Response to interpellation 2023/24:679 on increased equality to counter sexual exploitation
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
L argues that the government prioritizes combating sexual exploitation and is working on a new action program against men's violence against women 1. L believes that a substantial integration initiative is required to counter cultures where the issue of equality is a low priority 2. L wants to break destructive masculinity norms by starting with children of preschool age 2 and strengthens the justice system to counter impunity 2. S considers violence against women to be the ultimate expression of inequality 3. S argues that the government does not sufficiently address destructive masculinity norms 3 4 and that the resources are insufficient 4. S argues that the government shows a lack of political action as the spring budget hardly allocates resources to break new recruitment to gangs 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Mr. Speaker! I have been asked how I intend to, from my area and linked to equality, address the increased risk of sexual exploitation of girls and women who find themselves in gang criminal environments.
Sweden has serious problems with serious crime. It is a situation that has developed over a longer period of time. The government is now carrying out intensive and extensive reform work to reverse the development and reduce crime.
The government's ambition is that no human being shall be exploited for sexual purposes. The work to prevent and combat exploitation in prostitution and human trafficking, as well as providing support to those who are subjected to it, is a priority for the government. The government has therefore tasked the Gender Equality Authority to continue strengthening the work against sexual exploitation of children, prostitution, and human trafficking. As recently as March, the government allocated additional funds to this assignment, which is thus financed with 23.5 million kronor in total during 2024.
In December, the government also received two reports where the link between gang crime and sexual exploitation was highlighted. In the report from the Investigation on exit programs for persons subjected to prostitution (SOU 2023:97), there are, among other things, proposals for individually designed exit programs for adults who are subjected to prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes.
The report from the Investigation on protection, support, and care for persons who have been subjected to abuse in the production or distribution of pornography (SOU 2023:98) contains, among other things, proposals to strengthen preventive work to detect children who have been subjected to sexual abuse or belong to the group of those at sexual risk. The reports have been sent out for consultation.
In addition, we need more knowledge about girls and women in or with connections to criminal networks. The Children's Ombudsman recently submitted a report to the government based on conversations with 16 girls with experience of crime and criminal environments. Several of the girls have been subjected to sexual violence or sexual exploitation.
Further knowledge about gender norms and the differences between boys and men and girls and women's participation in criminal environments can contribute to a deeper understanding of how criminal networks and other types of organized crime function. Therefore, the government has tasked the Crime Prevention Council with studying which crimes and tasks tend to be performed by women and girls in criminal networks. They shall also investigate which considerations, structures, and norms underlie the gender differences.
The study shall also make visible what characterizes the involved women and girls and highlight their situation in the criminal environments. This includes highlighting both their participation in and vulnerability to violence. The assignment shall be reported by October 23, 2025, at the latest.
Together with Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer, I will also invite a number of actors to a round-table discussion on girls and women within criminal environments. The purpose is to jointly identify in which areas improvements are required and what each respective actor can do.
The government is also working intensively to develop a new action program to counter and combat men's violence against women, other forms of violence in close relationships, and honor-related violence and oppression, including prostitution and human trafficking. It shall cover 2024-2026. An investigation is also underway to strengthen the long-term governance in the area.
Anna Wallentheim (S)
Mr. Speaker! Since the autumn of 2021, I have been a member of the Committee on Justice. I am also the responsible Social Democrat for issues concerning young offenders. In a time when we experience that children murder children and that children are drawn into criminal gangs where drugs, human trafficking and violence are everyday occurrences, my area can many times be seen as incredibly dark. Serious crime is finding its way deeper and deeper into the crime patterns of some young people.
What makes the issue even worse and which is the background to my question to the Minister is, of course, that we have recently been able to read about how young girls and women in Sweden, in this dark shadow of gang crime, are being exploited as commodities as part of this crime. It can occur through the sale of sexual acts. It can occur as payment of debts or as part of the drug trade.
Reports show that it concerns both women who are already involved in prostitution as well as young women who have never been a part of it but who are drawn into the sex trade by gang members who pretend to have romantic relationships with them. It has become a part of these young women's everyday lives. Many of those affected are also particularly vulnerable and find it difficult to seek help due to the violence capital that the gang members possess.
Despite the extent of the phenomenon, there is often a lack of knowledge and methods to detect and support these girls. This leads to the risk that they are left unnoticed or unprotected.
Young girls and women are thus becoming victims of human trafficking in Sweden in 2024, and their human rights are violated when they are treated as objects for the gangs' profit.
Violence against women is for us Social Democrats the ultimate expression of inequality between men and women. To meet the violence, we therefore believe that it is of great importance to increase equality in society. The Social Democrats are a feminist party, and for us it is natural that equality work should always be a natural part of all policy areas.
There is much in the government's response that is good, for example that the Gender Equality Authority has been tasked to continue strengthening the work against sexual exploitation of children, prostitution and human trafficking. It is good that the Crime Prevention Council has been tasked to study which crimes and tasks tend to be carried out by women and girls in criminal networks. It is also good that the government is working intensively to develop a new action program to counter and combat violence against women, etc.
