To construct human trafficking : An intersectional analysis of the Swedish daily press' construction of human trafficking for sexual purposes

This study aims to analyze how swedish daily press construct humantrafficking for sexual purposes. The empirical material consists of 16 articlespublished in 2019 and 2020 from two Swedish newspapers, Dagens Nyheterand Expressen. The study examines how trafficking is constructed and alsohow the central actors such as victims, sexbyers and pimps are constructed inthe daily press. We have used a content analysis where an intersectionalperspective has been assumed. The material was analyzed on the basis of thetheories "doing gender" and "sexual scripts", but also on the basis of theconcepts "representation", "stereotype" and "ethnification". The results of the study show a recurring theme that is constructed in thenewspapers and it is the problem of identifying whether it is prostitution orhuman trafficking. Human trafficking is constructed only as a crime, whichsilences other important aspects of the phenomenon. Human trafficking isconstructed as a business that has a large geographical reach that can occur inboth public and hidden places, e.g. brothels, massage parlors, online or rentedapartments. To understand human trafficking per se, the key players must beput in relation to gender, ethnicity and socio-economic factors, as our studybut also previous research shows. The general construction in the Swedishdaily press of the central players in human trafficking for sexual purposes is awoman as a victim, men as sex buyers and pimps from different backgrounds.The woman is usually constructed as poor and non-Swedish who is sold by apimp and then exploited by a white man with resources. In Sweden, there is a racist view of prostitution, which is reflected in the newsarticles. When writing about ethnicity, a distinction is created between “weand them” when it is written from a general Western perspective. When it becomes a recurring pattern in the newspapers, prejudices and stereotypes arerecreated and confirmed.