Waller 1 Anna Waller INST 2301 Dr.

Lubecki 13 December 2011 From Rhetoric to Reality: How National Policy Affects Sex Trafficking in Sweden and the Netherlands 1. The Larger Issue The dichotomy of national policies revolving around human trafficking issues in Sweden and the Netherlands is framed by the larger issue that though slavery is no longer legal anywhere in the world, twenty-seven million people world-wide are held in some form of slavery, forced prostitution or bonded labor (Masci 273). Each year, between 600,000 and 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders, and 14,500-17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. (Human Trafficking Fact Sheet,), generating $31.6 billion dollars in global annual profits (Makisaka 5). According the U.S Department of State, up to 50% of human trafficking victims are minors and 80% are women and girls (Sex Trafficking). Second only to drug dealing, and tied with the illegal arms industry, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranks human trafficking as the second largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world today (Sex Trafficking). 2. Definition and Types of Human Trafficking According to the 2011 Trafficking in Persons (T.I.P.) Reportan annual report compiled by the U.S. Department of State to monitor countries efforts to abolish human trafficking using a three-tiered ranking systemHuman trafficking is an umbrella term for activities involved

Waller 2 when one person obtains or holds another person in compelled service (What is Trafficking in Persons?). The internationally recognized definition of human trafficking as set forth in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (Palermo Protocol) by the U.N. states: The recruitment, transport, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of adduction, of fraud, of deception of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another persons, for the purpose of exploitation [which] shall includethe exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. (qtd. by Roby, Turley, Cloward 509-510) Major forms of human trafficking include forced labor, involuntary domestic servitude, child soldiers, and sex trafficking (What is Trafficking in Persons?). Victims of trafficking are often subjected to the vicious cycle of debt bondage in which they are led to believe they owe the traffickers money to repay their travel and living expenses. These victims are made vulnerable through tactics of starvation, imprisonment, physical and verbal abuse, and removal of their documents of identification (Makisaka 2-3), and do not realize that their debts are often legally unenforceable (Human Trafficking Fact Sheet). As in one tragic example, it is estimated that millions of South Asian trafficking victims are trapped in the deceptive cycle of working off the debts of their ancestors (What is Trafficking in Persons?). Before the enactment of the Trafficking Victims and the Protection Act (T.V.P.A.) was passed by the U.S. in October 2000,

Waller 3 victims of trafficking were unprotected by any comprehensive federal law to prosecute traffickers (Human Trafficking Fact Sheet). 3. Research Question: How Does National Policy Affect Sex Trafficking in Sweden and the Netherlands? Sweden and the Netherlands are two relatively similar countries in terms of culture and socioeconomic conditions, yet their national policies on the sex industrywhich in turn contribute to the occurrence of sex traffickingcould not be more diverse. While Swedena country that operates under constitutional monarchy with a population of 9.09 million, holds a record of 1,234,784 total crimes, and G.D.P. per capita of $32,070.39has adopted a national policy enforcing the criminalization of the sex industry, the Netherlandsa country which also operates under a constitutional monarchy with a population of 16.68 million, holds a record of 1,422,863 total crimes, and G.D.P. per capita of $32,349.19has a adopted a national policy protecting the legalization of the sex industry (The Netherlands vs. Sweden). The comparable variables of crime rate and per capita G.D.P. make Sweden and the Netherlands ideal countries by which to compare the outcome of two opposing national policies on the the rate of sex trafficking. 4. Criminalization of the Sex Industry in Sweden On January 1, 1999, after several years of debate by the Swedish womens movement, Sweden enacted the, Law That Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services (Ekberg 1187). This law was the first attempt made by any country to work against the root cause of the demand of prostitution and trafficking (Ekberg 1187), and was established by the belief that, women are always or nearly always forced into prostitution by organized crime due to adverse social circumstances and/or financial hardship (Valor Segura et. Al 161). The Law recognized

Waller 4 prostitution as gender violence and a violation of human rights (Valor Segura et. Al 161) and sought to criminalize the clients of the sex industry (the johns), and victimize the desperate women. The purchase of sexual services has indeed come to be a weighty crime in context of the overall Swedish justice system in which the maximum prison sentence that can be imposed on any individual for a criminal offense is ten years (Ekberg 1192). Under the law, pimps may face up to six years in prison and traffickers up to ten years (Anwar). The outcomes of the criminalization of the purchase of sex services have shown remarkable, positive impact, and brought street prostitution of foreign women almost to a complete halt. Before the prohibition law went into effect in 1999, it was estimated that 2,500 prostituted women (650 of whom were street prostitutes) were purchased by 125,000 Swedish men one or more times per year (Ekberg 1193). The successful outcomes are further evidenced in the facts that in the first five years of the laws enactment, the number of women involved in street prostitution decreased by 50%, the recruitment of new women practically ceased (Ekberg 1193), and 70-80% of the buyers left the public places (Raymond 327). The number of convicted johns has climbed from 11 in 1999 to 108 in 2006 (Anwar). We only have between 105 and 130 womenboth on the Internet and on the streetactive (in prostitution) in Stockholm, states Jonas Tolle, a police inspector who belongs to a unit dedicated to combating the sex trade in Stockholm (Anwar). How has the Swedish public taken to this once controversial law? They have become great supporters, according to Swedish polls conducted in 2000 and 2001 which revealed that 80% of the Swedish population supports the law (Raymond 327). 5. Decriminalization of the Sex Industry in the Netherlands One year after Sweden enacted the legislation to criminalize the sex industry, the

Waller 5 Netherlands took another approach and enacted an opposing policy on the basis of the belief: full consent to exploitation of the self. In her report, Ten Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution, Dr. Janice Raymond describes how the Dutch Ministry of Justice received a ruling from the European Court in 2000 which recognized prostitution, as an economic activity thereby enabling women from the E.U. and former Soviet bloc countries to obtain working permits as sex workers and promoted a legal quota of international sex workers in order to meet the demand for a variety of bodies (317). This legislation has had a profound effect on the occurrence of human and sex trafficking in the Netherlands, as well as a transformed national the view of women. As Raymond vividly describes: At any hour of the day, women of all ages and races, dressed in hardly anything, are put on display in the notorious windows of Dutch brothels and sex clubs and offered for sale. Most of them are women from other countries who were probably trafficked into the Netherlands, (Raymond 318). According to the 2011 Trafficking in Persons report, the Netherlands is, a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor (Country Narratives: N-Z), though it is classified as Tier 1a nation whose government fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking (Masci 280). Since pimping was legalized in the Netherlands in 2000, the sex industry has increased by 25%, and prostitution now accounts for 5% of the economy (qtd. by Raymond 318). Despite the initial claim that the legalization of prostitution would curb the exploitation of desperate immigrant women in the Dutch brothels, one report found that 80% of the prostitutes were trafficked women from foreign nations (Raymond 317). The 2011 T.I.P. report illustrates the rise of trafficking incidents over the past decade in its description that the Dutch government-

Waller 6 funded, national victim registration center and assistance coordinator program, Comensha registered 993 trafficking victims in 2010, up from 909 victims in 2009, up from 826 victims in 2008 (Country Narratives: N-Z). 6. Conclusion: Decriminalized Sex Industries Encourage Human/Sex Trafficking From the comparative investigation between Sweden and the Netherlands it is easy to see that decriminalized sex industries are one of the main root causes of human, and more specifically, sex trafficking. It is imperative to realize that an individuals initial consent to participate in a form of bondage does not hold them legally responsible; if they are subsequently exposed to physical abuse and psychological manipulation, they are deemed victims and should receive protection from the Palermo Protocol (What is Trafficking in Persons?). Contrary to the perspective that the decriminalization of the sex industry dignifies the women, in reality, decriminalization dignifies the sex industry, promotes a friendly, open market for traffickers, and normalizes prostitution as an option for the poor. This examination of diverse national policies illustrates how rhetoric is powerful tool to awaken certain realities and concludes that as long as men are able to buy, sell, and prostitute women, gender inequality and violence will persist.

Waller 7 Works Cited Anwar, Andre. Prostitution Ban Huge Success in Sweden. Humantrafficking.org. The Academy for Educational Development, 30 Jan. 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. Country Narratives: N-Z. state.gov. Trafficking in Persons Report 2011. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking In Persons, 27 June 2011. Web. 28 November 2011. Ekberg, Gunilla. "The Swedish Law That Prohibits The Purchase Of Sexual Services." Violence Against Women 10.10 (2004): 1187-1218. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. Human Trafficking Fact Sheet. Afc.hhs.gov. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, N.d. Web. 5 November 2011. Makisaka, Megumi. Human Trafficking: A Brief Overview. Social Development Notes: Conflict, Crime, and Violence. The World Food Bank, December 2009. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. Masci, David . Human trafficking and slavery: Are the worlds nations doing enough to stamp it out? CQ Researcher, 14 (26 March 2004): 273-296. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. The Netherlands vs. Sweden: Comparisons. Nationmaster.com. NationMaster, 2011. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. Raymond, Janice G. Ten Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution and a Legal Response to the Demand for Prostitution. Journal of Trauma Practice 2.3-4 (2003): 315-332. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. Roby, Jini L., Turley Jennifer, and JoAnna Garrick Cloward. U.S. Response to Human Trafficking: Is it enough? Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 6.4 (2008): 508-525. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.

Waller 8 Works Cited Continued Sex Trafficking. IJM.org. International Justice Mission, 2011. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. Valor-Segura, Inmaculada, Francisca Expsito, and Miguel Moya. "Attitudes Toward Prostitution: Is It An Ideological Issue?" European Journal Of Psychology Applied To Legal Context 3.2 (2011): 159-176. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. What is Trafficking in Persons? state.gov. Trafficking in Persons Report 2011. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking In Persons, 27 June 2011. Web. 28 November 2011.