Sex Res Soc Policy (2012) 9:8093

DOI 10.1007/s13178-011-0072-z

Client-Only Criminalization in the City of Stockholm:

A Local Research on the Application of the Swedish Model
of Prostitution Policy
Daniela Danna

Published online: 20 November 2011

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Abstract The Swedish prostitution policy model aims at

abolishing prostitution, the direct exchange of sexual
services for money or other values, by penalizing only its
demand. Offering sexual services is not punished by law.
According to official sources, preventing prostitutes from
earning by selling sexual services is a way of pressuring
them into abandoning the trade, and it discourages trafficking
in women. How is this policy model implemented at the local
level? Seven years after the new law against clients came into
force, a research in Stockholm contributes to mapping shifts in
prostitution. It reports on the activities of social services and
police efforts against clients and trafficking and discusses the
evaluations made by other researchers on Swedish prostitution
and trafficking laws, including the official evaluation (SOU
2010, 49).
Keywords Prostitution policy . Stockholm . Client .
Criminalisation
The advance of globalisation and the increased mobility of
people, particularly after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989,
brought about also new prostitution laws1 in many Western
European countries. Abolitionism ceased to be the dominant
1

I define prostitution policy as the public regulation of the direct

exchange of sex for money. It may seem politically uncorrect to use
the term prostitution instead of sex work, but the two terms are
not synonymous with prostitution. The meaning of sex work is
broader, as it includes all kind of commerce of sexual services, with or
without direct contact between the sex worker and the client, while
prostitution refers to situations where there is direct contact only.
D. Danna (*)
Dipartimento di studi sociali e politici, Facolt di Scienze
politiche, Universit degli studi di Milano,
via Conservatorio 7,
20122 Milan, Italy
e-mail: daniela.danna@unimi.it

model of prostitution laws and policy (in the twentieth

century, it replaced regulation in most of Western Europe)
(Danna 2004a, b, 2006). Debates leading to these changes
were sparked by the increased presence of immigrants in street
prostitution, generally labelled as victims of trafficking in
human beings, while very often they agreed to migrate to
do sex work (OConnell Davidson 2006; Agustin 2007;
Weitzer 2007).
This study aims at examining the local application of
a prostitution policy model: criminalizing the client only.
This policy, a new way of prohibiting prostitution with a
gender-equality rationale, was adopted by Sweden in
1999 and Norway and Iceland in 2009; it has been
proposed in many other countries, and it is seriously
debated in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, France
and Ireland.
The criminalisation of the clients only amounts to a
Copernican revolution in the field of prostitution policy.
Historically, clients have always been the sacred cow of the
sexmoney exchange, whereas over the centuries, public
women have been held in contempt and punished if they
disobeyed the special rules and regulations forced upon them.
Protestantism at its beginning fought against prostitution and
closed brothels, but ultimately the prohibition gave way to
forms of official or unofficial regulation.
Clients had always been regarded as normal men who
simply used a service, even boasting of their great virility.
Sexual liberation in the West in the 1960s changed the way
prostitution is considered (Lennerhed 1994). Paying for a
sexual act became stigmatised in many environments
(although certainly not everywhere) and came to symbolise
the lack of virility of a man whom women found
unattractive. According to Don Kulick (2005), this typology
of man has become a species in Swedish public discourse;
in the same way as the homosexual species changed the

