal reaction. In an April 2014 case reported on the Ghanaweb.com homepage, a man offered his 10-year-old nephew for sale. This story generated 49 readers’ comments within a 24-hr period. Analysis of these comments shows that those offering comments were overwhelmingly condemnatory in their reactions. Some readers expressed shock, consternation, or surprise that in this 21st century such crimes would be occurring in the society. Some comments were focused on the offenders. Given the universal revulsion held against child sales, some readers perceived child sale to be the work of mentally disturbed persons, thereby recommending psychiatric treatment for the malefactors. Some commentators described the alleged offense as “immoral,” “repugnant,” and “vile.” Some averred that the parent–child bond is sacred and should never be impugned. Some comments focused on the crime. Many reported that child sales violate an important social norm in the society—the custom of not financially profiting from one’s progeny. Many recommended that the courts impose draconian and deterrent punishments involving long custodial penalties to deter potential offenders (“Man Arrested for Attempting to Sell Son,” 2014).
In addition to the comments noted above, some critics of child sales in Ghana suggested that draconian penalties should be imposed on offenders to deter future crimes. Some suggested that offenders should be committed to a psychiatric institution after their prison terms have been served. Given the seriousness of the crime and seemingly growing incidence of child sales, some suggested that the government should stiffen the penalties against child sales. Some argued that given that some parents or guardians planned to sell the child to a buyer who planned to kill and use the child for ritual purposes, the perpetrators should be charged with attempted murder and treated as attempted murderers or even murderers. The data further show that media reports about child sales routinely attracted many spectators who came to the police station to see the persons involved in the crime. At arraignments and trials, scores of people typically arrived at the court premises to catch a glimpse of the offenders and to gossip about the offenders and the proceedings.
Sociodemographic Characteristics of Offenders and Victims
This study examined the personal characteristics of the victims and offenders, such as age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Descriptive data for the study are presented in Table 1. Regarding sex, more male children than female children were offered for sale. Of the 20 cases profiled in the study, 16 (80%) of the victims were male, whereas 4 (20%) were female. Concerning age, younger children aged 0 to 14 years faced a much greater risk of being sold than teenagers and young adults. The ages of the children offered for sale ranged from 1 month to 19 years, with a mean age of 9.2 years.
Offender and Victim Characteristics and Victim–Offender Relationships.
According to the data, offenders were disproportionately male; 17 (85%) of the 20 child sellers were male. When examining offender characteristics, the results also showed that the majority of offenders were of low socioeconomic status. The media reports described the offenders as unemployed (10 or 50%), small-scale or peasant farmers (5 or 25%), laborers (2 or 10%), driver (1 or 5%), and small-scale food and vegetable vendors (2 or 10%). The data further indicate that child sales were not the actions of persons suffering from psychiatric illnesses or disorders. Press reports did not identify the adult perpetrators in any of the cases as having suffered from psychological deficits or as emotionally disturbed individuals.
Victim–Offender Relationship
This study examined the nature of relationship between the offenders and their victims. The analysis of data revealed that victim–offender relationships were typically close. The most common relationship categories, in order of frequency were father–son (9 or 45%), uncle–nephew (3 or 15%), mother–daughter (3 or 15%), stranger–relationship (2 or 10%), father–daughter (1 or 5%), brother–sister (1 or 5%), and brother-in-law–brother-in-law (1 or 5%).
Degree of Planning
Another aspect of child sales examined in this study was the extent of planning and premeditation in the commission of the offense. The data show that the crimes were typically premeditated. Offenders calculated the financial benefits to be derived from the sale and meticulously planned every aspect of the crime. In several instances, child victims were selected in advance, a sale price predetermined, and precautionary measures taken to avert discovery and apprehension. In many instances, the community was scoured for potential buyers before the criminal act was executed.
