Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation and Organized Procuring in Finland

A joint Finnish-Swedish-Estonian study, completed in 2008, analysed the connections between human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation and organized crime. This article deals with prostitution-related human trafficking and organized procuring in Finland in the 21st century. Finland is studied as a country of destination where foreign women, mainly from the adjacent eastern and southern regions, are brought to sell sexual services. The article concentrates on the perpetrators, their modi operandi and the structure of the criminal organizations. In particular, the control measures that are imposed on the procured women are examined; such measures comprise different sets of rules, violence and the threat of violence, and the so-called debt bondage.