Sex Res Soc Policy (2012) 9:8093

meaning of sodomitical acts in Foucaults description

(Foucault 1978).
But how are State laws implemented at the local
level? Given the laws aim, how is it pursued in
practice? There is usually a gap between a laws
declaration of aim and its concrete implementation with
its unintended consequences, and we are going to
explore this interesting space. The data gathered for
this study are not used to talk about the results of the
client-criminalization policy, since in social phenomena
it is not possible to isolate crucial variables in a cause
effect scheme as in controlled scientific experiments.
The scope of the study is instead to illustrate the actions
of social actors on the prostitution scene, as emerging
from both original data and from reviewing existing
studies.
First, the Swedish laws addressing prostitution will be
described, clarifying their aims and rationale especially for the
sexkjp (purchase of sex) law, then their enforcement in
Stockholm will be presented with local social services and
polices activities, plus the official campaigns against clients.
The knowledge about the characteristics and changes in the
different settings where prostitution occurs will be reported,
with the data about migrant sex work and trafficking in
human beings, as defined by Swedish law. In the final
section, my conclusions about the implementation of this
policy model will be confronted with those of other scholars
studying Swedish prostitution policy.

Methods
The data gathering, aimed at knowing how the Swedish
model was implemented at the local level, took place in
March 2006 in Stockholm with personal interviews and
other written exchange with 12 privileged observers (and
others). The interviewees were:

A researcher from the Brottsfrebygganderadet, the

council for crime prevention (a public research agency)
A policeman from the Stockholm unit for human
trafficking investigations
A senior police officer in charge of human trafficking
investigations
A foreign university researcher in the field of human
trafficking
A historian
The head of the Stockholm Prostitutionsenheten (Prostitution Unit)
A Prostitutionsenheten social worker who deals with
street prostitution
A former sex worker who was in contact with social
services

81

A researcher expert in sex work

Two members of the RFSU, an agency for sexual
education
A member of Rosea, sex workers rights association
(telephone interview)

Written sources were collected and analysed, including

1,042 major newspapers articles containing the word prostitution or sexkjp from January 2002 to March 2006 from
the dataset PressText available in Swedish public libraries. All
quotations from Swedish texts are my translations. Fieldwork
was conducted in the street where prostitution takes place,
Malmskillnadsgatan, with observation and informal talks with
sex workers and clients. The research was funded by a grant by
the Provincia di Milano, as a part of a comparative study on
local implementation of different prostitution policy models.

The Law Against the Purchase of Sexual Services

The Swedish law regarding violence against women (Law no.
405, 1998) referred to by the ancient word Kvinnofrid,
womens peace, was approved under the Gran Persson
government (19982006). The law had a provision prohibiting the purchase of sexual services (Law no. 408, 1998), in
force since 1999 and included in the Penal code in 2005. In
fact, this provision is called the Law about sexkjp (purchase
of sex) rather than about prostitution (same word in English
and Swedish).
Whoever, otherwise than as previously provided in
this Chapter [paragraphs against rape, sex with
children etc.], procures himself/herself an occasional
sexual service in exchange for payment shall be
sentenced for purchase of sexual services to a fine or
imprisonment for up to six months (Chap. 6, 11).
The Social Democratic Party, the Centre Party, the
(liberal) Leftist Party and the Green Party voted in favour
of Law 408, approved with 181 votes in favour, 92 contrary
and 13 abstentions (for more details, see Kulick 2003;
Ekberg 2004; Svanstrm 2004a, b, 2006; Dodillet 2009).
The Christian Democrats had proposed to criminalize both
the seller and the buyer. Moderates and Liberals had
declared they could not understand why only the client
should be punished and that existing laws should not be
changedbut the provision was upheld when Moderates,
Centre Party, Liberals and Christian Democrats formed a
new government in 2006.
In 2001, the parliamentary committee on sexual crimes
proposed extending punishment to two figures: habitual
clients, by removing the limitation of occasional sexual
relations, and those who pay sexual services for others. In
2005, an article was approved addressing only the second

