Criminalising the sex buyer: experiences from the Nordic region

Vuolajärvi, Niina ORCID: 0000-0002-4948-7214 (2022) Criminalising the sex buyer: experiences from the Nordic region. Centre for Women, Peace and Security Policy Brief Series (06/2022). Centre for Women, Peace and Security, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

In 1999, Sweden was the first country to use criminalisation of sex buyers as the central policy in a broader approach aiming to end demand for commercial sex. Versions of what is now commonly known as the “Nordic model”1 of sex trade legislation, which also criminalises third-parties but ostensibly leaves sex sellers out of criminalisation, were passed soon after in Norway and Finland, and policies centred on criminalisation of sex buying have been adopted throughout Europe and North America. The Nordic model policies rely on radical feminist arguments of commercial sex as a form of violence against women as a rationale for the abolition of the sex trade. Because women in this ideology are seen as victims, they should not be further punished but instead protected. The legislative change was meant to advance gender equality and well-being at both societal and individual levels through using the law as a normative tool to communicate to the public that commercial sex is not acceptable.2 This brief examines how the criminalisation of sex buying affects sex workers and people in the sex trade, especially their vulnerability to violence and exploitation. Because in the Nordic region, as in many other countries, upwards of 70 per cent of people in the sex trade are migrants, this brief also examines how the policing of commercial sex under the Nordic model intersects with immigration policies and their enforcement. The brief concludes that the Nordic model impacts negatively on sex workers and people in the sex trade, and that the impacts are multiplied when those who sell sex are migrants. It recommends removing criminal penalties related to consensual commercial sex to protect the safety, integrity and rights of people in the sex trade. Its conclusions are based on ethnographic research undertaken over a three-year period in the Nordic region (Sweden, Norway, Finland) which included 210 formal interviews with sex workers and people in the sex trade, police, social workers, and policymakers, and in-depth policy and legal analysis.3 A majority of the 129 persons interviewed who are in the sex trade are cis and trans women. They represent the main regions and countries of origin (Eastern Europe, Russia, Latin America, Nigeria, Thailand and the Nordic countries) and working locations (online/indoor, street, massage parlours, striptease joints/clubs).

Item Type:	Monograph (Report)
Official URL:	https://www.lse.ac.uk/women-peace-security/publica...
Additional Information:	© 2022 The Author
Divisions:	European Institute
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
Date Deposited:	15 Aug 2024 15:09
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 05:08
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/124554

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