Bridging the Gap between the Actors: Coordination in Prevention Work against Human Trafficking in Grassroots Level: A Case of Gothenburg – Sweden

Abstract

The objective of this research is to provide understanding of how public authorities and social units coordinate in order to curb the problem of human trafficking. The qualitative method was in use in this research. The primary data was collected during the spring 2008 by using the non-probability sampling embedded in purposive sampling method together with snowball method. In total, five respondents from the state authorities and Civil Society Organizations were used as the informants in the focused interviews conducted by the author. There is also used secondary data from academic journals and books. According to the collected data, it can be generalized that all actors in Sweden rely on law enforcement in prevention of human trafficking. This law criminalizes sex services for money exchange and benefiting from prostitution of others. However, the author is suspicious on the successful part of this law because according to the findings the law enforcement has essential implication in crime prevention work, but despite of how effective the law enforcement is, it is common knowledge that law enforcement resources are always limited. This fact may encourage the breach of law, and intense of human trafficking crimes in Sweden may not be deniable. Consequently, the law enforcement weakness may encourage the criminal entrepreneurs to engage more in illicit business, knowing that the possibility of being caught and prosecuted is always low. In this case the coordination between state and non-state actors committed to work against human trafficking is essential. However, this study reveals large discrepancies of sincerely relationship between the state authorities and the Civil Societies. Analysis of this study confirms that there is a gap in coordination of prevention work among actors, since both have different perception on the best way of looking the human trafficking challenge. The findings of this study may be used as a basis for framework to understand the patterns of coordination in prevention work against human trafficking between the state authorities and Civil Society Organizations, for gaining deeper understanding on the best way of bridging the gaps between the state and non-state actors.