82

concern (Law no. 90, 2005): What is stated in the first part
is valid even if the payment was promised or given by
somebody else (Penal Code, cap. 6, 11, second part). In
May 2011, the article was emended raising the prison
penalty from 6 months to 1 year.2
There is no legal obligation for the client to compensate
the prostitute,3 only procurers and exploiters can be
sentenced to pay damages. Procuring and exploitation of
prostitution, called koppleri, were already punished in the
previous abolitionist law that had been applied very strictly.
Koppleri refers to anyone who favours or unjustly profits
from the fact that another person engages in occasional
sexual relations in return for payment (Penal Code, cap. 6,
12). The crime includes all the actions of third parties,
from managing a brothel to exercising psychological
influence in the decision of another person to prostitute
herself or himself, to publishing advertisement, and so on.
A partner who lives off the earnings of a prostitute
inevitably commits procuring, since the obligation of
cohabiting couples to support each other does not apply in
the case of prostitutes. Any child over 18 who lives with a
prostitute and benefits from her earnings can be charged.
The same applies to flat owners who are aware that
prostitution happens on their premises.

Anti-Trafficking and Other Laws Related

to Prostitution
Procuring also included trafficking in human beings, until a
special law was introduced in 2002 (Law no. 436, 2002).
Sentences range from 2 to 10 years imprisonment.
Trafficking in human beings was defined until 2010 as
any organised illegal transport across borders of minors or
of adults by violence, threats or deception. In the first
version of the law, in 2002, the only purpose defining the
crime of trafficking was sexual exploitation. In 2004, an
amendment added forced labour, trafficking of organs and
other types of exploitation (Penal code, cap. 4, 1a, 4). In
2010, the definition of trafficking was amended in order to
comply with the Palermo protocol, adding the vague abuse
of a position of vulnerability to the conditions of violence
or threats or deception (Law no. 371, 2010).
Other laws dealing with prostitution are: Law no. 52,
1990, which provides extraordinary measures for the
custody of young people, placing people under 20 years
of age who prostitute themselves under guardianship; Law
no. 1472, 1988, which prohibits people with HIV from
2

Riksdag (2011), May 12 (http://www.riksdagen.se/Webbnav/index.

aspx?nid=101&bet=2010/11:101)
3
Prostitute is a term that I am using for persons doing sex work
describing laws that do not recognize sex work as such.

Sex Res Soc Policy (2012) 9:8093

buying and selling sexual services sanctioning them with

imprisonment; Law no. 870, 1988, on the custody of drug
addicts (including alcoholics), which rules that they must
forcibly undergo therapy if they endanger their health, and
this includes by selling sex.

The Aims of Swedish Prostitution Policy

The law on the purchase of sexual services is aimed explicitly
at decreasing and ultimately eliminating prostitution. There
has been a debate in Parliament on how to interpreter the laws
aim (Dodillet 2009, 422 ff.), but the official documents
always point at the abolition of prostitution as Swedens
ambitious goal. The police in Stockholm declared that
their goal was to get rid completely of street prostitution
in Malmskillnadsgatan (BR Brottsfrebyggande rdet
2000, 25).
The official view is that the client is ultimately responsible
for prostitution and trafficking in human beings: Prostitution
and trafficking in human beings require a demand among men
for women and children, mainly girls. If men did not regard it
as their self-evident right to buy and sexually exploit women
and children, prostitution and trafficking in human beings for
sexual purposes would not exist (Ministry Of Industry,
Employment And Communications 2005, 12).
Surveys show that the Swedish population mostly supports
the law. There have been different surveys organized by
newspapers, and in 2002, the private research institute Sifo
found 76% of the respondents in favour of criminalising the
purchase of sexual services and 14% against it.4 In 2008, it
was found that 71% of the respondents were in favour of
maintaining the law, and the same percentage wanted to
criminalise the seller of sexual services, too (Kuosmanen
2008).
Arguments favouring the criminalization of clients draw
their inspiration from radical feminism (for example,
Jeffreys 1998), but their popularity is based on the extreme
stigma attached to prostitutes in Sweden, which the
historian Yvonne Svanstrm (2004a, b) associates with the
great importance that waged work has for Swedish women.
In public debates, women (and some men) who supported
the law declared it a matter of gender equality and freedom
for all women. They claimed that until even one single
woman was forced to prostitute herself (it is inconceivable
she might do it voluntarily), women could not be free (press
4

The question was indeed worded emphasizing illegality, in a biased way

towards a positive answer. Results are published in: Ska det vara lagligt/
olagligt att kpa sex i Sverige? (10-10-2002) http://www.tns-sifo.se/
rapporter-undersokningar/senaste-undersokningarna/2002/ska-det-varalagligtolagligt-att-koepa-sex-i-sverige.
For a discussion of this and other, more recent surveys, see
Dodillet and stergren 2011, 1718.

