Abstract
The crime of human trafficking is intended to encompass activities such as recruitment by abusing a position of vulnerability for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Recruiting a young person into prostitution by ‘lover boy’ tactics can thus fall within the definition of human trafficking, a conviction that carries with it severe penalties. Several countries have seen a number of such convictions, including domestic cases not involv ing cross-border trafficking. Though there are Swedish convictions for recruitment into prostitution through abuse of emotional bonds in cross-border cases, a review of Swedish judgments shows that recruitment through such abuse in national cases is generally prosecuted as procuring (prostitution) – not as human trafficking.Since 2004, there have been only three Swedish prosecutions, and no convictions, for domestic human trafficking. The article argues that recruitment into prostitution by abuse of emotional bonds qualifies as abuse of a position of vulnerability – one of the elements of the crime of human trafficking. Thus, it is possible – even an international obligation – to prosecute national cases where there is recruitment into prostitution by abuse of emotional bonds as domestic trafficking. Prosecuting as human traffickingwould be in line with what the drafters of the 2000 global human trafficking treaty intended: to encompass all the subtle means by which persons are recruited for the purpose of exploitation. This should also apply to nationals.
Highlights
The first criminalisation in 2002 of human trafficking in the Swedish Criminal Code was narrowly formulated to only encompass sexual exploitation
Many discussions have focused on the additional, unregulated standard of ‘mastery’ of a victim required by the courts – a nod to Gallagher’s ‘generally agreed understanding of human trafficking.[42]
The following section instead examines whether a lack of understanding of the abuse of emotional bonds as a form of ‘abuse of a position of vulnerability’ plays a role. If this is one of the main ways in which trafficking is committed in entirely national contexts – through ‘recruitment’ by ‘abuse of a vulnerable position’ for the ‘purpose of sexual exploitation’ – and if the main recruitment method is not understood by Swedish courts as fulfilling the means element of the crime of human trafficking – it is understandable why there would be few prosecutions and no convictions for domestic human trafficking
Summary
The first criminalisation in 2002 of human trafficking in the Swedish Criminal Code was narrowly formulated to only encompass sexual exploitation. The legislation was revised already in 2004 to cover additional forms of exploitation beyond sexual exploitation, as well as trafficking that is entirely domestic (where both victim and perpetrator are nationals), lacking any international connection.[1] Several countries have successfully prosecuted domestic trafficking, such as Canada,[2] Finland,[3] the Unit-. A few additional cases where the emotional bond was not romantic have been included
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