The motive for offending
The current study attempted to identify motivating factors in the commission of child sales. The data show that the predominant reason behind the sale of a child was instrumental, ranging from obtaining money to deal with financial difficulties to personal enrichment. Child sales were not the actions of mentally ill or deranged individuals, but rather were rational decisions made out of anticipated personal gain. Some parents or guardians turned to child sale to fulfill an overwhelming financial need. Many offenders perceived the money accruing from the sale as potentially improving their financial situation. Child sales were also influenced by extreme poverty or deprivation. Some people with limited incomes and limited economic opportunities found child sales an avenue to make extra money. Some perpetrators said their economic needs placed them in the position of selling their child out of financial necessity. A few examples will be instructive. The defendant in Case 4 told the police that he planned to use the money from the sale of his child to purchase farm materials to expand his farm and to buy a pickup truck for his personal use. In Case 18, the 23-year-old unemployed defendant said he wanted to use the money to finance a trip overseas in search of greener pastures. The defendant in Case 19 said he planned to use the money from the sale to defray a hefty debt he had accumulated from a previous economic venture. The defendant in Case 9 said he planned to use the money from the sale of one of his five children to mitigate purported financial difficulties. The defendant in Case 1 said he was in desperate need of money and that is why he planned to sell his child. The defendants in Cases 5 and 7 also said they were in dire need of money and this prompted the sale. Both cases involved young mothers abandoned by the fathers of their infant children shortly after giving birth and planned the sale out of deep economic despair.
Sheer greed provided the impetus for a number of child sales. In Case 12, a man sold the child for 100 million cedis (US$10,000) for the child to be killed and the body parts to be utilized to make a concoction that would make him fabulously wealthy. In Case 14, it was a younger sister that a man attempted to sell to a spiritualist so that her body parts could be used to generate wealth for him. In Case 13, two men planned to sell the son of their landlord to be killed and used for ritual purposes, and in yet another case in which the sale was to be used solely for personal enrichment.
Contextual Factors: Social and Cultural Forces
This study explored the contextual factors of this phenomenon of child sales. What role do social and cultural forces play in the sale of children in contemporary Ghanaian society? The data show that ritual murder played a significant role in motivations for child sales. Several child sales were offered to spiritualists (fetish priests and mallams). In Ghana, extant research (Adinkrah, 2005; Gocking, 2000) and numerous press reports (Abbey, 2016a, 2016b; Abotsi, 2015; Boateng, 2011; Kenu, 2015) suggest that ritual murders where human body parts and blood are used to make concoctions to assist in the acquisition of power or wealth are rife. It is believed that for the purported medicine to retain its potency, the required body parts must be harvested from a living victim (Adinkrah, 2005; Gocking, 2000). There is a perception of the existence of a lucrative market in the sale of human body parts at exorbitant prices; it is believed that there is an underground market for the demand, supply, and sale of children and human body parts. For some type of medicines, there is a belief that the younger the victim, the more potent the medicine (Adinkrah, 2005). Some child sale offenders perceived that they would be able to seriously improve their financial situation by offering a child for sale for use in purported ritual medicine. It should be noted that in contemporary Ghanaian society, the pursuit of wealth has become an end in itself. How money is acquired is less important than possessing money and the ability to display it (Wireko, 2016). This has promoted rampant greed and the acceptance of nefarious means of wealth acquisition. In their quest for wealth, many Ghanaians today seek assistance from spiritualists, psychics, and other self-professed, miracle-performing professionals (Adinkrah, 2005; Wireko, 2016).
Criminal Justice Response and Dispositional Outcomes
In many of the cases profiled here, a purported purchaser feigned interest in the child sale but alerted law enforcement officers about the planned sale. Law enforcement officials encouraged the sale, then showed up to apprehend the offenders when the transaction was about to be finalized.
Analysis of the data shows that child sale is considered a particularly serious crime in Ghana as evidenced by criminal justice responses. In all the cases, the offenders were quickly apprehended by police, prosecuted, and convicted of their crimes. Local prosecutors pursued offenders vigorously, concluded investigations swiftly and thoroughly, brought criminal charges rapidly, and obtained convictions fast. Convicted offenders received lengthy custodial sentences in prison. Dispositional outcomes were available for only 7 (35%)of the 20 cases profiled in the article. In each case, the adjudicated offenders were convicted of the charges and received custodial sentences. Offenders received varied sentences ranging from 5 years to 20 years imprisonment.