Sex Res Soc Policy (2012) 9:8093

review, various articles; see also parliamentary debates

analyzed by Dodillet 2009).
Homosexual prostitution is incorporated into this gender
violence framework since the buyer is older and wealthier and
thus exploits the young prostitute. Transsexual prostitution
was not discussed in any of the sources gathered for this study,
and it is briefly mentioned in the official evaluation together
with male prostitution (SOU 2010).
According to this view, the prostitute always needs the
help of the State, since she or he shows deep psychological
distress or suffers from economic hardships and adopts selfdestructive behaviours. Those who sell sex are coerced by
one or more exploiters, drug addiction or alcoholism,
mental conditions, childhood sexual trauma from family
members or others, sex traffickers or simply by economic
need (for a more detailed categorisation, see SOU Statens
offentliga utredningar 1995, 110 ff.). Prostitutes are
primarily women who have suffered sexual trauma during
childhood and are therefore driven to self-destructive
behaviour, including prostitution: [I]nternational studies
show that between 65% and 90% of prostituted women
were sexually abused by male relatives or acquaintances as
girls (Ministry Of Industry, Employment And Communications 2005, 2).5 Applying the same pathology-therapy
model, Swedish sociologists Hedin and Mnsson (1998,
2003) have equated the process of exiting prostitution with
stopping a drug addiction, with its typical relapses and
problems of psychological dependency.
Another official justification for the lawa press release
by the right-centre government that followed Perssons
mandateinstead of violence against women points at
damages to society at large: Introduction of the law on the
purchase of sexual services was motivated by the consideration that there was an urgent interest of society in fighting
prostitution. It was pointed out that prostitution brings serious
damages to the individual and to society, and that around
prostitution an extensive criminality exists, as for example
pimping, drug commerce and abuse (Kommittdirektiv
2008, 2).

Methods of Evaluation
The Swedish prostitution policy must be evaluated according to its own aim by measuring the scope of prostitution
and trafficking in persons to detect whether there has been a
reduction after the change of policy. How can this happen?
Criminal statistics are not decisive, since it is well known
that not all crimes are reported, and their dark figure is
much bigger than the records. Moreover, the number of
5

The original reference should be Farley et al. (2003), with a

controversial methodology (Weitzer 2005).

83

recorded crimes depends, by their own admission, on

police effort that varies from one district to the next,
one year to the next (RKP-KUT RikskriminalpolisenKriminalunderrtterlsetjnsten 1999) and on the resources
earmarked for investigation [my interviews].
The only possibility to map the increase or the decrease of
sexual commerce is to observe the observable and countable i.e.
prostitutes on the street, the number of suspected venues
(striptease clubs, massage parlours) and of announcements
posted on Web pages. My research has gathered sources on
these indicators and added qualitative considerationsbut
what is invisible remains such. The question of increase or
decrease in trafficking, according to the law definition, is even
more complicated since even authorities give two different
definitions. The official vision of prostitution as violence
against women in facts takes for granted that a migrant woman
in prostitution is a victim of prostitution and of trafficking,
thereby considering a diminished presence of foreigners in
prostitution as a proof of success of the policy. The penal law
prior to 2010 requested, instead, the use of violence, threat,
deceit or a minor victim, and crimes were registered with this
narrow definition.
Before reporting on the countable and uncountable
changes in the prostitution scene, let us start with a general
description of the situation in Stockholm: the actions of
social services, the official campaigns against clients.

