NCJ Number
207414
Journal
International Review of Victimology Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: 2004 Pages: 73-88
Date Published
2004
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article analyzes the trafficking of women for purposes of sexual exploitation from Eastern and Central Europe into Western and Southern Europe and beyond by organized crime groups.
Abstract
During the past 15 years, trafficking in women and girls for sexual exploitation has flourished, especially in Europe. The current analysis considers the main structural factors shaping the trafficking industry and the involvement of organized crime groups in transnational prostitution networks. The explosion of the worldwide sex market has turned women into commodities as they are forced into prostitution through deceitful recruitment practices. The current routes of trafficking from and within Eastern and Central Europe are described; many of these areas that were once only used as areas of origin and transit are now becoming increasingly important as areas of final exploitation of trafficked women and girls. Trafficking routes have increasingly fallen under control of transnational criminal networks, with two main types of networks operating in trafficking operations: one which supplies existing prostitution networks with trafficked women and one that handles the business of moving the women across international borders. The author specifically discusses the role of Russian, Ukrainian, and Albanian criminal organizations in the trafficking of women and girls from and within Eastern and Central Europe. Although efforts to fight these organized criminal networks have intensified worldwide, these efforts are crippled by a lack of knowledge regarding the mechanisms through which organized crime is successful. Future research should focus on how local sex markets intersect with trafficking activities and how organized criminal groups reshape existing prostitution markets. Notes, references