The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Where Does it Stand?

Abstract

In this article, we present and discuss the intended and unintended effects of the Swedish Sex Purchase Act, which criminalises the purchase of sex within a context where the sale of sex is legal. Whether or not this means of regulating prostitution is successful, and whether it has negative consequences for people who sell sex, are important questions in international policy and academic debates. This article builds on a scoping study aimed at identifying relevant sources of information as to the consequences of the Swedish Sex Purchase Act, then summarising and discussing these findings. The article offers policy makers and scholars a comprehensive presentation of the evidence and a discussion of the methodological, political and theoretical challenges arising from this.

A Review of the Criminalisation of the Payment for Sexual Services in Northern Ireland

“…Much of the evidence has been drawn from the on-street sector with 'a universally acknowledged uncertainty about the numbers involved in indoor prostitution such as online and indoor sex work and the impacts of criminalisation on these segments of prostitution' (p7). Given that that the on-street market across many European jurisdictions has been in decline now for the past two decades this means that the shift to Internet prostitution has not been really documented in those jurisdictions that have implemented sex purchase legislation (Holmström & Skilbrei, 2017). We discuss the online sector and conduct a trend analysis of data provided by an Adult Services Website (AWS) to estimate prevalence in the supply of prostitution services in Chapter 6 of this report.…”

The logics of digital advocacy: Between acts of political influence and presence

“…The purchase of sexual services was equated with men’s violence against women, and the Swedish government, therefore, wanted to shift the policy focus from the supply to the demand. Through the so-called Sex Purchase Act, the intention was to fight prostitution more effectively (Holmström and Skilbrei, 2017; Scaramuzzino, 2014). However, in 2003, Swedish sex workers founded an organisation called Rose Alliance (2017) and started to advocate against the Sex Purchase Act and to advocate for improved rights for sex workers.…”

The implementation of Sweden’s prostitution law at the local level

“…Also, should an individual's involvement in prostitution be measured in terms of having purchased and/or sold sex as an isolated act, or in terms of how often the person has been involved in buying and or/selling sex (Stockholm County Administrative Board, 2015). Holmstr€ om and Skilbrei (2017) point to the importance of remembering that the reasons and opportunities for buying and selling sex are influenced by many different factors and these should also be understood as part of broader societal processes.…”

“…Previous studies have focused on the construction and content of the national policy (Ekberg, 2004;M˚ansson, 2017;Skilbrei & Holmstr€ om, 2013;Wong, 2014) or compared it with other policy models (Dodillet, 2009). The Swedish act (SFS 2005:90) that prohibits the purchase of sexual services constitutes an integral part of this policy, and researchers (Holmstr€ om & Skilbrei, 2017;Kuosmanen, 2008Kuosmanen, , 2011Priebe & Svedin, 2012) and several official reports (National Council for Crime Prevention, 2000, p. 4;Stockholm County Administrative Board, 2015;Swedish Government Official Report, 2010, p. 49) have focused on the consequences of the legislation. Despite this great interest, Wagenaar and Altink (2012) argue that in the case of prostitution policy, there is a lack of empirical descriptions of the everyday consequences emanating from the policy design and its implementation.…”