Prostitution in Stockholm
In Stockholm, a metropolitan area with 1.3 million
inhabitants in 2006 (the county, ln, had 1.9 million
inhabitants), street prostitution had already been effectively
confined within two streets well before the approval of the
law against clients: Artillerigatan (on the island of stermalm)
and Malmskillnadsgatan (in a business area close to the main
railway station). In 1991, following complaints from residents, Artillerigatan was closed to traffic, and prostitutes were
forced to move to the only tolerated road, where the few
residents had not organised any collective protest.
In 1999, Sweden had 13 striptease clubs, called
sexklubber, about a quarter located in Stockholm (SOU
2001, 14). Apart from (partial) strip shows on-stage, these
clubs offer rental or on-site viewing of pornographic
movies, and sell pornographic magazines and sex shop
items. After stripping, the girls may have closer contact
with clients for a private posing session in booths where a
Plexiglas screen separates them from the client, or they may
dance at the clients table. Some Stockholm clubs have
rooms for massage sessions and hot tubs.
Exchanges of sex for money may also take place in
solariums and massage or pedicure parlours: 2025 of these
venues were unmasked as brothels (BR Brottsfrebyggande

84

rdet 2000, 20). Other places of contact for prostitution, as

documented by news reports, include casinos, ferries and
cruise ships, as well as restaurants, hotels and ballrooms,
especially during conventions or private parties. Internet has
a growing importance as a mean for establishing contacts
(RFSU 2003).
Finally, prostitution in a broader sense, as exchanging sex
for things other than money, also takes place in environments
usually considered virtuous and even diametrically opposed to
the underworld of prostitution. A woman with a university
degree and work experience in a company, while working on
Malmskillnadsgatan, stated: Theres prostitution everywhere. I have a friend who has to have sex with her boss.
They ask you for sex to give you a job. Is that not prostitution
as well? Theres plenty of it in companies [my interview].

Sex Res Soc Policy (2012) 9:8093

charges against their traffickers. Other women placed

advertisements for other jobs and were contacted with the
proposal of sex work; others did sex work already in their
own countries.
According to the interviewed policemen, about half of
the migrant women arrested in flats talked to them, and
none of them said they had been abused or raped by the
people who organized their coming to Sweden. Only one
stated that she thought that if she had wanted to break the
agreement and go home, she would have been threatened.
However, many women report that agreements had not
been honoured. On the other hand, the women have no one
to turn to if they are taken advantage of.

The Role of the Social Services

Prostitution of Migrant Women
Prostitution by foreign women is completely illegal according
to the Penal code, cap. 9, 2, n. 2, (last amended with Law no.
716, 2005, but also in previous versions). According to the
Alien Act, foreigners who do not earn a living in a decent
way [frsrja sig p ett rligt stt] are deported to their
home countries and not allowed to return to Sweden for
2 years. Unless already held for at least 3 years, residence
permits may also be withdrawn as a result of prostitution
charges.
In 1999, the number of migrant women in prostitution was
estimated to be growing, although it had not reached levels
comparable to other E.U. countries, like Spain, France and the
Netherlands (Danna 2006). One factor contributing to this
growth was the fact that citizens of Baltic countries were no
longer required a visa to enter Sweden after 1997. Many
women from Eastern Europe are turned away at the borders
on the mere suspicion that they are entering Sweden to
engage in prostitution.
The main means for contact between migrant prostitutes
and clients is the Internet. The organizers of the prostitution
of migrant women employ a high level of organisation.
They may even deliver the prostitute personally to the
client. Considerable sums of money must also be invested
to rent the flats where the women live. According to the
head of the Stockholm police prostitution unit, Anders
Gripenlv (2003, 12), between 50 and 100 migrant women
per year should work in brothels (that is, apartments) in the
Stockholm metropolitan area.
Legal proceedings have uncovered many stories that
range from mutual agreement to the use of violence.
According to the police, most migrant women operating
in prostitution knew what job they were going to do and
had made an agreement with the organisers about how to
divide their earnings; consequently, they do not press

