Zanna Tvilling, police assistant at the Stockholm Police Department, often comes in contact with victims and perpetrators in her work to prevent prostitution and trafficking. Here, she talks about the Prostitution Group’s four main objectives.
Identify and arrest persons who buy sex
We actively work using Swedish legislation against purchasing sexual favors to prosecute men who purchase sexual favors. Swedish legislation against purchasing sexual favors has excited since 1999 and states that it is illegal to purchase sexual favors, but not to sell sexual favors. The Prostitution Group in Stockholm arrests approximately 150 – 200 men a year who have purchased sexual favors.
Identify and arrest traffickers and pimps
When we are in environments where prostitution takes place we automatically come in contact with traffickers. In our work to combat organized criminal activities that are connected to this problem of trafficking, laws concerning procurement and trafficking are brought to the fore.
Identify and save children and youth from prostitution
One of our most important objectives is to investigate and identify underage girls and boys engaged in prostitution with the objective to save the children and youth from destroying their lives through prostitution. This work is conducted in close cooperation with social services.
Identify new women and men engaged in prostitution
By regularly conducting investigations in environments where prostitution is common to identify people, in particular women from other countries, who have been taken to Sweden to be prostituted. In our work we constantly visit various environments where prostitution takes place such as hotels, apartments, sex clubs, parking garages, public restrooms and the open prostitution on the streets.
These days the majority of our work focuses on prostitution taking place on the internet as this is primarily where prostitution takes place today. The Prostitution Group also conducts raids against prostitution taking place on the street and in bars.
