BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

12th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology BOOK OF ABSTRACT
of a bias based on several reasons, including legislation, victim identification and media reporting.
The role of women in human trafficking as offenders, however, is far more rarely discussed.
Even though the majority of traffickers are men, women offenders have also been investigated,
prosecuted and convicted in several countries. In this regard, it has been shown that, in general,
women are found to play a more prominent role in human trafficking than in other types of
crimes.
This paper analyses women’s involvement in trafficking in persons both as victims and offenders.
The author utilizes available global, regional and national information to build the profiles of
victims and offenders. The paper also presents cases of female victims becoming offenders. After
victimization, women may enter the trafficking network at the bottom of the criminal hierarchy,
usually becoming involved in the most visible and dangerous tasks in regard to police exposure.
Additionally, women offenders are not always part of a criminal network.
Particularly, many victims that are trafficked for domestic work are often exploited by a woman
in the same household. Several reports refer to cases where these victims are subjected to severe
physical and psychological violence.
EuROpEAN pARAdOXES. A REGIONAL pERSpECTIvE
ON LEGAL dEvELOpMENTS IN vIOLENCE AGAINST
WOMEN AS A CRIME OR A huMAN RIGhTS
vIOLATION
pROF. dR. RENéE G. RöMKENS
dIRECTOR NATIONAL INSTITuTE ON GENdER EquALITy ANd WOMEN’S hIS-
TORy. OF INTERpERSONAL vIOLENCE, AMSTERdAM, NEThERLANdS
Within Europe, the problem of gender based violence (GBV), notably as manifested in violence
against women (VAW) is slowly but steadily gaining political and legal prominence. From
a criminological perspective the topic of VAW reflects interesting legislative developments .
Traditionally the legislative response to any form of violence is criminalization. In the face of the
limitations of a criminal legal response when it comes to addressing victims’ needs, new multidisciplinary
legislative responses to VAW are developing. On a transnational European level a
human rights framework is gaining prominence, calling for an integrated legal response. In the
two relevant political-legal European arenas - the European Union and the Council of Europe –
VAW as a human rights concern is rising on the social-political ands legislative agenda. Recent
case law from the European Courts of Human Rights represents significant developments in
interpreting and identifying States ‘due diligence’ obligations to protect women against gender
based violence. Overall however, both on an national and transnational EU level developments
are still fragmented and contradictory at times.
This paper aims to present an overview of the most important current developments . The central
questions to which extent do European regional developments actually reflect an understanding
of VAW that goes beyond violence as a criminal concern and positions it is a human rights concern
that implies a violation of fundamental rights and freedoms of women as codified in international
binding legal instruments.
14 pLENARy SpEAKERS