Stockholm has four public and two private but publicly

funded social services for clients and prostitutes (particularly
drug addicts and homeless prostitutes). The most controversial
issues regarding the official Swedish position arise here,
because the policy model implies that people who are in
prostitution are traumatized and in need of help as it defines
prostitution as violence against women. A great deal of them
have traumas which they need to elaborate, declares in fact
the public service called Prostitutionsenheten [my interview].
They offer therapy services both to prostitutes and clients.
This service has no income support directly available to
prostitutes but helps them in dealing with the town administration to obtain it. However, allocation of allowances to
people in need has become slower and less certain
nowadays, since the adoption of neoliberal economic
policies in the mid-1990s.
At the time of my interview, they had about 80 people in
treatment, among which two dozen men in the KAST
project that exclusively targets clients and provides phone
counselling that may lead to starting therapy.
Prostitutionsenheten estimates to usually contact around
500 people a year. Between 2000 and 2003, 130 people were
treated and 60% of these stopped the sex commerce: Many of
them mentioned the new law as an important incentive to their
seeking help [my interview]. The updated number of treatments is reported in Prostitutionsenheten (2009, 5) where the
total since 2003 is reported as 400. It is also reported that
since 2003, they offered services to 50 victims of trafficking
(2009, 17).
People with no desire to stop prostituting themselves
find they are not really welcome at Prostitutionsenheten:
I dress like a social worker to go there, thats how
they want you to be. The sign on the doorbell tells
Pros-centrum, that is prostitution center, so
sometimes I go back and forth for a while before

Sex Res Soc Policy (2012) 9:8093

getting in. Then you ring, and a harsh voice answers:

Pros-centrum. Who are you? Once you get in, there
is another closed door that opens with a code. The
social worker comes and takes a good look at you,
unfriendly. I complained about the sign on the
doorbell, and I was told that I shouldnt worry,
because I could be one of the workers or a family
member, not necessarily a prostitute [my interview].
The strongly negative judgement of prostitutes is evident in
the way they are treated even in this service expressly
dedicated to them. The prostitutes I met in Malmskillnadsgatan
reciprocate this public aversion, even accusing social services
of portraying sex workers as needy just to maintain their own
jobs. Politicians are considered criminals: Otherwise how
would they have got where they are? [my interview].
I interviewed one woman who sought advice from the
Prostitutionsenheten when she was considering possible life
alternatives and was offered psychotherapy. She discovered
these therapy sessions were aimed at uncovering sexual
violence she had supposedly suffered as a child, according
to the official vision of prostitution. But she had suffered no
sexual violence whatsoever: I felt very confused, I started to
doubt what I knew In the end I left therapy [my interview].
This also happened to the other friends of hers.
The rigidity in the official concept of prostitution seems to
help very little in establishing a therapeutic dialogue. Even the
Prostitutionsenheten gynaecological services are marked by
an authoritarian approach. Permanent means of contraception
(a slow-release hormone) were implanted without considering
the individual womans doubts and objections [my interview
with a sex worker]. My further requests to Prostitutionsenheten
for clarification on the issues of contraceptive implants and
diagnosis of mental illness and sexual trauma were, regrettably,
left unanswered.
Spiralprojektet is another public service targeting drug
addicts, with a rehabilitation centre for detoxification.
Spiralprojektet does not manage to take in all those who
request these services. One woman on Malmskillnadsgatan
said that substitute therapies were practically inaccessible: It
takes a year to get buprenorphine. They dont give you
enough money to live on. If theyd help me I wouldnt be
here [my interview]. Even in this case, the goal of absolute
independence from any sort of drugs, refusing the harm
reduction approach (Gould 1994), is not at all helpful in the
relations between social services and their target group.
All social services oppose condom distribution because it
would make them accomplices in prostitution [my interviews
with a social worker].
There are also private organizations active in this field: a
street unit by the Stadsmission (the citys Protestant mission)
operates once weekly, brings coffee and refreshments to
Malmskillnadsgatan and offers help.