Case Histories
Case 1: My Nephew Is for Sale
In this case, a 22-year-old farmer was apprehended by police when he offered his 8-year-old nephew for sale to a mallam (person purporting to be an Islamic cleric) for about US$3,000. The man took his unsuspecting nephew to the intended buyer while the boy’s parents were away from home working on their farm. The offender traveled with the little boy out of town in search of a prospective buyer. There, he contacted a local barber who suggested he might be able to find a spiritualist interested in purchasing the boy for ritual purposes. When the deal fell through, he, together with the barber and the young boy traveled to another town where two friends expressed a desire to purchase the boy. The alleged buyers gave him money to return the next day with the boy. While away, they contacted the police who arranged to position themselves nearby the following day to witness the deal. The offender was arrested while bargaining with the prospective buyers over the sale price. He pleaded guilty to the charge of selling a child and was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment with hard labor (“Man Jailed for Offering Nephew for Sale,” 2000).
Case 2: The Devil Made Me Do It
In this case, a 47-year-old man offered his 14-year-old nephew for sale at a price of about US$3,000. On the day of the sale, the suspect contacted his sister and asked that she allow her son to accompany him to a nearby village. Hours later, in another section of town, the defendant was overheard by a witness offering the boy for sale. When police learned about the sale, they posed as potential buyers and feigned interest in the sale, negotiating a price reduction, where the offender agreed to a reduced price of US$2,000. When the undercover police officers arrived with the money for the purchase, the defendant rushed the boy into the car and claimed the money from the undercover police. He was immediately arrested. When queried about the motive for the sale, the man confessed to police that he was in dire need of money. He, however, asked for forgiveness, attributing his actions to the work of the devil (“Linguist Offers Nephew for Sale,” 2013).
Case 3: 5 Years for Attempting to Sell Nephew
In February 2013, a Magistrates court in Accra sentenced a man to 5 years imprisonment with hard labor for attempting to sell his 17-year-old nephew. The teen’s body and blood were ostensibly to be used for ritual purposes to benefit the buyer. The transaction which led to the defendant’s arrest, trial, and conviction had taken place 1 month earlier. The defendant, a driver of a commercial vehicle, had offered to sell his nephew for about US$3,000. Law enforcement authorities reported that they had previously received a complaint that a man was offering a boy for sale. Undercover law enforcement personnel secured the telephone number of the man and feigned interest in buying the boy. After lengthily haggling over the purchasing price, which resulted in the assailant reducing the sale price from about US$3,000 to US$2,000, the undercover police personnel arranged with the defendant to meet them at a designated location to finalize the purchase. The assailant was arrested when he arrived to pick up the payment and to deliver the boy to them (“Driver Jailed Five Years,” 2013).
Case 4: Ecstatic Over the Money
In this case, a 28-year-old father offered his 8-year-old daughter for sale to prospective buyers for the equivalent of US$5,000. According to the police report covering the incident, the man had traveled from neighboring Togo to Ghana with his daughter to sell her to any interested buyer. While in Ghana, he enlisted the services of a 30-year-old Ghanaian male accomplice to help him secure a buyer. Following negotiation with an undercover law enforcement officer who posed as a prospective buyer, the father refused a sum of about US$2,000 for the child. He agreed to only take the equivalent of US$4,800 for the sale. He was arrested while later meeting with the undercover officer to finalize the sale. During interrogation with the police, he confessed that he planned to use proceeds from the sale to purchase materials to expand his farm as well as purchase a pickup truck for his personal use. According to police, the man was ecstatic when he was shown a suitcase full of money purported to be payment for the daughter, elated over the prospect of becoming an instant local millionaire (“Court Remands Father,” 2008).
Case 5: Due to Financial Difficulties
In Ghana, mallams and traditional fetish priests (akomfo) are reputed to have the power to perform sorcery and all manner of spiritual activities for clientele with myriad needs. It is widely believed that many use human blood and body parts to make these concoctions. It was with this view in mind that the man in this case attempted to sell his 10-year-old son to a mallam for about US$3,500. The mallam reported the offense to law enforcement authorities who dispatched an officer to pose as a potential buyer. The man was arrested while negotiating the sale. When questioned by the police, he admitted the offense, claiming that he was motivated to commit the offense in a desperate bid to raise money in the face of insurmountable financial difficulties (“Man Arrested for Attempting to Sell Son,” 2014).
