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Brottsbalk (Criminal Code)

The Swedish Penal Code includes regulations that defines and prohibits various sexually and/or physically motivated crimes against people.  The penalty for kidnapping with intent to injure a person, to force a person into service or to practice extortion is imprisonment for at least four years and at most eighteen years, or for life.

Case No. B 1041-01 – the Prosecutor v. M.N.

M.N. was convicted for attempting to purchase sexual services from a woman, which is a criminal act under Chapter 6 Section 11 and Chapter 23 Section 1 of the Swedish Penal Code. The court considered whether the “attempt point” had been reached, which is a prerequisite for the attempt to be punishable. To constitute a criminal attempt, it is required that the offender begin the crime without reaching its completion. There must also be a risk that the act will lead to the completion of the crime.

Código Penal Capítulo IV – Artigos 189-190, 195-197: Tráfico Humano (Penal Code: Human Trafficking)

The promotion or facilitation of prostitution involve taking advantage of the victim’s economic necessity or vulnerability or coerce the victim by means of violence, threat or fraud pursuant to article 189, and it is punished with a sentence of 1-8 years of imprisonment. If the facilitation or coercion to prostitution is made in a foreign country, the crime committed falls within article 190, i.e. human sexual trafficking, which command a higher sentencing of up to 10 years in prison.

Código Penal de la Nación Argentina: Artículos 119-120, 125, 127-128, 130 (Delitos contra la integridad sexual)

A person who sexually abuses a person under the age of 13 through violence, threat, coercion, or intimidation is subject to imprisonment of between 6 months to 4 years, in instances where the person takes advantage of a relationship of dependence, authority, power or the inability of the victim to freely give consent. The penalty will be increased to 4-10 years of imprisonment where the abuse, as a result of its duration or other circumstances, constitutes grave sexual injury.

Código Penal: Livro II, Título I - Crimes contra a pessoa: Capítulo IV - Crimes contra a liberdade pessoal (Crimes against personal liberty)

Articles 154-A and B, 159, and 160 ban harassment (sentencing to up to three years in prison), forced marriage (sentencing to up to five years in prison), slavery (imprisonment from 5-15 years), and human trafficking (imprisonment from 3-10 years), respectively. Article 169 punishes the economic exploitation of prostitution by third parties, even though prostitution itself is not a crime in Portugal.

Crimes Act 1900 Division 10A (New South Wales)

Division 10A concerns sexual servitude, which is defined as “the condition of a person who provides sexual services and who, because of the use of force or threats is not free to cease providing sexual services, or is not free to leave the place or area where the person provides sexual services.”  Section 80D provides for up to 15 years’ imprisonment for any person causing (willfully or recklessly) or attempting to cause sexual servitude (and up to 20 years if the victim is under 18 or cognitively impaired).  Section 80E provides for up to 15 years for any person conducting a busi

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993

In addition to abolishing the offence of buggery (sodomy) between adults, this Act codifies the law relating to sex work (referred to as ‘prostitution’), with the starting point being that it does not make prostitution itself illegal. However, the Act does not define ‘prostitute’. Section 1(2) defines ‘prostitution’ as occurring where “a person solicits or importunes another person for the purpose of obtaining that other person’s services as a prostitute,” or where they solicit or importune another person on behalf of a third person for the purposes of prostitution.

Cправа № 642/4714/16-к (Case No.642/4714/16-к)

The appellant was convicted of trafficking in human beings because he intentionally, for financial purposes, recruited financially vulnerable Ukrainian women for sex trafficking in Russia. The court of first instance sentenced him to five years of imprisonment with confiscation of property for an “accumulation of crimes” (in Ukraine, this term means commission of two or more crimes by one person stipulated by different Articles or different parts of one Article of the Special Part of this Code, where that person has not been convicted of any of these crimes).

Decreto Ley Nº 9/2009. Ley Contra la Violencia Sexual, Explotación y Trata de Personas (Law Against Sexual Violence, Exploitation, and Human Trafficking)

The Law Against Sexual Violence, Exploitation and Human Trafficking defines and prohibits sexual violence, exploitation, and human trafficking. Among other things, the Law establishes that the penalty for sexual violence shall be imprisonment for a period of five to eight years, and that sentences can be increased for aggravating circumstances, such as gang rapes, sexual violence against the elderly or physically or mentally disabled, or the use of arms or drugs to carry out the sexual violence.

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