– It is both about girls who come from vulnerable areas and who already have experience of violence and abuse. But also about girls who come from completely different areas that are not associated with gang crime, says Charlotta von Mentzer.
She is a midwife, therapist and researcher and works at the Sexual Medicine Centre, SMC-Pilen, in Gothenburg and has met around fifty affected girls there.
For example, the girls come into contact with gang criminals via social media or at parties.
– Some have fallen in love and been lured into the gangs by their boyfriends, says Charlotta von Mentzer.
Over the past three years, von Mentzer has seen an increasing number of young women being subjected to sexual violence and exploitation by gang criminals. The girls’ stories are hair-raising.
Filmed during rape for blackmail purposes
– We have a case where a young girl was tricked into a friend’s home. There, a group of guys who belonged to a criminal gang were waiting and gang-raped her. It was her friend’s way of paying off a debt, says Charlotta von Mentzer.
Other girls have been lured to parties with lots of alcohol and drugs. The women have been raped and the abuse has been filmed.
– Then the films are used as blackmail to keep them in the sexual exploitation and prostitution, says Charlotta von Mentzer.
– We also have a case with a young woman who has been sexually exploited for several years by two criminal gangs. They have sold her to prison inmates who have had sex with her in the visiting rooms.