A Criminological Exploration of Cyber Prostitution within the South African Context: a Systematic Review

ABSTRACT: This paper reports a systematic review of the studies related to cyber prostitution within the South African (SA) context. Qualitative studies published in peer reviewed journals from 2006 to 2016 were reviewed in order to determine the extent and nature of cyber prostitution within the SA context, impact of cyber prostitution and the measures put in place to combat or deal with cyber prostitution within the South African context. The review revealed that (1) majority of research and interventions tend to focus on street-based prostitution (2) studies on the extent and nature of cyber prostitution within the SAcontext are underrepresented in the research field (3) the negative impacts of cyber prostitution are not clearly determined by existing literature(4) cyber prostitution has become a preferred method of prostitution in modern society for varied motives. Recommendations for further research on cyber prostitution within the SAcontext are also provided.
KEYWORDS: cyberspace, cybercrime, crime cyber prostitution, online prostitution, prostitutes, prostitution.