Regulation of Sex Work in Sweden ESRC

Abstract

In the context of a Europe where sex work laws have undergone considerable revision in the last decade (Kilvington et al, 2001), the reforms in Sweden have excited much comment because of the unique prohibitionist stance adopted by the Swedish government, which has criminalised the purchase (but not the sale) of sexual services (see especially Ekburg, 2004; Svanstrom, 2004). For example, in the context of the Home Office and Scottish Executive reviews of prostitution policy, it has been the Swedish ‘model’, together with the regulatory approach adopted in the Netherlands, that has been most frequently discussed as offering a basis for legal reform. Significantly, the Swedish and Dutch approaches have been depicted in both policy and media debates as diametrically opposed, with Sweden’s prohibitionism contrasted with the liberalization of sex work in the Netherlands, ignoring some of the obvious similarities in the way that the laws in both nations focus on the protection of women and the prosecution of male exploiters (see, for example, the Norwegian Working Group on the legal regulation of sexual services, 2001).