Selling sex is legal in Sweden.  However, Sweden has a generally low rate of prostitution as opposed to other European nations.   But before all you prospective new prostitutes pack your bags and book your one-way ticket to Stockholm, I should inform you that it is still illegal to purchase sexual services in Sweden.  This strange approach to the prostitution problem has endured continuous ridicule since becoming Swedish law in 1999.  Members of the European Parliament even laughed aloud upon its introduction.

Under Sweden’s Sex Purchase Act (Sexköpslagen), paying for sex is punishable by fines and up to six months in prison.  Being charged under this law is also supposed to guarantee that the transgressor will experience humiliation in the inevitable public exposure.  Under the Sex Purchase Act, pimps and brothel owners can also be prosecuted.  Simply even attempting to purchase sex, with or without success, is punishable by law.  The law includes all forms of sexual services, whether purchased on the street, in a brothel, or in a massage parlor.  According to the Swedish Government:

Prostitution is considered to cause serious harm both to individuals and to society as a whole.  Large-scale crime, including human trafficking for sexual purposes, assault, procuring and drug-dealing, is also commonly associated with prostitution.

Swedish law views prostitutes as exploited victims of the sex trade.  Under this rationale, it is unreasonable to punish the person selling the sexual service, as she is exploited by those who only want to satisfy their sexual desires.  Many lawmakers believed that alleviating the risk of punishment to the prostitute would create positive motivation for these women to begin changing their lives, thereby providing them with the impetus to abandon the sex business.  Initially, officials claimed that the Sex Purchase Act successfully reduced the demand for prostitutes.  Supporters also stated that the law significantly decreased sex trafficking and pimping.  Police proclaimed that criminals within the sex industry viewed Sweden as “bad business” due to its unique stance towards prostitution.  Many heralded not only the eradication of prostitution, but also the overall diminishment of violence against women within the country.  However, they neglected the fact that numerous experts believed prostitution was on the decline in Sweden before this law was ever introduced.

Creating criminals out of half of the necessary participants in the sex trade does not help prostitutes, who just want to make a living and survive.  It is doubtful that the prostitutes of Sweden will be thankful after their entire clientele has been thrown in the slammer, or at the very least, publicly humiliated and discouraged from returning.  In fact, critics believe that prostitution has not been reduced in Sweden at all, and that the law has only symbolic, rather than realistic, value.  Their focus on simply “sending a message” to the public at large concedes that the law is not creating actual, instrumental change.  And symbolism is not particularly important to the prostitute, risking her health and life day-in and day-out to make a living.

Since the Sex Purchase Act was enacted, the sex trade has been forced underground into more isolated and dangerous conditions.  Statistics suggest that there has simply been an increase in hidden prostitution, including via the internet.  It appears that the Swedish government may be ignorant of the many ways sex industries have been utilizing modern technology for the past ten to twenty years or so.  Many people, including an incredible number of prostitutes themselves, believe the law has made them incredibly more vulnerable to violence perpetrated by buyers.  Shockingly, lawmakers and authorities never burdened themselves to consult the actual sex workers or sex workers’ organizations with regard to their plight.

Moreover, Swedish police have always believed that the law would be impossible to enforce.  Additionally, the Justice Committee in Sweden was never convinced that the criminalization of sex purchases would reduce prostitution.  To date, nobody has been imprisoned under the law, and the law has been in place for over ten years.  A number of sources suggest that the law is not being strictly enforced; however, this could be because judges and other public officials were fearful of being charged with crimes under the Sex Purchase Law.  It is also difficult to obtain convictions for those charged under the law due to Swedish judicial procedure and citizens’ rights.  Difficulties also exist in understanding the complexities of the law, and sex workers are not surprisingly reluctant, or completely unwilling, to inform or testify against their own clients.

Many women’s groups even spoke out against the law, proclaiming that the law did not protect women, but rather hurt them by reinforcing patriarchal attitudes towards women and their sexuality, thereby damaging their integrity.  Conversely, supporters of the law argued that it was in place to limit men’s access to women’s bodies, although the fact of the matter remains that others are placing restrictions upon another’s own person.  The law also fails to recognize the differences between voluntary and non-voluntary prostitution, and that perhaps consenting adults should have the right to freely sell or purchase sex.  Simply criminalizing sex work blatantly ignores the more expansive social welfare services needed to combat prostitution, and the deeper circumstances that cause it to occur.

In essence, the Sex Purchase Act has failed, and street prostitution is increasing after the initial decline.  Customers and sex workers now use the internet and mobile phones more than ever in order to communicate.  Interestingly, however, Sweden has not halted the practice of taxing the proceeds of sex work, even though there is a law prohibiting the purchase of sexual services.  So rest assured, Sweden is still reaping the benefits of prostitution occurring within its borders.

Laws similar to Sweden’s Sex Purchase Act have recently been adopted in the fellow Scandinavian countries of Norway and Iceland.

About Dana Bashor

Dana Bashor is the founder and owner of Dana Bashor Consulting Services. Dana Bashor consults for small-to-medium sized businesses and provides management tools and tips on her website. On her free time Dana Bashor loves to freelance on different topics and provide consumer alerts for sites like planet antares scam alerts.  Catch up with Dana on her blog or connect with Dana Bashor on facebook.

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