The Swedish Approach to Trafficking, Prostitution and the Sex Industry
Trafficking, Prostitution and the Sex Industry: The Nordic Legal Model
By Janice Raymond* - 21 July 2010
There is no doubt that the Nordic countries lead the world on most indicators of
gender equality. Gender equality experts and advocates have long pointed out
that in economics, politics and social services, the Nordic countries top the
charts. A less noticed equality indicator is that the Nordic countries outpace
others in legal action to stem the sex trade by addressing its unnoticed
perpetrators -- the mainly male purchasers of women and children in
prostitution.
In 1999, with the approval of over 70% of its surveyed population, Sweden passed
groundbreaking legislation that criminalized the buyer of sexual services. Part
of a larger Violence Against Women bill, the legislation was based on the
foundation that the system of prostitution is a violation of gender equality.
Sweden's legislation officially recognizes that it is unacceptable for men to
purchase women for sexual exploitation, whether masked as sexual pleasure or
"sex work." Equally important, its law acknowledges that a country cannot
resolve its human trafficking problem without addressing the demand for
prostitution. The law does not target the persons in prostitution.
This month, the government of Sweden published an evaluation of the law's first
ten years and how it has actually worked in practice. Compared to the report's
understated and cautious tone, the findings are strikingly positive: street
prostitution has been cut in half; there is no evidence that the reduction in
street prostitution has led to an increase in prostitution elsewhere, whether
indoors or on the Internet; the bill provides increased services for women to
exit prostitution; fewer men state that they purchase sexual services; and the
ban has had a chilling effect on traffickers who find Sweden an unattractive
market to sell women and children for sex. Following initial criticism of the
law, police now confirm it works well and has had a deterrent effect on other
organizers and promoters of prostitution. Sweden appears to be the only country
in Europe where prostitution and sex trafficking has not increased.
The Swedish results should be contrasted to neighboring countries such as
Denmark where there are no legal prohibitions against the purchase of persons in
prostitution. Denmark has a smaller population than Sweden (roughly 5 ? million
to Sweden's 9 million), yet the scale of street prostitution in Denmark is three
times higher than in Sweden.
In casting the comparison further, we should note the dismal results of the
legalization model of prostitution from countries in Europe that have normalized
pimping, brothels and other aspects of prostitution and the sex industry. In
2002, Germany decriminalized procuring for purposes of prostitution, widened the
legal basis for establishing brothels and other prostitution businesses, lifted
the prohibition against promoting prostitution and theoretically gave women the
right to contracts and benefits in prostitution establishments. Five years
later, a federal government evaluation of the law found that the German
Prostitution Act, as it is called, has failed to improve conditions for women in
the prostitution industry nor helped women to leave. It has also failed "to
reduce crime in the world of prostitution." As a result, the report stated that
"prostitution should not be considered to be a reasonable means for securing
one's living." The federal government is drafting a criminal provision to punish
the clients of those forced into prostitution or who are victims of trafficking
-- the Swedish model lite with all its caloric value removed.
The results are equally bad in the Netherlands where prostitution and the sex
industry have been legalized since 2000. Two official reports in 2007 and 2008
have soured official optimism about the Dutch legalization model. The
government-commissioned Daalder Report found that the majority of women in the
window brothels are still subject to pimp control and that their emotional
well-being is lower than in 2001 "on all measured aspects." The Dutch National
Police Report puts it more strongly: "The idea that a clean, normal business
sector has emerged is an illusion..." Like the Germans, the Dutch are now
proposing an amendment that would penalize the buyers who purchase unlicensed
persons in prostitution -- another version of the Swedish model lite. Still, an
indication that penalizing the buyer is gaining ground.
The failure of the legalization model in Europe helped the Swedish model to
become the Nordic model in 2009 when Norway outlawed the purchase of women and
children for sexual activities. One year after the Norwegian law came into
force, a Bergen municipality survey estimated that the number of women in street
prostitution had decreased by 20 percent with indoor prostitution also down by
16 percent. Bergen police report that advertisements for sexual activities have
dropped 60 percent. Also, the police have effectively monitored telephone
numbers of buyers, who respond to such advertisements, in order to identify and
charge them. An added value is that monitoring reveals a wider network of
criminal groups involved in trafficking for prostitution and their links to
others involved in child prostitution, pornography and drug trafficking. In
Oslo, the police also report that there are many fewer buyers on the street.
The same year as Norway, Iceland passed a law criminalizing the purchase of a
sexual service. Earlier in 2004, Finland approved a more anemic version of the
Nordic model. This left Denmark as the outlier with no legislation targeting the
demand for prostitution.
The success of the Nordic model is not so much in penalizing the men (the
penalties are modest) as in removing the invisibility of men who are outed when
they get caught. This, in turn, makes it less appealing for pimps and
traffickers to set up shop in countries where the customer base fears the loss
of its anonymity and is declining.
Legalization of prostitution is a failed policy in practice. The prostitution
policy tide is turning from legalization of prostitution to targeting the demand
for prostitution without penalizing the victims. Countries who want to be
effective in the fight against trafficking and not havens of sexual exploitation
are beginning to understand that they cannot sanction pimps as legitimate sexual
entrepreneurs and must take legal action against the buyers.
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*Janice Raymond is Professor Emerita of Women's Studies at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst and a member of the Board of Directors of the Coalition
Against Trafficking in Women (CATW). Janice G. Raymond. Ph.D Professor Emerita
University of Massachusetts, Amherst (USA)
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) PO Box 9338, N. Amherst, MA 01059
USA Fax: 413-367-9262 E- mail: jraymond@wost.umass.edu
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