links to academic studies
| name of study | author | importance |
|---|---|---|
| Prostitution in Sweden 2014: The Extent and Development of Prostitution in Sweden | Endrit Mujaj and Amanda Netscher | the only one that includes all of the important statistics from surveys up to 2014 |
| Sexual and reproductive health and rights in Sweden 2017 | Public Health Agency of Sweden | Results from the population-based survey SRHR2017 |
| Prostitution and Human Trafficking | Swedish Gender Equality Agency | includes information from the 2017 survey |
| Client-Only Criminalization in the City of Stockholm | Daniela Danna | money for police but not social services |
| Four Hundred Thousand Swedish Perverts | Don Kulick | figures behind the supposed decrease |
| The Swedish Sex Purchase Act | Charlotta Holmström | there could be more 'brokers' (pimps and traffickers) |
| The Swedish Government mandated the National Board of Health and Welfare [Socialstyrelsen] in the Women’s Safety Bill of 1997/98 to regularly monitor and gather information about the extent and development of prostitution in Sweden | ||
| Prostitution in Sweden 1998-1999 | ||
| Prostitution in Sweden 2003: Knowledge, Beliefs & Attitudes of Key Informants | ||
| Prostitution in Sweden 2007 | ||
| Interventions against prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes | 2008 | |
| "SOU" stands for "Statens Offentliga Utredningar," which translates to "Government Official Reports" | ||
| SOU 1981:71 | Inger Lindquist | street prostitution declined by 40% between the mid 1970s and 1981 "About 1,000 of the women involved are street prostitutes" |
| SOU 1995:15 | Inga-Britt Törnell | in 1995 street sex work was already decreasing |
| SOU 2010:49 | Anna Skarhed | makes no claim for a reduction in demand |
The Nordic model or Nordic Model is called Sexköpslagen in Swedish which translates as Sex Buyer Law or Sex Purchase Act. Sexköpslagen was part of a bigger set of measures called Kvinnofrid, which means women's peace/integrity/freedom.
Sometimes it is called the Swedish Model or the Abolitionist Model. There are some people who call it the Equality Model, but they are mostly CATW (Coalition Against Trafficking in Women), CATWA (Australian branch of CATW) and SPACE International (Survivors of Prostitution-Abuse Calling for Enlightenment).
The studies above are for Sweden, the ones below are for England and Wales.
| APPG stands for All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade. This group has more than its fair share of Evangelical Christians such as Fiona Bruce MP, member of the Evangelical Alliance Council and anti-abortion. All the members of this group support the Nordic model. UK Feminista serves as the group’s Secretariat. UK Feminista is an NGO founded by Radical Feminist Kat Banyard. HAC stands for the Home Affairs Committee (or Home Affairs Select Committee). CPHRC stands for the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission (Fiona Bruce MP pops up here as well). | ||
| 2008 | Home Office | Tackling the Demand for Prostitution: a review |
| 2014 | APPG | Shifting the Burden |
| 2016-17 | HAC | Prostitution Third Report makes good points on brothel-keeping* |
| 2016 | Home Office | The Government Response to the Third Report on Prostitution |
| 2016 | APPG | How to implement the Sex Buyer Law in the UK |
| 2018 | APPG | Behind Closed Doors |
| 2019 | CPHRC | Limits of Consent |
| 2019 | Bristol Uni | The nature and prevalence of prostitution and sex work |
| 2021 | APPG | Bust the Business Model |
*Conclusions and recommendations from House of Commons Home Affairs Committee Prostitution Third Report of Session 2016–17
9. We are very concerned that, despite there being no clear evidence that it reduces
demand for prostitution, the current practice of treating soliciting as an offence is
having an adverse impact, in terms of preventing sex workers from seeking help to
exit prostitution, exposing them to abuse and violence, and damaging other areas
of their lives, such as access to health and welfare benefits. Having a criminal record
for prostitution-related offences also often creates an unsurmountable barrier for sex
workers wishing to exit prostitution and to move into regular work. It is wrong that
sex workers, who are predominantly women, should be criminalised, and therefore
stigmatised and penalised, in this way. The current law on brothel-keeping also
means that some sex workers are often too afraid of prosecution to work together at
the same premises and as a result often compromise their safety and put themselves
at considerable risk by working alone. (Paragraph 58)
10. We therefore recommend that, at the earliest opportunity, the Home Office change existing legislation so that soliciting is no longer an offence and so that brothel
keeping provisions allow sex workers to share premises, without losing the ability
to prosecute those who use brothels to control or exploit sex workers. There must
be zero tolerance of the organised criminal exploitation of sex workers. The Home
Office should also legislate for the deletion of previous convictions and cautions
for prostitution from the record of sex workers by amending the Rehabilitation
of Offenders Act. In our final report, we will consider the purposes of the law on
prostitution and what the research shows about how those purposes can best be
fulfilled, including whether a different approach should be taken to on-street and
off-street prostitution. (Paragraph 59)
The sex buyer law
11. The sex buyer law is a fundamentally different legislative approach to prostitution
from that which is currently in place in England and Wales. It is based on the premise
that prostitution is morally wrong and should therefore be illegal, whereas at present
the law makes no such moral judgement. We acknowledge that the intention of many
supporters of the sex buyer law is to protect sex workers, especially women, from the
harm, violence and exploitation that can occur in the sex industry, but we also note
that the sex buyer law makes no attempt to discriminate between prostitution which
occurs between two consenting adults, and that which involves exploitation. Much
of the rhetoric also denies sex workers the opportunity to speak for themselves and
to make their own choices. (Paragraph 78)
12. We are not yet convinced that the sex buyer law would be effective in reducing
demand or in improving the lives of sex workers, either in terms of the living
conditions for those who continue to work in prostitution or the effectiveness of
services to help them find new ways to earn a living. Evaluations of the impact of
sex buyer laws are largely based on data about street prostitution, and therefore offer
little insight into the large parts of the sex industry which take place in various
indoor environments, and there are indications that the law can be misused to
harass and victimise sex workers, who are the very people whom the law is seeking
to protect. We are not yet persuaded that the sex buyer law is effective in reducing,
rather than simply displacing, demand for prostitution, or in helping the police to
tackle the crime and exploitation associated with the sex industry. (Paragraph 79)
13. The sex buyer law in Northern Ireland was only introduced in June 2015 and it
was therefore too soon for its impact to be assessed in time to inform our inquiry.
Similarly, France introduced a sex buyer law on 6 April 2016—only 10 weeks
ago—and an evaluation of the impact of this change would provide very useful
comparative information for assessing the likely implications in England and
Wales. In our continuing inquiry, we will take further evidence on the impacts of
the implementation of the sex buyer law in Northern Ireland and France so that a
more robust evidence base can be established for assessing the potential impacts of
introducing similar legislation in England and Wales, and our conclusions will be
contained in our final report. (Paragraph 80)
Other legislative models
14. We received evidence that the model of decriminalisation implemented in New
Zealand has worked successfully. Research suggests that it has resulted in a number
of benefits, including a clear policy message, better conditions for sex workers,
improved cooperation between sex workers and the police, and no detectable
increase in the size of the sex industry or exploitation of sex workers. (Paragraph 100)
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