Case 6: 10 Years Custodial Sentence for Trying to Sell Son
In this case, a 48-year-old laborer who attempted to sell his 10-year-old son for about US$15,000 was arrested by police and turned over to the courts for prosecution. He was convicted of the crime and sentenced to prison for 10 years. According to the facts of the case, the man confided in a friend about his intention to sell his son. The confidante immediately alerted the police about the planned crime. A police officer posed as a prospective buyer and completed negotiations with the man for a discounted price of about US$8,000. The man was eventually offered partial payment of the sum. During trial proceedings, it was revealed that the defendant and the child’s mother had been divorced for about 6 months prior to the proposed sale, and the defendant had been awarded physical custody of the son (“Man Jailed for Trying to Sell Son,” 2005).
Case 7: You Can Buy My Daughter for US$2
In this case, a 27-year-old mother offered her 1-month-old daughter for sale for 20 cedis (US$2). Following her arrest, she told police that she had offered to sell her daughter to obtain money for her sustenance. According to the facts of the case, the woman arrived at the offices of a commercial radio station and asked that they publicize the sale on the air to facilitate an immediate purchase. When queried by the staff of the radio station about her reason for vending the child, the defendant expressed ignorance that child sale was a criminal act that carried a severe punitive sanction in Ghana. She told police that she worked as a small-scale retailer of oranges. She became romantically and sexually involved with a driver’s assistant and got pregnant from the affair. The man abandoned her and the baby shortly after her delivery. She said she had been compelled by the circumstances of abandonment to stop her commercial retail business, depending solely on the largesse of neighbors and other charitable persons for her upkeep and that of her baby. Out of deep economic despair, she made the desperate decision to sell her child so she could return to her commercial retail business (“Woman Sells Baby for 20 Cedis,” 2010).
Case 8: For Ritual Purposes
In April 2007, a magistrates’ court in Ghana remanded a 41-year-old father for trial for attempting to sell his 3-year-old son for about US$15,000. According to the reported facts of the case, the unemployed father had contracted to sell his son to a 52-year-old traditional fetish priest who offered to buy the child to use for ritual purposes. A day prior to the sale transaction, the man, who was not residing with the child at the time, traveled several miles to the village where the mother and son lived. He then forcibly took the child, and traveled back to meet with the fetish priest who had agreed to buy the child. The police learned about the planned crime and on the day of the purported sale, traced the seller and buyer to a room in the former’s house where negotiations for the sale of the child was ongoing. Both men were charged with the crime and arraigned for trial. At the time of this writing, there was no information regarding the dispositional outcome of the case (“Unemployed Father Remanded,” 2007).
Case 9: “I Want to Sell One of the Five.”
In this case, a 35-year-old man who had five biological children with a wife with whom he had been married for 16 years planned to sell one of the couple’s children—a 14-year-old son—to mitigate his purported financial difficulties. He asked a friend to accompany him and the son to Accra, where he hoped to find a buyer. The friend dissuaded him from committing the offense but when he remained adamant about the act, the friend feigned interest in providing him assistance while concurrently reporting the matter to the police. On the day of the sale, the two men and the unsuspecting boy traveled to Accra. When they reached Accra, the friend asked the man to wait at a specific location while he took the boy to a prospective buyer. Instead, he took the boy and traveled back to the police in their hometown. Several hours later, when the defendant arrived back at the village, he was apprehended by the police and charged with the offense. Press reports indicated that he started behaving like a “mad man.” The presiding judge remanded him in custody, imploring the jailers to maintain close surveillance over him as he was acting abnormally (“Man in Court,” 2010).
Case 10: Due to Abandonment
In September 2010, a 28-year-old woman was arrested by police for attempting to sell her infant daughter for US$500. The woman, a self-employed, small-scale food vendor, told police that she had the baby out-of-wedlock but the father of the baby had been financially derelict toward his daughter, leaving her solely responsible for the infant’s upkeep, a responsibility she claimed to find unduly burdensome. She therefore decided to offer the baby for sale to mitigate her dire financial situation. According to media reports, on the day of the offense, the young woman went to the business premises of a contractor near her house to request a meeting with the proprietor. When asked about why she wanted to see the man, she told security officers at the premises that she wanted to sell her baby daughter and wanted to know if the businessman would be interested in purchasing the child. When told that the businessman was away but would be arriving shortly, the woman waited. When the businessman arrived, the woman repeated her story, reiterating her resolve to sell her daughter. The businessman reported the matter to the police who arrested her and turned her over to the courts for prosecution (“Beans Seller,” 2010).
