To Örebro University

The debate about how corruption is linked to political trust is ongoing. The recent conceptualization of sexual corruption calls for the exploration of how gendered experiences of corruption affect trust levels. This study proposes that the sex in sexual corruption, compared to monetary bribes, changes the dynamics of the relationship between service-seeker and provider. The lock-in effects and feelings of betrayal break political trust in a more pronounced way than conventional corruption does. The cross-sectional analyses of individuals in 27 European countries show that both women and men exposed to sexual corruption have less trust in their government compared to non-victims and compared to service-seekers in conventional corruption. These findings enhance our understanding of the corruption-trust nexus and suggest that the magnitude of sexual corruption cases hitherto overlooked, more than causing individual suffering, might have far-reaching and negative consequences for the quality of democracy.

Research on the dynamics of corruption has rarely considered sex as a currency in corrupt transactions. This article puts forward the argument that the abuse of entrusted power in exchange for personal gain is relevant also when sex, rather than money, is the currency. It then contributes with a careful conceptualization of such transactions as sexual corruption. Anchoring our conceptualization in the abuse of entrusted power, the article defines sexual corruption, its elements, categories and delimitations, and proposes a conceptual framework that can be used to develop research on sexual corruption. We also address the implications of recognizing sex as a currency in corrupt transactions, providing insights as to why abuse of power is often overlooked when sex is the currency of the transaction. Our approach offers analytic precision and contributes to setting an agenda for the study of sexual corruption as an obstacle to good governance, at a time when efforts to collect data on sexual corruption are increasing.

Whether to criminalize or legalize the purchase of sex has given rise to heated discussions and different policy initiatives. Opponents of the criminalization of sex-buying argue that prohibition pushes the sector underground, increasing the harm for women in prostitution. Proponents instead view prostitution as violence against women, calling for prohibition. Despite these debates, few studies examine the effect of prostitution laws on the quantity of sex bought. By employing unique data on attitudes to, and experiences of sex-buying behaviour in different prostitution regimes in eight European countries, the paper examines the relationship between prostitution law and sex-buying. The results are robust to the inclusion of a list experiment, and the findings suggest that people living in countries where purchasing sex is criminalized buy less sex than people living in countries where sex-buying is legal.

Sextortion är en form av korruption och könsbaserat våld. Det innebär att en person missbrukar sin maktposition för att få tillgång till en sexuell tjänst i utbyte mot en tjänst eller förmån som hen har möjlighet att bevilja eller undanhålla i kraft av sin position. Sextortion är en korrupt handling där valutan är sex, och en sexuell handling där utbytet, quid pro quo, medför en form av tvång. Ansvaret för sextortion ligger alltid hos den part som missbrukar sin position (förövaren), och utbytet bidrar till skam, rädsla och osynliggörande genom att offret framställs som ‘medskyldigt’. Sextortion är en kränkning av mänskliga rättigheter och ett missbruk av makt, och måste förstås i relation till de köns- och maktrelationer och -normer som utgör handlingens sammanhang.

The trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation worldwide has startled policy makers. Despite efforts to tackle this crime, the magnitude of victims remains. Simultaneously, the dimension of sex trafficking varies, both within origin as well as destination countries. In this dissertation Sofia Jonsson asks why this is the case by examining how, and to what extent the state may shape the incentive structure of this illegal trade. The main findings of the dissertation suggest that the state in its role as law enforc-er, and law maker, might enable crime groups, intentionally and unintentionally, to increase their profit, by constituting the environment that shapes incentives for both supply and demand in the transnational market of sex trafficking. In more detail, the results indicate, first, that states that suffer from police corruption are also more fre-quently sources of human trafficking. Second, that the regulation of prostitution is associated with attitudes toward the buying of sex. With the expansion of illegal markets, such as transnational sex trafficking, follows increasing profit for organized crime groups operating this trade. States thus not only face challenges that arise from trafficking activity, additionally the quality of states’ political institutions might become increasingly threatened by potential organized crime infiltration. As such, lastly the dissertation explores what happens with democracy in states that experience the establishment of organized crime. The results in the last paper suggest that a higher presence of organized crime seems to increase political corruption and that such corruption in turn is associated with lower levels of electoral integrity. In this dissertation, Jonsson contributes to several lines of literature by bringing orga-nized crime back in. In contrast to previous research, which has focused primarily on the trafficked victims in origin countries, Jonsson explores actors’ rationale to traffic and to exploit victims of trafficking, and as such, places the traffickers and their clients firmly at the center of the analysis. Using a unique set of survey data on attitudes to-ward prostitution the dissertation further expands our understanding of the normative impact of legal frameworks, which may unintentionally influence the demand for traf-ficked victims. Findings from the dissertation are as such policy relevant, especially for the heated and ongoing discussion on whether or not to criminalize the purchase of sex.

Human trafficking is a very lucrative illegal business. As such, investigating this criminal activity in source countries requires a deeper understanding of what constitute costs and benefits, and consequently traffickers’ incentives to traffic. The argument of this paper is that police corruption lowers the costs for traffickers in origin countries by facilitating the recruitment of victims, and protecting traffickers from detection and prosecution. Using two novel proxies for police corruption––reliability of the police and bribe seeking among police officials––the paper tests the relationship between police corruption and trafficking activity on a cross-section sample of up to 109 countries. The results suggest that countries that experience more corruption within their police forces are more affected by trafficking outflow also, when controlling for variables that have been stressed to constitute important push-factors such as income, female unemployment rates, and freedom of foreign movement.

States try to combat sex trafficking through both the criminalization of buying sex and by entirely legalizing or regulating the market for prostitution. Proponents of criminalization argue that this approach leads to less acceptance of prostitution, creating a smaller sex market, and reducing the inflow of trafficked victims. Few studies examine if prostitution laws are associated with attitudes toward prostitution. We assess attitudes in eight European countries, using newly collected survey data. This is one of few studies comparing attitudes across different prostitution regimes. Citizens in countries where the purchase of sex is criminalized are less tolerant toward the buying of sex compared to citizens living in countries where the purchase of sex is legalized. Also, people viewing gender equality as important are less accepting of the purchase in countries where buying sex is prohibited, but more accepting in countries where buying sex and running a brothel are legal.