85

The RFSU (National Union for Sexual Education) offers

therapy but primarily deals with sexual education through
peer dialogue in schools. In these occasions, the peer
educators do not talk much about prostitution, rather about
the whores stigma, attempting to make young people stop
the double standard about girls and boys sexual activity.
According to their report, the RFSU clinic accepted 25
prostitutes for therapy, whoby their own admission
exposed themselves compulsively to risks and were not
able to maintain permanent relationships (RFSU 2004). The
clinic also offered therapy to 30 clients of prostitutes, who
recognised they had an addiction to prostitution and
pornography or who considered their purchase of sex a
problem because they were married. In eight cases out of
nine clients, it was stated in follow-up interviews that they
achieved greater control over their compulsion. However,
therapy was frequently interrupted, in some cases when it
started to become significant (RFSU 2004, 13).

Campaigns Targeting Clients

First of all: who are the clients in Sweden? The first
quantitative data on men who seek prostitutes in Sweden
date back to 1995, when the Statens Folkehlsoinstitut
carried out the latest survey on sexual behaviour (Mnsson
1998). This study found that 12.7% of men between the
ages of 18 and 74 had paid for sex at least once in their
lifetime. A third of them declared they did it only once.
Compared to men who had not paid for sex (or who had not
admitted they had paid for sex), they had had a higher
number of sexual partners, of divorces and broken relationships. Seventy-eight percent of paid sexual relations occurred
abroad, on business trips or holidays. A higher proportion of
clients belonged to the upper and middle classes. In a more
recent survey, only 8% of men in the same age bracket (that is,
34 men) and 0.2% of the women (that is, one woman) answer
positively to the question whether they have ever bought sex
(Kuosmanen 2008, 368). Twenty-one percent did it only
once. The proportion of the sex commerce that happened
abroad was 71%. Five men said that they stopped buying sex
after the new law, two did it less often and one has shifted to
more invisible forms of sex commerce.
In implementing the sexkjp law, various prevention
campaigns were financed featuring posters that targeted
clients6 considered morally responsible for the evils of
prostitution (Ekberg 2004, 12023). This is in contrast with
the view that the purchase of sexual services is also seen as
problematic as the selling: for example, according to the
RFSU therapists, men make a mistake in sexualising other
6

Visible on the web in Ekberg and Wahlberg (2011): http://www.

thesolutionsjournal.com/node/895

86

feelings, like mourning, sadness or anger. The alternative

would be to deal with them for what they are, possibly with
the help of a therapist.
Clients are not necessarily considered criminals in popular
view, and the police have been sympathetic to them, sending
summonses and fines to the clients workplace, instead of their
home. Criticism of the law by police, including an extremely
negative early report on its effects in the Skne region
(Polismyndigheten i Skne 2001), was also attributed by
authorities to this protecting attitude.
In 20032004, the film Lilja 4-ever by Lukas Moodysson
was shown at special prices for students and conscripts, and
screenings were staged for the police (Svenska 2004). The
movie, together with other training, cancelled police sympathy for the clients [my interview with a police officer]. Lilja
4-ever was inspired by the true story of a young Lithuanian
who, stigmatized as a whore in her country having been
seen in a nightclub, immigrated without papers to Sweden,
where she was forced to prostitute herself. She managed to
escape her exploiter, but then committed suicide. The movie
is supposed to show the horrors of prostitution (graphically
depicted by the stream of clients and by violence against the
girl), but in fact, it describes the terrible situation of a victim
of the whore stigma and migrant sans papier, outside the
protection of the law.

