Street children
Street children in Latin America generally fall into two categories: home-based and street-based. Children “on the streets” are home-based; they work on the street during the day but have homes and families that they return to at night. Children “of the street” are street-based; they spend all of their time on the streets and do not have homes or contact with their families. In Latin America, street children are commonplace, everyday presences. They are street vendors, street workers, and street entertainers, as well as beggars and thieves. Although street children may occasionally prostitute themselves, child prostitutes and victims of human trafficking are not generally considered street children. There is no clear consensus on how many street children exist in Latin America, mainly because of the difficulties in identifying and defining street children. Some studies claim that as many as 45% of children in Latin America are street children, 75–90% of whom are home-based. Number estimates of street children in Latin America range from 8 million to 40–50 million.