Trafficking in human beings for sexual and other purposes - Polisen

3. Criminal Development18widely reported in Lithuania and led to the Lithuanianhuman traffickers and pimps avoiding Sweden forseveral years. The effects of this sentence have nowsubsided. This may be due to a new generation inLithuania having taken over the criminal activityaimed at Sweden. In addition, there are high levels ofunemployment in Lithuania, especially for women,and that fact is exploited by traffickers to recruitadditional victims. These activities were also facilitatedby direct ferry connections between Lithuania andSweden with limited border controls.3.1.5 Sale and purchase of sexual servicesvia the Internet in 2011According to the EU statistical office, Eurostat,three-quarters of households in the EU had access tothe Internet in 2011. That same year, the proportionof households with Internet access was 91 per cent inSweden 16 .Open borders, combined with the opportunitiesprovided by technological developments for transactionsand payment solutions via the Internet, makethings easier for criminals. The Internet is used forthe entire criminal process, from initial preparations,acquiring information, identifying and recruiting victims,advertising the victims’ services and for publishingthreats, removing evidence, etc. The crime is freedfrom both time and space constraints because perpetratorscan commit the crime at any time, anywhere.As Internet crime is inherently transnational, internationaljudicial collaboration is crucial for effectivelaw-enforcement. At the same time, collaborative initiativesare hampered because legislation within thisarea is undeveloped in many countries, or becausethe legislation is different. It is thus important for thelaw-enforcement agencies to develop the ability tocombat transnational crime with transnational lawenforcement.16 Statistics from Eurostat http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tin00088&plugin=1In 2010, the Swedish National Police Board offeredall police authorities skills development concerningInternet surveillance to enhance their knowledge ofthe preservation of evidence in investigations relatingto prostitution activities on the Internet. This led tomore police authorities conducting their own investigationsand the National Bureau of InvestigationCyber-Crime Section participating only in larger andmore complex investigations.As in other countries, sexual services in Sweden aretoday mostly sold via the Internet. In the investigationsconducted during 2011, the perpetrators publishedadvertisements on websites designed to givethe male sex-purchasers the impression that the victimsthemselves were responsible for the advertisements.In actual fact, the women usually had noknowledge of what was actually being described inthe advertisements. This applied in particular to girlsand women of Roma and Nigerian origin who werefrequently not able to read or write.In 2011, advertisements were published in whichwomen and girls were offered for purposes of prostitution,on the following websites, for example.• Adoos• Secretary Academy or Sexwork• Thumblogger• Sthlmtjejer• Best Forums• Sthlmtjejer.adultforum• Sexy Stockholm City Escorts• Cityoflove• Rosa SidanAccording to the National Bureau of Investigationand the police’s Prostitution Team in Stockholm,there has been a change regarding advertisements forforeign girls and women on the Internet. In previousyears, advertising revolved mainly around the sellingof girls and women from Estonia and Russia, while in2011 it related primarily to girls and women fromLithuania, Romania and Nigeria.