Enforcement of the Law Against Clients

While no special funds were given to social services, the 1999
law assigned police funds amounting to 7,000,000 crowns a
year for the fight against prostitution and trafficking. The
amount increased to 30,000,000 crowns for the 3-year 2004
2006. On the first installment, 3,100,000 crowns were
assigned to Stockholm district and were used to purchase
infrared video cameras and other remote surveillance devices,
mobile phones and computers to surf the Web looking for
prostitution advertisements. Moreover, police presence on
Malmskillnadsgatan was increased, and flats where suspected
cases of trafficked women had been reported were monitored.
This crime in fact is considered a surveillance and not
a report crime, since no one is motivated to report the
purchaser of sexual services. And though even the attempt
of buying sexual services is a crime, if definite proof is
needed, buyer and seller must be caught in the act. There
have nevertheless been cases where the police discovered
the crime of purchasing sexual services while investigating
more serious crimes, such as trafficking (they found lists of
clients in hidden brothels).
The presence of police on Malmskillnadsgatan is limited to
sporadic patrolling by either uniformed police or unmarked
cars. In the first years, actions against clients have diminished:
31 in 1999, 23 in 2000, 18 in 2001, 0 in 2002 and 3 in 2003

Sex Res Soc Policy (2012) 9:8093

(Gripenlv 2003, 7). Other police raids are carried out in

hotels and clubs based on tips from citizens or employees.
Over the years, the number of clients prosecuted in
Sweden has grown considerably, as seen in Table 1.
The high number for 2003 is due to the discovery of a client
register in a brothel in Solna, near Stockholm.7 Some men on
the list had high social status: lawyers, businessmen, state
officials and judges and were publicly pilloried in the media.
In 2005, three judges were sentenced to fines (in one case,
the fine was 42,250 crowns).8 They were publicly asked to
resign, and two of them were removed from positions where
they had to deal with the public.9 The only ones to really
lose their (other) job were the prostitutes. A police recruit
was forced to leave after her activity as an escort was
discovered; another woman was dismissed from social
services after having written against the law in a newspaper,
declaring also that she had worked as a stripper. The court
later ruled the dismissal unfair [my interview].
Prostitutes called to witness have always spoken in
favour of the accused. Since a Supreme Court judgment in
2001, sentences usually run from 25 to 50 means-related
unit fine, depending on whether the purchase was attempted
or completed (they were higher in the first years). In cases
connected with trafficking, the sentence against clients has
also been imprisonment: a year in prison for the main
charge of serious assault and 2 months in prison for having
also offered the girl cocaine.10 Only in 2006, a man whose
main crime was purchase of sexual services was sentenced
to prison (SOU 2010, 210).
In Sweden, over the period 1992008, about 1,800
crimes were reported, of which 44% came to a sentence;
662 men were instead cleared of the accusations because
the crime could not be proven, it was prescribed after
2 years or for other reasons (SOU 2010, 172).

Procuring and Exploitation of Prostitution (koppleri)

These offences are not very much talked about in public
debate anymore. The figures have been rising over time and
markedly in the last 2 years. This increase is due to
increased police action: The number depends entirely on
how many actions against procuring the police is able to do
every year (Gripenlv 2003, 12). Whereas previously
7

It happened only just another time in Sweden in 2011 (Prostitution

sting nets hundreds of suspects, The Local, March 24, 2011 (http://
www.thelocal.se/32794/20110324/). Dodillet S and stergren P (2011,
16) have found the number of 1,251 reported crimes for 2011.
8
Lindstrm, L. Lagen tar inte lagen p allvar. Expressen, June 18,
2005.
9
Various article from my press review.
10
TT.Hittils lngsta straffet fr mnniskohandel. Dagens Nyheter,
May 19, 2005.

Sex Res Soc Policy (2012) 9:8093

87

Table 1 Reported crimes of buying sexual services

Stockholm county

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

46

47

29

46

215

61

153

82

104

126

203

392

Source: Communication by BR

court summons were issued on the accusation of the

prostitutes, with many clients acting as witnesses, now the
police investigate on their own. