This paper presents some specific features of modern slavery. Very important changes occurred during last years. Trafficking in women and children in aim of sexual exploitation is not so dominant aspect of human trafficking. The number of committed offences of human trafficking in aim of forced labour is increased very fast. This in obviously economic crime now. In some areas of the world the most important sectors of economy depend on forced labour. Examples could be cotton production in Uzbekistan and cocoa in Ivory Coast. Some new tools as Internet create new dangers but also new possibilities to protect citizens. Some states, as the UK, adopts completely new types of regulations to prevent this criminal activity. Poland is the country of origin and destination of victims and also transit country. Comparison to other European countries gives surprising results. Per cent of slaves in Poland is third highest in our continent. One of the reasons of such situation is high number of Ukrainians looking for a job here. This nationality is the most frequently victims of forced labour in Poland. Authorities of many countries have the same problem to solve. How to find a good compromise between need for international, as strong as possible, harmonisation of standards of criminal responsibility and creation of efficient rules of law in internal aspect. At present international obligations are probably stronger and countries adopt new provision, very often just directly translating parts of international agreement as part of internal statute. The latest history of Polish regulations regarding human trafficking is good example of such practice.

The phenomenon of product counterfeiting, including especially medicinal products, has been on increase, not only contributing to growing losses of the right- holders, but primarily constituting an increasing threat to consumers and safety of the country. Counterfeiting significantly reduces the revenue from taxes and fees; there are more and more reports about the fatal consequences of the use of counterfeited goods, especially drugs, dietary supplements, mechanical and electronic devices. The dynamic character of the phenomenon of product counterfeiting is reflected not only in the continuing increase in the amount of counterfeited products on the market and the diversification of the categories of the counterfeited products, which results in a situation where all the products available in the economic trade have their counterfeited equivalents, but also in new trends in the fields of manufacture and distribution. Furthermore goods counterfeiting is related to the growth of crime by engaging organized crime and its connection with other serious crimes, including money laundering, human trafficking and enabling illegal immigration, frauds, and terrorism. In Poland the significance and seriousness of the problem of goods and medicinal products counterfeiting, as well as legal penal instruments to prevent it, are not sufficiently recognized by the legislation or the practice. Goods counterfeiting remains beyond the control of the law enforcement, its prevention remains a façade, and the undertaken actions are conducted ad hoc, without a well-thought wider plan. Article is based on the Author’s doctoral thesis (“Criminal protection of trademarks”, Toruń 2015, unpublished, written under the academic supervision of Professor Andrzej Adamski), which was dedicated to the analysis of the phenomenon of goods counterfeiting from the criminological and legal perspective (regulations regarding the criminal protection of trademarks in the international, EU, British, German, French, Italian, and Polish law were the subjects of the research). An important part of the thesis was the empirical research connected to the practice of Polish law enforcement and the judiciary in terms of cases tried under Article 305 of the act on Industrial Property Law legally closed between 2007 and 2014. It included statistical research, case records studies, and individual in-depth interviews with police officers, customs officers, and prosecutors. The conducted case records studies regarded cases from the District Court in Piaseczno (however vital its role is), while the individual in-depth interviews encompasses officers from two police units (Departments for Fighting Economic Crime of the Metropolitan Police Authority and the County Police in Piaseczno), one unit of Customs Service (Department for Fighting Crime), and a prosecutor from one Prosecutor’s Office (District Public Prosecutor's Office in Piaseczno).

Trafficking in human beings is not a contemporary social phenomenon as its history reaches the ancient times. Recently it has become especially important because of the increasing scope of migration influenced by economic crisis in Europe and worldwide. The article investigates the phenomenon of human trafficking focusing on the social policy measures in victims of human trafficking (re-)integration into the labour market process. The research is based on the analysis of the situation in three EU member states – Austria, Finland and Lithuania, focusing on the role of NGOs and their activities in provision of social assistance for the victims of human trafficking in integration into the labour market process.