NCJ Number
207307
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 10 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2004 Pages: 1187-1218
Date Published
October 2004
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This article examines the effects and implications of the 1999 Swedish law that criminalizes the purchase of sexual services.
Abstract
The trafficking and prostitution of women and girls is among the fastest growing global enterprises, trailing only drugs and arms trafficking. A new Swedish law represents a groundbreaking effort to address prostitution at its root cause: the demand. Enforceable beginning January 1, 1999, the Swedish Law That Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services establishes a gender neutral strategy that criminalizes those who purchase the services of prostitution, rather than those who sell the services. The initiative to criminalize the buyers originated in the Swedish women’s movement that, along with other feminists worldwide, viewed prostitution as a patriarchal tool of oppression. The author discusses the scope of the prostitution problem in Sweden and describes how the law to prevent the purchase of sexual services is enforced. Since all Swedish laws are extraterritorial, Swedish citizens traveling abroad are subject to the Law, including military officers. Swedish reports claim that the Law has directly impacted the number of women and girls trafficked to Sweden for prostitution and reports out of Europol reveal that traffickers no longer consider Sweden an attractive market. Other countries grappling with prostitution and trafficking problems should take an example from this Swedish law and target the demand for prostitution: the buyer. The ultimate goal of the Law is to protect women from the harmful and oppressive effects prostitution. Notes, references