Sex Trafficking: A Financial Crime Perspective
| Pages | 165-178 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026016 |
| Published date | 01 April 2001 |
| Date | 01 April 2001 |
| Author | R.E. Bell |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Journal of Financial Crime — Vol. 9 No. 2
Sex Trafficking: A Financial Crime Perspective
R. E. Bell
INTRODUCTION
The trafficking of women for the purpose of sexual
exploitation1 has become a global business operated
by organised crime groups and is now viewed as
having reached 'critical proportions'.2 Trafficking
exists to meet the market demand for women who
are used in brothels, the production of pornography
and other aspects of the 'sex industry'. It is nothing
less than a modern day slave trade.
The term 'trafficking' is variously defined and the
most appropriate definition is the subject of debate.
First, debate arises over whether trafficking of
women for the purpose of sexual exploitation is
simply an aspect of trafficking in illegal immigration
or a significantly different trade. Trafficking in
human beings does, of course, occur for reasons
other than sexual exploitation, such as 'sweat shop'
labour and economic migration. Secondly, debate
arises over whether coercion is an essential element
of trafficking. It can be argued that a continuum
seems to exist with voluntary prostitution3 at one
end and sexual slavery at the other. Nevertheless,
even where a woman goes voluntarily with a
traf-
ficker, the purported conditions may at some point
change from the original agreement and a coercive
relationship may begin, at which point voluntariness
disappears. However, if prostitution of trafficked
women is regarded simply as a voluntary activity,
the women may be perceived not as victims, but
merely as economic migrants. This would be an
incorrect perspective on what is essentially a funda-
mental human rights issue. Thirdly, debate has
arisen over the type of borders which require to be
crossed. Some definitions of trafficking wish to
restrict the use of the term to cases where inter-
national borders are crossed. In some cases, however,
trafficking occurs within particular countries. The
definition of trafficking which will be adopted in
this paper is a broad one:
'Trafficking is any practice that involves moving
people within and across local or national borders
for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Traffick-
ing may be the result of force, coercion, mani-
pulation, deception, abuse of authority, initial
consent, family pressure, past and present family
and community violence, economic deprivation,
or other conditions of inequality for women and
children.'4
Trafficking can be examined from different
perspectives: for example, from a criminal justice,
immigration or employment perspective. The parti-
cular perspective adopted will affect the strategies
advocated to deal with the problem.5 While this
paper adopts a criminal justice perspective, the
validity and contribution of other perspectives must
also be acknowledged. The purpose of the paper is
to encourage the use of financial weapons, namely
confiscation, money laundering, civil forfeiture and
taxation legislation, against those who sexually
exploit women and children.
THE SCALE OF THE PROBLEM
The traffic in women and children for the purpose of
exploiting them for prostitution has grown to
'alarming proportions'6 in European industrialised
countries.7 It is believed that up to 500,000 women
per year are being trafficked into the EU,8 and, in
particular, there has been a major increase in the
number of women trafficked from the former socia-
list countries of Eastern Europe. The effect of the dis-
integration of the Soviet Union, the opening of
national borders with greater freedom to travel, the
increase in trade by private businesses, and the rise
of Russian organised crime groups has been to
increase trafficking substantially to meet the growing
market in industrialised countries for foreign prosti-
tutes.
Ukraine has now become the epicentre of
global trafficking, with the Ukrainian Interior Minis-
try estimating that 400,000 women under 30 have left
that country in the last ten years.9 A significant trend
is the growing number of children being trafficked.
German estimates suggest that 5 per cent of the
women trafficked from Eastern Europe are under
18 and Italian research has shown that 10 per cent
of prostitutes in Northern Italy are aged between 10
and 15.10
One common method of recruiting women is the
placing of advertisements in newspapers offering
lucrative jobs as nannies, waitresses or dancers in
Journal of Financial Crime
Vol.
9.
No.
2,
2001.
pp. 165-177
Henry Stewart Publications
ISSN 1359-0790
Page 165
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