Purity & Danger: Solutions to sex trafficking in Swedish media and politics

• In Event: Roundtable: Trafficking

Abstract

The purpose of the study, discussed in this presentation, is to analyse Swedish politicians’, media’s and the Police’s solutions to sex trafficking. The focus is directed at the interaction between media, politics, and the Police. It draws on a previous study that studied how sex trafficking emerged as a social problem in Sweden between 2000 and 2010. The presentation will highlight which solutions emerge in the trafficking debate through a qualitative text analysis of newspapers, political documents, and reports by the Swedish National Police and the Swedish National Crime Prevention Council. The study shows which specific solutions that are introduced in the debate, and the interaction between the actors (claims-makers) leading the debate. It will discuss, from a critical criminology perspective, the implications of the suggested and sometimes implemented solutions for the sex trafficking victims, sex traffickers, the law enforcement, and the public.

Author

• Anita Heber, Stockholm University