doi:10.5477/cis/reis.174.89 Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation in Spain: Estimates and Reality La trata con fines de explotación sexual en España: ¿Se ajustan las estimaciones a la realidad? Carmen Meneses-Falcón and Santiago Urío Key words Abstract Estimates This paper analyses the estimates offered by political and social media • Sexual Exploitation on trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation in Spain. Estimates of • Economic Flows the costs and economic benefits obtained by traffickers from their victims • Prostitution are calculated using different information sources. These sources are • Trafficking of Human collected by the authors (interviews with key informants and traffickers, Beings analysis of court rulings, ethnographic work, analysis of news items reported in the press, and memoirs from official bodies). The results question the contradictory and obsolete information used to refer to the number of victims, economic volumes, and the number of men paying for sexual services. Palabras clave Resumen Estimaciones Este trabajo analiza las estimaciones que desde medios políticos y • Explotación sexual sociales se ofrecen sobre la trata con fines de explotación sexual en • Flujos económicos España. Partiendo de distintas fuentes de información recogidas por • Prostitución los autores (entrevistas a informantes clave y a tratantes, análisis de • Trata de seres sentencias judiciales, trabajo etnográfico, análisis de noticias en prensa humanos y memorias de organismos oficiales) se realizan estimaciones del coste y beneficios económicos que los tratantes obtienen de sus víctimas, y se cuestionan las informaciones contradictorias y obsoletas que se utilizan para referirse al número de víctimas y a los hombres que pagan por servicios sexuales. Citation Meneses-Falcón, Carmen and Urío, Santiago (2021). “Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Ex- ploitation in Spain: Estimates and Reality”. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 174: 89-108. (http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.174.89) Carmen Meneses-Falcón: Universidad Pontificia Comillas | [email protected] Santiago Urío: Universidad Pontificia Comillas | [email protected] Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 174, April - June 2021, pp. 89-108 90 Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation in Spain: Estimates and Reality INTRODUCTION Almost all countries consider it a crime against individuals. In Spain, it appears in Human trafficking is an issue of great con- the Criminal Code in article 177bis, pun- cern in Europe. It has numerous causes, ishes it under the human rights violation but tends to be related to immigration, of the individuals who are recruited, de- since most victims are foreigners. The ceived and exploited for profit. While it is poor economic development of many considered a crime against individuals, it countries, along with high levels of social should be distinguished from smuggling, inequality and instability, has resulted in which is a crime against the state, given poverty for many families, leading them that in this latter context, immigration laws to try to prosper abroad (Marcu, 2008; are violated. A correlation exists between United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, these two social phenomena and on oc- 2010). The massive flow of immigrants to casions, they may be hard to distinguish Europe taking place over the past dec- since what may begin as smuggling can ades have created major border restric- turn into human trafficking in a later stage tions for non-EU citizens (Ellis and Akpala, (Campana and Varese, 2016; Choi, 2010; 2011; United Nations Office on Drugs and Weitzer, 2014). Furthermore, human traf- Crime, 2016). Trafficking networks have ficking should not be confused with co- become an immigration option for many ercive prostitution or sexual exploitation women from developing countries (García (Constantinou, 2016), even though the lat- de Diego, 2014). ter has not been clearly defined in the According to the Protocol to Prevent, criminal code. Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Per- The size of the number of individuals sons (United Nations Office on Drugs and affected as victims of the trafficking crime Crime, 2000), this phenomenon involves depends on the sources consulted. UN- three basic elements (Molland, 2011): ODC, in its 2016 report, stated that 63,251 a) the act, the recruitment of an individ- victims were detected in 106 countries be- ual who is offered a job or activity in an- tween 2012 and 2014; and in 2014 alone, other location and transported within or 17,752 victims were detected in 85 coun- beyond the borders; b) the means, decep- tries (p. 23). Focusing on Europe (central tion based on promised benefits that are and western) the figures offered for this not real, or the failure to receive all the in- period were 15,200 victims (United Nations formation necessary to make the deci- Office on Drugs and Crime, 2016). Euro- sion, and the use of coercion, threats or stat