This article takes its starting point in Sami and Roma exposure to racism by studying preconditions within the criminal law for dealing with racism against individual victims of crime. The purpose is to identify whether and how individual victims can obtain remedy and reparation when exposed to racism. In this article, that means that the racist act must be criminalized, that the criminal interest of crim- inalization is the individual victim, and that the racist nature of the crime has legal implications for classification, sentencing and pun- ishment. Methodologically, the study focuses on identifying possible challenges in the application of so-called hate crimes legislation. Two challenges to the application of individual remedies and reparations were identified. First is the difficulty in identifying and establishing (racist) motive. Second is the lack of clear statements from the courts about how assessments have been made in the use of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in sentencing, and if or how they have affected sentencing and punishment. The results of this study show that the legal conditions for individual victims to obtain criminal justice when they have been subjected to racism are insufficient. Problems are primarily due to deficiencies in the formulation of the legislation, but are also seen in its application. Despite a strong contemporary political focus on work to combat racism, no legal changes have been proposed. Based on the results of this study, we suggest the appli- cation of a holistic approach to the legislation on hate crimes. This would enable individual redress for the racism to which Sami and Roma, among others, are exposed.
Att utsättas för brott kan innebära en känsla av maktlöshet, rädsla och sårbarhet. Att drabbas av ett brott i ett främmande land kan förstärka dessa känslor och innebära en än större utsatthet. Handel med människor innebär ett utnyttjande av redan utsatta människor i ett för dem främmande land. Detta utnyttjande har förbjudits i de flesta länder och i Sverige har det införts ett särskilt brott, människohandel. Det har dock visat sig svårt att upptäcka människohandeln och att identifiera dem som utnyttjas som brottsoffer. Handel med människor är ingen ny företeelse, men har förändrats över tid i fråga om vilka som har köpts eller sålts, i vilket syfte och av vem den utförts. Det här kapitlet handlar om de brottsoffer som riskerar att osynliggöras för att de inte ses som legitima eller ideala offer.
This thesis focuses on legal protection of victims of human trafficking in Sweden. Human trafficking involves the exploitation of often already vulnerable individuals and is a violation of their human rights. Human trafficking is also a threat to state security as a component of transnational organized crime and illegal migration, and has therefore long been a subject of international cooperation.
In this thesis international responses to human trafficking are categorized as being focused on two distinct and separately protected parties, namely the individual and the state. The implementation of these international responses have, in the case of Sweden, mainly led to new criminal regulation relating to human trafficking, and in this thesis international as well as Swedish legal measures against human trafficking are analyzed from a victimological perspective. The overall aim is to investigate and analyze whether victims of trafficking have received an enhanced legal protection through Swedish criminal law.
The thesis shows that human trafficking is not considered a problem in the Swedish legislative context, and that the international measures to protect victims of trafficking have not been regarded to any great extent. Few victims of trafficking in Sweden are even identified as victims, and measures against human trafficking have largely been associated with measures against prostitution. To legally connect human trafficking with prostitution is, however, problematic because these crimes have different primary protective interests and the victims have different roles in the investigation and litigation process. From a victim's perspective, the categorization of the crime is crucial because the status of plaintiff, as is required for the possibility for financial redress and other legal rights, is assessed in Sweden by how the offense is classified. It is therefore important for the victims of human trafficking to be identified and categorized correctly in order to be defined as plaintiffs and obtain protection under criminal law. As a result of all these factors, the intended enhanced legal protection for victims of trafficking in Sweden is lost.
Tiggeri har kommit att bli ett problem i det svenska samhället. Det är dock inget egentligt problem för oss som bor och arbetar i Sverige, men däremot för de människor som kommer hit i brist på andra försörjningsmöjligheter. De människor som reser till Sverige för att tigga kommer från en utsatt miljö och de blir lätt offer för de som vill tjäna pengar på andra människors bekostnad. Några av de tiggare som idag syns i svenska städer är sannolikt utsatta för människohandel, men de betraktas sällan som brottsoffer. Åtgärder mot tiggeri har inte kommit att fokusera på tiggarnas utsatthet. Det finns dessutom brister i lagstiftningen eller dess tillämpning som gör det svårt för dessa eventuella offer att erhålla skydd.
In this chapter, the relationship between freedom of religion and other fundamental freedoms and human rights will be explored and discussed. The backdrop is a completed EU project on hate crime, in which it was discovered that the freedom of religion come in conflict with other human rights or is used as an argument for exemption of criminal responsibility in hate crime cases.
The focus of actions to combat human trafficking has been mainly directed towards sexual exploitation, whilst other types of human trafficking have been given little attention. This comparative paper highlights victim characteristics, based on court cases, as potential factors leading to their exploitation in Australia and Sweden. Both countries have only recently adopted criminal legislation prohibiting labor trafficking, and there have only been a few court cases of labor trafficking in either country. The low number of court cases may be the result of focus on trafficking for sexual exploitation, and also to labor trafficking victims being socially constructed as fragile and naïve, setting an unrealistic ‘benchmark’ for their identification and successful prosecution. This study identifies patterns that emerge from the comparison, highlighting that labor trafficking victims who are considered ‘a strong case to be presented in court’ are viewed as ‘ideal’ victims, and that traffickers are not from organized crime groups that can be monitored at a transnational level. It is argued that the current trafficking legislation has a focus which reduces the likelihood of a conviction for labor trafficking, but also that its limitations are bound to broader socio-political understanding of victims in this area.