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Thou­sands of girls and women are cur­rent­ly flee­ing Ukraine to find pro­tec­tion, safe­ty and peace in Ger­many. But they come to a coun­try that has gained a bad rep­u­ta­tion inter­na­tion­al­ly as the “broth­el of Europe” and a “par­adise for human traf­fick­ers” — and they are at imme­di­ate risk of being forced into pros­ti­tu­tion here by pimps and human traffickers.

What some media, aid organ­i­sa­tions, police and politi­cians are only now alarm­ing, experts have been denounc­ing for many years: An unre­al­is­tic and failed pros­ti­tu­tion pol­i­cy. It favours and pro­motes a large­ly crim­i­nal pros­ti­tu­tion milieu in which hun­dreds of thou­sands of girls and young women are trapped in pros­ti­tu­tion and exploited.

For this rea­son, experts of many years’ stand­ing from dif­fer­ent areas of soci­ety have now found­ed the “Ger­man Insti­tute for Applied Crime Analy­sis” (DIAKA) in Munich. The aim of the insti­tute’s work is to pro­vide con­sult­ing, train­ing and pub­lic rela­tions for a soci­ety free of human traf­fick­ing and relat­ed sex­u­alised violence.

“What is called and treat­ed as pros­ti­tu­tion in Ger­many is to a large extent a busi­ness field of organ­ised crime. And our pol­i­tics and our soci­ety must final­ly recog­nise that!” — says Man­fred Paulus, for­mer chief detec­tive and found­ing member.

Among the founders of the insti­tute are experts from pol­i­tics, crim­i­nal police and jurispru­dence, aid and human rights organ­i­sa­tions, vic­tims’ asso­ci­a­tions, busi­ness and the media — among oth­ers Pro­fes­sor Ursu­la Männle, Inge Bell, Mari­et­ta Hageney, San­dra Norak, Cathrin Schauer-Kelpin, Ste­fan Baum­garth, Man­fred Paulus, Hel­mut Sporer.

“We can’t just con­tin­ue to watch young women being destroyed in pros­ti­tu­tion in the mid­dle of a con­sti­tu­tion­al state like Ger­many.” So says Cathrin Schauer-Kelpin, a social work expert and human rights activist of many years’ standing.

Coun­selling cen­tre direc­tor Mari­et­ta Hageney also knows: “There is a lack of spe­cialised infor­ma­tion and edu­ca­tion here. Myths and false or manip­u­lat­ed infor­ma­tion about the actu­al con­di­tions in the vio­lent sys­tem of pros­ti­tu­tion are circulating.”

The “Ger­man Insti­tute for Applied Crime Analy­sis” sup­ports pol­i­tics, soci­ety and the media. So that they can clas­si­fy and eval­u­ate the actu­al cir­cum­stances — and thus devel­op sus­tain­able deci­sions in the field of prostitution.

For exam­ple, on 12 May 2022, two experts who belong to DIAKA will take part as experts in a hear­ing of the Bavar­i­an Par­lia­ment on the “Sit­u­a­tion of Pros­ti­tu­tion in Bavaria” — the two chair­per­sons of the Insti­tute: human rights activist Inge Bell and retired senior crim­i­nal coun­selor Hel­mut Sporer.