stated, in its 2015 report, that between violence at any time in the process, if not 2010 and 2012 there were 30,146 victims from the onset, and c) a purpose, once in registered and identified in the 28. Member the destination, is to exploit this individ- States and in 2012 there were 10,998 vic- ual to profit a third party. There are diverse tims. During this period, 8,805 people were types of exploitation: sexual, labor-based, charged with human trafficking crimes in street begging, criminal acts (theft, the sale Europe and 3,855 were convicted. In 2014, of drugs), forced marriage or the trafficking Europol cited 4,127 suspects and 4,185 of organs. It is a form of slavery that was victims. In Spain, the Integral Plan against highly “generalized” in the past and cur- trafficking by the Ministry of Health, Social rently, perpetuates relationships of domi- Services and Equality recorded 900 identi- nation and exploitation, specifically, that of fied victims in 2014, and 367 in 2017, ac- women in the case of sexual exploitation cording to the Federal Prosecutor’s Report (Patterson, 2012). (Federal Public Prosecutor, 2017). How- Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 174, April - June 2021, pp. 89-108 Carmen Meneses-Falcón and Santiago Urío 91 ever, it has been suggested that these fig- data supports it? These are some of the ures and data on human trafficking may questions that have guided the research be imprecise and not rigorous (Crawford, presented below. 2017; Fedina, 2015). It proposed that the There are different theoretical lines for majority of the women working as prosti- the definition of prostitution, leading to tutes in Spain were victims of trafficking different political considerations, which (Llobet, 2017), and as previously stated, are summarized below (Agustín, 2005). these are two overlapping, but not coincid- First, it may be considered a form of gen- ing phenomena. der-based violence, driven by inequal- Not only the estimates of the traffick- ity and exploitation, originating in a patri- ing victims via sexual exploitation have archal, capitalistic society and centered been questioned, the volume of money around masculine sexuality (Cobo, 2017; generated from this social phenomenon is Miguel, 2012). This model advocates pro- also controversial. It has been claimed that hibitionist abolitionism, which punishes huge economic flows with considerable the participants involved, or some of profitability for trafficking networks exist, them, mainly the purchaser. Furthermore, being considered the third most lucrative there are distinct means of punishment, global business, along with the trafficking from its consideration as a criminal activ- of drugs and weapons. Europol reported ity, included in the criminal code, an ad- an annual income of EUR 32,000 million ministrative sanction, preferably in street for traffickers (Ministry of Health, Social prostitution (Villacampa and Torres, 2015). Services and Equality, 2015). On some oc- Second, it may be viewed as an occupa- casions, thousands of millions of euros tion chosen by many women given its po- or dollars have been exposed and esti- tential economic benefits, especially for mated, without any justification or details disadvantaged or vulnerable populations. as to how this money was obtained. Many Along these lines, it may be interpreted of these figures have been repeated in re- as a challenge of the rules applying to ports, books or by the media and through women in the patriarchal society, being their repetition, they are ultimately consid- considered a redistributive strategy for the ered to be factual. economic inequalities existing between men and women (Juliano, 2002); it is also The lack of a process to rigorously ob- an option for many immigrant women in tain and manage these figures is the case, the current globalization processes, cre- not only for the economic volume adjudi- ating a distinct cultural conception of sex, cated to trafficking and the number of its that is more structural than an individual victims, but also for the relationship with (Agustín, 2005). From these positions, the relevant social participants, such as the regularization of prostitution and the sex men who pay for sex. Therefore, the data industry permits the acknowledging of offered by police and non-profit organi- rights and an attempt to improve the traf- zations suggest that Spain is one of the ficking crime. These views of prostitution countries having the highest level of con- highlight the conceptualization of traffick- sumption of prostitution in the world, with ing for purposes of sexual exploitation, as increasingly younger men visiting broth- defined previously and highlighted in di- els and paying for sexual services (Salazar, verse studies (Weitzer, 2014). 2019). This study analyzes data that quanti- What evidence supports these propos- fies human trafficking for sexual exploitation als? What is this evidence based on? What in its diverse aspects, and that is so often Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 174, April - June 2021, pp.