This is work that we Social Democrats will many times stand behind, and we hope to be able to be part of constructive conversations about this.
But honestly, Mr. Speaker, there is unfortunately very little in the government's response that addresses how to increase equality or change the destructive masculinity norms that are the breeding ground for many of the issues we are talking about. If the government is serious about these issues, they must be prioritized. It must also be visible in the resources to civil society and to the municipalities.
I feel a great concern about the consequences of the austerity measures that municipalities and regions now face. I feel a great concern about the increasing inequalities. I feel a great concern about household finances. And I feel a great concern that fewer and fewer young people want to call themselves feminists.
With large holes in the funding of the welfare state, the conditions for municipalities, regions, and civil society to both work preventatively and work actively with equality issues are deteriorating.
My question to the Minister is therefore: How does the government intend to work to increase gender equality work and break destructive masculinity norms?
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Mr. Speaker! I completely share the interpellant's view regarding the extremely problematic situation we have in Sweden. It is obvious that we have a consensus on this.
This is also an environment that I, in my previous role as a prosecutor, have seen from the front row. I think we have placed far too little focus on the role of girls and women in this environment. We know that there are girls and women who have their own criminal will, and there are also girls and women who are exploited as pawns in the deadly game taking place in the gang criminal environment in our vulnerable areas.
Mr. Speaker! In my work as a prosecutor, I have seen a great deal of communication between gang criminals. From that, I can conclude that we have a lot of work to do when it comes to the view of women in these circles. It is very clear how girls and women are seen as commodities that can be used, for example, to pay off debts in the criminal environment, and that girls and women are affected by this crime in a way that we have focused on too little.
As I said in my interpellation response earlier, the government has a large number of measures underway. Not least, we are preparing the proposals that we have received in the report from the exit study; it concerns both prostitution and exploitation in pornography.
Another thing in the government's work that I want to highlight and that I think it is very important to take up in this context is the situation at our closed youth homes. We have, Mr. Speaker, a situation where we place gang-criminal youths with extremely large amounts of violence, who are incredibly involved in the criminal environment, together with young girls who often have self-harming behavior and are incredibly vulnerable. One can calculate with the tail that this will fail.
The government is now taking action regarding our Sis-homes, because this situation affects girls. The most vulnerable girls in our society are affected enormously at our Sis-homes, and this is something that has been going on for far too long. We know that these very girls are also exploited in prostitution and used as pawns in this game.
Mr. Speaker! The interpellant says that gender equality measures are lacking in the government's policy. I would like to bounce the question back to the interpellant: How does the interpellant view the situation that prevailed in our Sis-homes and which continued throughout the entire time the Social Democrats were in power without them in any way taking any action to rectify it?
Anna Wallentheim (S)
Mr. Speaker! I note that the Minister does not really want to answer how the government will increase equality or break the masculinity norms that I believe are one of the incredibly important reasons we must look at.
The Minister is, however, completely right that we have let girls and women pass by somewhat unnoticed and that this is now affecting the crime development we see. Women and girls are taking up an ever larger space in gang criminal environments, and we also see how the missions they are assigned to perform have gone from being very easy to becoming more and more complicated.
But knowledge regarding these issues is lacking, and it is of course unfortunate that we have a government that has just presented a spring budget where they are cutting 8 million from the Crime Prevention Council, which is one of the absolutely most important institutions we have when it comes to looking at research on crime.
Violence by men and boys, Mr. Speaker, affects girls, women, and other boys and men. Norms linked to masculinity affect those who are subjected to violence but also severely limit the scope of action for boys and men themselves.
At times when those who defend the principles of equality and the equal value of all people are threatened by undemocratic forces, it is more important than ever that we also get men to work for women's rights. At the same time, we see that the number of men under 30 who call themselves feminists has almost halved in recent years. This is a major setback for the work for equality.
The feminist struggle for an equal society has historically been driven by women who have fought for the self-evident right to vote, work, and live a life free from oppression and violence. But the struggle to create an equal society is both men's and women's responsibility. An equal society is good for everyone who lives there, and everyone must take their responsibility so that we can reach it.
One of our most important tasks when it comes to moving the work on equality forward is, as I have mentioned, to change destructive masculinity norms that still characterize our society. In the same way as women, many men feel that they must conform to a restrictive gender role dictated by outdated norms about how a man should be – that men should be strong and should not show vulnerability or talk about feelings.
Destructive norms of masculinity lead, among other things, to violence and abuse, and men's violence is today one of our greatest societal problems. The work for gender equality will never succeed if we do not break these destructive norms. Even though there are good examples of individual measures from the government and the cabinet, which we must look at, these are not sufficient.
Mr. Speaker! Under the previous Social Democratic government, over 80 penalties were tightened or added. The police received increased resources and more tools, and two new police trainings were added.