Case 11: Give Me a Job or Buy My Son
In this case, a circuit court sentenced a 28-year-old father to prison for 10 years for attempting to sell his 4-year-old son to a stranger for about US$900. According to press reports, at about 9:00 a.m. on the day of the incident, the 28-year-old defendant approached an affluent businessman in his community for employment as a laborer. When the man told him that he did not have any vacancy for employment, the defendant requested a private conversation with the businessman in the latter’s house. There, he told the businessman that he had a 4-year-old son that he wanted to sell to him. The man feigned interest in the sale, telling the father to return with the son later in the day. Meanwhile, he alerted law enforcement authorities about the purported sale. Later the same day, the man returned with the 4-year-old son for the sale. The police who had taken position in the house, moved in to arrest the man after he took possession of the money. In court, the defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge of human trafficking but subsequently rescinded his plea and pleaded guilty to the charge. He was sentenced to prison for 10 years (“Father Jailed,” 2012).
Case 12: Use Him for a Potion That Will Make Me Rich
In this case, the defendant arrived in Ghana from the neighboring country of Ivory Coast with his 10-year-old son whom he wanted a spiritualist to utilize in ritual medicine that would yield him a lifetime fortune of riches. According to statements elicited by the police from the defendant, his 10-year-old son was not interested in pursuing formal education and had lately dropped out of school. He therefore found no use for him and decided to travel to Ghana to seek the services of a ritualist who would use the son to make a potent medicine that would enrich him for the rest of his life. A witness who overheard the man’s plans, alerted the police. The police officer recruited a man who posed as a spiritualist willing to perform the purported services. He charged the father the equivalent of US$10,000 for his services that would entail the preparation of a concoction from the blood and body parts of his son. The man agreed to pay. At the time the police filed the crime report, the father had been remanded in custody to appear in court at a later date (“Farmer Remanded for Attempting to Sell Son,” 2007).
Case 13: Teenager for Sale
In this case, two men, aged 27 and 30 years old, conspired to sell the 19-year-old son of their landlord to another person in Kumasi. The purchaser was expected to subsequently use the boy—dead or alive—for ritual purposes. According to the facts of the case, the two men traveled more than 100 miles to Kumasi to seek a prospective buyer for the teenager. When they found someone who agreed to pay them 5,000 cedis (US$500) for the boy, the pair traveled back to the village community to lure the boy back to Kumasi to transact some business. Unbeknownst to the young man, the two offenders had sold him and had already collected 2,000 cedis (US$200) as a down payment for his purchase. As soon as the child vendors took possession of the money, the police moved in and apprehended them (“Two Remanded,” 2012).
Case 14: Use My Sister to Make Me Rich
In this case, a 20-year-old man took his 11-year-old sister to the shrine of a fetish priest with the intention of having her body parts harvested and utilized to prepare wealth-producing medicine that would enrich him financially. According to the case reports, the defendant traveled several miles from Accra to a remote village in rural Ghana for consultations with the spiritualist about rituals that would make him fabulously wealthy. He was asked to bring a virgin girl to be killed and her uterus used to make a concoction that would enrich him financially. Press reports indicate that the man had previously acquired a huge fortune from engaging in a similar venture, but his wealth had vanished because he disobeyed the directives of the previous sorcerer and fortune maker. To become rich again, he traveled to this latter spiritualist who had demanded a virgin girl’s uterus. Living in another town away from his mother, he traveled to his mother’s abode where he managed to convince her to allow his younger sister to go and live with him. He took the young girl to the shrine for the purported rites but asked the spiritualist to only spiritually remove the girl’s womb. The spiritualist insisted that the medicine would only work with the physical removal of the girl’s womb through a lethal operation. Verbal disagreement between the two parties escalated into violence, causing the police to be alerted. It was through interrogation of both parties that the police realized that the pair was dealing with a case of child kidnapping, sale, and imminent ritual murder (“Man Sells Sister,” 2010).
