Prostitution as Vagrancy: Sweden 1923–1964

Svanström, Yvonne

doi:10.1080/14043850601025065

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Criminalizing legislation of this type generally has the effect of relocating an activity (Hubbard, 1999; McKeganey and Barnard, 1996), and it is all but surprising that such a displacement has taken place in Sweden. Internationally, prohibitions on gambling, drug use and prostitution historically have had various effects of displacing the activity, diversifying markets, creating informal economies and moving the phenomena underground (Sanders and Soothill, 2011); Sweden’s historical control of the sex industry has indeed focused in the 19th and 20th centuries on the control of public space through spatial discipline, realized through vagrancy and venereal disease law and policy (Blom, 2006; Hubbard et al, 2007a; Levy, 2014; Svanström, 2006). Today in Sweden, the sex purchase law has seemingly been favoured to realize such spatial displacements/containments.…”

Section: Prostitution In Swedenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sweden’s abolitionist discourse and law: Effects on the dynamics of Swedish sex work and on the lives of Sweden’s sex workers

Levy

Jakobsson²

2014

Criminology & Criminal Justice

120

101

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The Swedish criminalization of the purchase of sex aims to abolish prostitution through targeting the demand, while decriminalizing those selling sex in an ostensible effort to protect sex workersconstructed as passive victims of gendered violence -from criminalization. Drawing from authors' research and that of others, this article discusses the sex purchase law (sexköpslagen), exploring some of its impacts on the lives of sex workers and the dynamics of Swedish prostitution.We argue that the law has failed in its abolitionist ambition to decrease levels of prostitution, since there are no reliable data demonstrating any overall decline in people selling sex. Furthermore, we argue that the law has resulted in increased dangers in some forms of sex work. Dangers are exacerbated by a lack of harm reduction services, which are seen to conflict with Swedish abolitionism. Moreover, discourses and social constructions informing the sexköpslagen have informed the attitudes of service providers. In addition to specific outcomes of the law, we note evictions of sex workers, problems with immigration authorities, child custody and the police, and briefly discuss these themes. Where Sweden continues to attempt to export the sexköpslagen to other parts of the world, these elements should be carefully considered.

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Section: Prostitution In Swedenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sweden’s abolitionist discourse and law: Effects on the dynamics of Swedish sex work and on the lives of Sweden’s sex workers

Levy

Jakobsson²

2014

Criminology & Criminal Justice

120

101

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“…Per tutta la Seconda guerra mondiale le leggi non subirono modifiche 42 Negli anni successivi, sotto la spinta delle femministe che lottavano per la parità di genere e per la protezione delle donne, i clienti cominciarono ad essere ritenuti responsabili della devianza femminile. Nel 1998 venne adottato il modello neoabolizionista che prevedeva la criminalizzazione del cliente e non della prostituta.…”

Section: Il Caso Tedesco: Un Passo Avanti Un Passo Indietrounclassified

No bad women, just bad laws

Vascelli¹

2017

diacronie

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Il presente saggio è incentrato sull'analisi della prostituzione in Germania e in Svezia dall'Ottocento sino all'età contemporanea. Si analizzano le legislazioni varate in questo periodo, il loro impatto sull'opinione pubblica e le testimonianze delle prostitute. Obiettivo del lavoro è dimostrare che, nonostante le normative siano cambiate nel corso degli anni, ancora non hanno raggiunto uno status definitivo, in quanto il tema della prostituzione è ancora oggetto di acceso dibattito.

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“…Historically in Sweden, prostitution has been understood both as an issue of morality and public order and as a social problem. During the first half of the 20 th century, men who purchased sex were invisible in the debate, but came to be conceptualized more in terms of needing support during the latter part of the century (Svanström, 2004b(Svanström, , 2006. As a result of this change in conceptualizations, there is a specialized field within social work practice that offers counselling or therapy to individuals who purchase sex.…”

Section: Table Of Contentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This was done by pointing to men's part in prostitution and working for greater rights for women in society at large. They argued that prostitution was able to continue because of the demand from men, and that if the same moral demands were placed on female and male sexuality, society would change for the better (Svanström, 2004b(Svanström, , 2006. Social work with women involved in prostitution was at this time influenced by Christian and philanthropic values, and by individual-oriented approaches with a focus on individual change Jansdotter, 2004).…”

Section: From Invisible To Deviantmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The regulatory system was abolished in Sweden in 1918, and for the next forty years or so the sale of sex by women was considered a form of vagrancy (Svanström, 2006). Despite the focus on women who sold sex as problematic, the perception of prostitution as being beneficial to society (in relation to male sexuality) continued to have bearing until the 1960s.…”

Section: From Invisible To Deviantmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Purchase of Sex: Perceptions, Experiences, and Social Work Practices

Grönvall

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The aim of this study is to explore sex buyers’ perceptions and experiences of purchasing sex, and to study how the purchase of sex is constructed as a social problem in Swedish social work practice. The empirical material consists of interviews with 30 men with experiences of purchasing sex and with ten social workers conducting counselling or outreach work with men who purchase sex. The dissertation is a compilation thesis that consists of four papers, that have been published in international peer-review journals. The first paper focuses on how men who buy sex as one-time visitors navigate between commercialization and intimacy in a national context criminalizing their actions. The paper explores the construction of meaning and intimacy in commercial relationships for Swedish men buying sex, and how these men describe relational practices and strategies used when they purchased sex. The second paper explores the construction of intimacy among men engaged in longterm transactional relationships with women. The paper focuses on the meaning of transactions for intimacy in long-term paid sexual relationships. The third paper explores how men who purchase sex in a context in which their activities are criminalized understand and perceive risk. The paper focuses on individual assessments of risk in relation to experiences of crime, exploitation, and stigma. The fourth paper aims at exploring social workers’ understanding of the purchase of sex as a social problem. The study focuses on social workers’ approaches to the purchase of sex in relation to values, professional practices, and political goals, and how they navigate these aspects in their encounters with individuals who purchase sex. The four papers show how individual experiences are understood, navigated, and conceptualized in relation to social interaction and social norms. The participants in both sub-studies navigate between their own experiences and perceptions, moral values, and social norms in regard to the purchase of sex in Sweden. Both the sex buyers and the social workers conceptualize and make sense of the purchase of sex based on their individual experiences as sex buyers or as social workers meeting sex buyers, but they also relate to normative ideas about the purchase of sex and about ‘sex buyers’.

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Prostitution as Vagrancy: Sweden 1923–1964

Cited by 14 publications

References 11 publications

Sweden’s abolitionist discourse and law: Effects on the dynamics of Swedish sex work and on the lives of Sweden’s sex workers

Sweden’s abolitionist discourse and law: Effects on the dynamics of Swedish sex work and on the lives of Sweden’s sex workers

No bad women, just bad laws

The Purchase of Sex: Perceptions, Experiences, and Social Work Practices

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