But unfortunately, these measures have not been sufficient. It is obvious that something else was also needed. Behind every gang criminal, we know that there are three young people ready to take over. These young people have a view on society, norms, and equality that we can never accept. We must therefore deal with the neglect of our welfare and put a stop to the increasing inequalities, which risk becoming a breeding ground for these destructive norms.
My question to the Minister is therefore: Does the government see that our municipalities and regions and civil society are important factors in the work towards increased equality? If the answer is yes, why are these areas not prioritized instead of lowering the tax for the richest?
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Mr. Speaker! Of course, the government sees that municipalities, regions, and even civil society have a very important role in the work we are talking about here. But we must see what kind of situation it is that we have to deal with. We have a situation in Sweden where, in our vulnerable areas, we have allowed a growth of cultures where the issue of equality has incredibly low priority. What we must do to address this fundamentally is a major integration initiative in Sweden. We cannot have different islands in Sweden where girls and women have such a much lower value as we see they have and where women's and girls' rights and freedoms are heavily restricted.
We are talking about breaking destructive masculinity norms. We are, of course, in complete agreement that this needs to be done; the question is how. I will be completely honest: When it comes to those we are talking about here, who are already in the gang criminal environment and use these girls as playing cards and means for paying off debts, it is very difficult. If we are to make a real difference, we must start with those who are children now. We must begin an intensive work with these values at the preschool and primary school age. We must get these values in place from the beginning. There, we must make large integration initiatives, and this government is doing that. We are investing broadly to break the segregation and remove these deviations in values regarding the view on women and girls, which do not belong in our society.
Mr. Speaker! The situation we have is to a large extent a result of the policy that has been pursued.
Mr. Speaker! Sometimes we speak of the situation in Sweden as if it were some natural disaster that has struck Sweden, something we have not really been able to control. But the situation we have is instead a fully expected result of previous policies where we have turned a blind eye to the extremely large problems that we have in Sweden.
When it comes to the police's work, in 2022 we had the same number of police officers in relation to our population size as we had in 2012, despite the fact that we have had a completely skyrocketing crime development. This has resulted in our criminal networks being able to expand without the police being able to cope with this criminality, while other types of crime have been sidelined, for example other forms of violence against girls and women that are not gang-related. That work has also suffered when necessary investments in the justice system have not been made.
Mr. Speaker! This government sees the situation. We see the emergency situation we find ourselves in. We are strengthening the justice system to avoid a situation where there is total impunity for gang-related crime and all other types of crime that we see spreading across Sweden. At the same time, we are, of course, as I said earlier, working on crime prevention with our youth. That is the only thing we can do to have a chance to reverse the development we see.
Anna Wallentheim (S)
Mr. Speaker! I interpret it as the Minister sharing my view that no child is born a criminal. Nor can we see that any child comes into the world with pre-programmed destructive gender norms. No youth voluntarily chooses to become part of prostitution or to be exploited as a commodity. Therefore, I will continue to place my trust in the children and young people we see today.
I refuse to accept the idea that one's background should determine one's destiny. I am convinced that those who end up in these difficult situations need a society that stands strong and offers all children, regardless of background, a secure upbringing.
In the latest spring budget, which was released just a few weeks ago, hardly any resources at all were allocated to break the increased recruitment to criminal gangs. The government shows an obvious lack of political measures to handle the current issues of how we should counter youth crime and promote equality. If these issues had truly been prioritized, why do we then not see that the problems in the schools are being solved? Why is the welfare underfunded? Why do we see that fewer and fewer children in particularly vulnerable areas can participate in community life? Why are the municipalities forced to cut back on leisure and cultural activities even further?
If we cannot strengthen the positive communities, we risk leaving children and young people in particularly vulnerable areas to negative influences and destructive environments where equality norms do not take hold - a view that the Minister and I share.
All young people strive to have a place in society, to be someone and to be respected. But society is no longer there to meet these dreams. Therefore, there is much more to be desired, Mr. Speaker, from both the right-wing government and the Sweden Democrats when it comes to these important issues.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Mr. Speaker! To begin with, I want to address the claim that this government is not taking measures to break the new recruitment to our gangs. That is not true. We are taking a number of measures. Among other things, we are working on a completely new Social Services Act, and as I mentioned, we are finally reviewing the Sis homes, which today actually function as a recruitment base for our criminal networks. So, we cannot have that. There, the government is implementing sharp measures, in addition to a large number of other measures.
We have a consensus that this is not a law of nature. One is not born with one's values, but it is something that is shaped by the environment one finds oneself in.
That is exactly why it is so important that we do not watch passively as these destructive environments spread. We need to be there from the side of society; we need to break in. We need to counter those values with healthy values so that we get a new generation that can actually grow up with equality values, with healthy values, and with a faith in the future that does not involve weapons or drugs.
Mr. Speaker! I would finally like to thank the member for this debate. I think it is important that we place much more focus than we have done so far on girls' and women's role and vulnerability in the criminal environment.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.