Case 15: Brother-in-Law for Sale
In October 2013, a 32-year-old construction worker was apprehended by police for offering his 13-year-old brother-in-law for sale. According to the reported facts of the case, the offender approached his wife to allow him to take her 13-year-old brother to one of his friends so the boy could work as a domestic in the home of this friend. His eagerness to traffic the boy out of town aroused the suspicion of others. They alerted police officers who then posed as potential buyers. The man offered the boy for sale at about US$10,000 but reduced the price to US$5,500. On the day of the final transaction, the man brought the boy with him, ready to transfer him to the purchaser. After collecting the money and turning over the child, the construction worker was immediately apprehended by police (“Man Offers Brother-in-Law for Sale,” 2013).
Case 16: Due to Grave Financial Need
In this case, a 23-year-old mother was arrested by police for selling her 3-year-old son for about US$800 to law enforcement officers posing as buyers. Her motive for selling the boy was pecuniary. According to a statement given to the police following her arrest, the defendant indicated that when she became pregnant while unmarried, her father evicted her from his house. When she delivered the baby, the father of the child refused to acknowledge paternity or support the child financially. Being financially strapped for cash, she decided to sell the “fatherless” child to any potential buyer. In her statement to the police following her arrest, the offender confided to the police that her decision to sell her son was motivated, in part, by the fact that she found her physical mobility constrained by the presence of the son. She wanted to relieve the constraints to her physical mobility by selling the toddler. To facilitate the sale of her son, she traveled some 200 miles to a major commercial center where she learned there was a ready market for the sale of children due to a booming market for ritual medicine. A bystander who overheard the conversation between the defendant and a prospective buyer concerning a potential sale of the child, called police who dispatched an undercover officer to act as an interested buyer. Following the conclusion of the transaction in which an agreed upon price was finalized, the police arrested the young mother and charged her with the crime of human trafficking (“Woman Offers Son for Sale,” 2013).
Case 17: After Causing Her to Ingest a Soporific Substance
In this case, a 30-year-old man was arrested for offering his 1½-year-old son for sale. According to the facts of the case, the son was the product of a sexual relationship with the mother where the father denied paternity. Following the birth, the father refused to contribute to the care of the boy. The 22-year-old mother and baby moved some 200 miles to go and live with the mother’s aunt in Accra. Having hatched a plot to sell the boy for money, the man traced the whereabouts of the mother and son to Accra. Here, he contacted her, pleading for forgiveness for his failure to be financially responsible for his son and promised henceforth to take care of the son materially and financially. He lured the mother and son to a hotel room, ostensibly to offer the mother money to take care of the son. At the hotel, he offered her a soft drink laced with a sleep-inducing drug to cause the mother to fall asleep. With the unconscious mother and toddler still in the hotel, the father went to a bustling market nearby where he sought a buyer for the boy. Having gotten wind of an ongoing sale of a child in the market, the police dispatched undercover agents to the market to feign interest in the purchase. Following an agreement on a lowered price from about US$20,000 to US$12,000, the man directed the undercover officer to his hotel for delivery of the money and to take custody of the child. Instead of driving the man to the hotel, the police officer drove to the offices of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Force where the man was arrested and formally charged with the crime (“Man Offers Son for Sale,” 2012).
Case 18: To Use the Money to Travel Overseas
In this case, a 23-year-old unemployed man pleaded guilty to the charge of child trafficking and was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for the sale of his 6-year-old son. According to media data, the man was unemployed and decided to migrate to Libya to pursue greener pastures. The son and the mother to whom he was not married lived about 200 miles away. He traveled to see the mother and child with plans to take his son under the pretext of spending time with him. Meanwhile, he contacted a friend to assist him in finding someone to buy a human being or human body parts. The friend alerted police authorities who sent someone to pose as an interested buyer. Initially he priced the boy at about US$3,000 but upon negotiations, reduced the price to about US$1,700. After receiving the money, he turned over the son to the undercover police officer. He was then arrested and charged with the crime. Following a guilty plea, he was sentenced to prison for 20 years (“Man Jailed for Attempting to Sell Own Child,” 2010).
Case 19: “Deport Him After He Has Served the Sentence.”
