Procuring offences and organised crime: a typology of the different criminal networks operating in France

• In Event: Sex work and trafficking

Abstract

As a particularly fast-changing criminal phenomenon especially in the last decade, the subject of procuring requires a meticulous mapping of its different forms and characteristics, in order to adapt the response of law enforcement agencies but also to broaden the knowledge of the phenomenon. Thus, the French Ministerial Statistical Department for Internal Security (SSMSI) is currently working on building a typology of procuring in the light of organised crime networks, based on procedural data from security services.
The exploitation of the prostitution of others, or procuring, is severely punished in France. Today, according to security services, several forms and networks of procuring seem to co-exist on French territory: proximity procuring, Latin-American networks, North-African networks, Asian networks, and Central and Eastern European networks. Each form of procuring presents particular characteristics, whether in terms of the profile of victims and suspects or in terms of the organization, structure and territorial hold of organized procuring networks.
Based on administrative data recorded by French security services, the goal of the study is to establish a typology of procuring, by using descriptive analysis, territorial analysis and classification techniques. The first step of this work is to analyze the characteristics of victims and suspects of procuring and the interactions between them. Analysis of the location of the offence, in relation to the domicile of victims and authors, also enables to study the territorial reach of the different types of procuring. The use of a non-significant statistical code (an anonymized identifier for each victim and author) makes it possible to identify polycriminal suspects and multivictimized persons, by identifying whether they are also registered for other offences and in other proceedings. Thus, this code enables a mapping of organized criminal networks of procuring, by detecting and linking individuals who are registered several times, during different events, in various proceedings.

Author

• Miti Le Cam, French Ministerial Statistical Department for Internal Security (SSMSI)