In the final months of 2023, the Swedish state took an important step by placing sexual exploitation on the agenda and presenting three critical investigations. These focus on stronger criminal law protections for young people, exit programs, and the vulnerabilities associated with pornography. These issues and investigations are vital for Sweden’s efforts to combat prostitution, and several of the proposed measures have long been championed by civil society. RealStars has thoroughly reviewed these investigations and summarized them in three separate blog posts. In this article, we present the main points of the investigation titled ‘Stronger Criminal Law Protection – Against Sexual Abuse, Fraud in Certain Cases, and Crimes with Hate Motives Regarding Gender’.
Sexual Exploitation of Children: A Key Focus of the Investigation
In February 2022, the government appointed a special investigator to review criminal law protections against sexual abuse, with a particular focus on children aged fifteen to seventeen. A significant part of the investigation addresses the crime of ‘exploitation of children through the purchase of a sexual act,’ which specifically applies to children over fifteen. The investigator is also assessing how criminal liability for negligence regarding age is functioning and concludes that the latest legislative amendment (introduced in 2018) has had the intended effect. You can read more about negligence in relation to this type of crime here.
Children Aged Fifteen to Seventeen Are Particularly Vulnerable
Unfortunately, not all children are afforded the same protection under current sexual crime laws. This disparity arises partly because the law does not rely solely on the child’s actual age but instead considers the age the perpetrator could reasonably have believed the child to be. Additionally, the child’s physical maturity is sometimes taken into account. Children over the age of sexual self-determination (fifteen years) are also covered by different, weaker legislation compared to children under fifteen. This lack of equal protection for this particularly vulnerable group is an issue RealStars highlighted in 2021 in a debate article co-authored with ChildX (then Child10) and Ecpat, published in Svenska Dagbladet. In the article, we argued that sexual self-determination exists to allow young people to explore their sexuality, but it should not apply in cases where the child is clearly the victim of a crime.
Strengthening Protection for Children Aged Fifteen to Seventeen
The investigator concludes that the legal protection for children between fifteen and seventeen years of age should be strengthened and proposes the following:
– Chapter 6, Section 4 of the Penal Code on rape of children should be expanded to include cases where someone exploits the fact that a child under 18 years of age—due to mental illness, disability, abuse, the perpetrator’s authority, or other circumstances—has a reduced ability to protect their sexual integrity.
RealStars views this proposal positively but would have appreciated clearer specifications regarding which crimes are included or excluded and the reasoning behind these decisions. We emphasize the gravity of all cases involving the purchase of sexual services and stress the importance of ensuring that all children, regardless of age or other circumstances, are protected by robust criminal law when exposed to sexual crimes.
The investigator also proposes the following:
– Chapter 6, Section 9 of the Penal Code on the exploitation of children through the purchase of sexual acts should be retained, but the subsidiarity clause in the provision should be removed. Currently, this crime is subsidiary to other sexual crimes, meaning that if the act qualifies as another sexual crime, the perpetrator is prosecuted for the latter. Removing the clause would ensure that acts such as sexual acts performed remotely can be prosecuted under this provision.
– Chapter 6, Sections 11 and 12 of the Penal Code (concerning the purchase of sexual services and procuring) should be expanded to include sexual services performed remotely.
Documented Sexual Abuse of Children
The assignment also included evaluating whether the terms ‘child pornography offense’ and ‘aggravated child pornography offense’ should be renamed. However, the investigator does not recommend any changes, a position RealStars is critical of. Children do not participate in pornography—they are subjected to documented sexual abuse. This distinction should be explicitly clarified in the legislation to reflect the severity of the crime.
No Solution to the Problem of Digital Brothels
The investigation also addresses the issue of digital brothels, noting the challenge posed by the principle of double criminality, as the servers hosting these sites are often located in countries where prostitution and pimping are legal. However, the investigation stops short of offering proactive solutions to this problem. We believe this issue could have been explored more thoroughly, as there are known methods to tackle this type of criminal activity that should have been emphasized. You can read more about RealStars’ proposal to address this problem in this debate article.