In this case, a 32-year-old farmer and Togolese national offered his 7-year-old stepson for sale at a price of about US$1,000. The farmer told police during questioning that he had accumulated a large debt and needed money to pay it off. According to information provided by the child’s mother, she and the defendant were once married but the man had not seen his son for the 3 years preceding the time he came to her to ask to see the child. He told the mother that he was going to another village to transact some business and wanted the son to accompany him. Unbeknownst to the mother, he intended to sell the child for money. According to police, they received information that a man was offering a child for sale to a mallam and sent an undercover detective to pretend having an interest in the sale. Following the conclusion of the deal, the police handed the man a plastic container containing fake currency. The man then delivered the boy to the supposed buyer. He was then apprehended for transacting in the sale of a child. He was convicted of the crime and sentenced to prison for 15 years. The judge instructed the prison authorities to deport the defendant back to Togo after his sentence. In his remarks during sentencing, the judge noted that “life was sacred and should not be equated to any commodity” (“Father Jailed 15 Years,” 2006).
Case 20: “Deceit!”
In this case, two young men who offered a 16-year-old boy for sale to undercover policemen were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment each. The teenage boy was an acquaintance of one of the defendants who proposed that the three should relocate to another section of the country to pursue a small-scale gold mining operation, popularly known as galamsey. They traveled to Kumasi where the boy met the other member of the syndicate. In Kumasi, the boy was given food by his acquaintance while the other defendant went in search of a buyer. When police were alerted about plans for the sale of the boy, they sent an undercover policeman to pose as a buyer. They negotiated the price down from about US$3,000 to US$2,000. The two men were arrested and turned over to the court for prosecution. The boy did not know how to get back to his village and the police had to solicit the public’s assistance to reunite him with his family (Two Who Offered Boy for Sale,” 2008).
Discussion and Conclusion
This article has provided an in-depth exploration of the phenomenon of child sales in contemporary Ghana. The impetus for this research was to shed light on this criminal phenomenon as it occurs in Ghana as well as to contribute to filling a scholarly void regarding the subject. It has examined the nature and extent of child sales in the country. In Ghana, as is the case in several societies, child sale is one of numerous offenses committed against children. It must be emphasized that although the number of child sale cases has increased, as reflected in the news media, it is not normative. Indeed, it is viewed by most Ghanaians as anomalous behavior committed by aberrant or pathological individuals. Perhaps the most disturbing finding in this study was that some of the parents and guardians who committed the offense were fully aware that their sold children or wards would be killed and their bodies used in the preparation of concoctions for rituals, yet they proceeded to try to sell the children. If they had not been caught and the transaction foiled, the sale would have had a lethal outcome because the child would have been killed. Several defendants said they sold their children to obtain money to alleviate their economic deprivation or poverty. It is not known whether this was a neutralization technique designed to elicit sympathy from judicial officers or to mitigate the crime.
A major element missing from media reports on illicit commercial transaction in children is the status of the psychological well-being of the victim, particularly those children old enough to know about their intended sale and their eventual rescue. Even though in the cases profiled in this article, the sale was abrogated, the offender apprehended, and the child rescued, the phenomenon is likely to have serious psychological repercussions on the young child victim. The child is likely to suffer some degree of emotional and psychological trauma. Unfortunately, in Ghana, psychological services for emotionally impaired persons are lacking and it is unlikely that any of these children received professional psychological services for their ordeal.
Several policy implications for combating child sales in the future may be inferred from this study. There is the need for greater public awareness of the problem of child sales, including those tied to ritual murders in the country. Citizens should be vigilant about the crime. Police should compile data on reported missing children and monitor the status of these cases. All parents should be aware of the potential for a noncustodial parent to take the child and sell him or her for money. The premises of mallams, herbalists, and spiritualists who claim to have powers to generate wealth through rituals should be monitored for activities that put children in peril.
Despite the insights offered by this analysis, there is one limitation that must be noted; this concerns the small number of cases studied. In conclusion, this study calls for systematic data collection and sustained research on this subject in Ghana and other countries. In addition, research will enhance our knowledge of the phenomenon and the necessary steps to combat it.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to express his sincere gratitude to Dr. Carmen M. White, professor of anthropology at Central Michigan University, who provided appreciated comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. The author also wishes to thank three anonymous reviewers of International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (IJOTCC) for comments which helped to improve the overall quality of the manuscript.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.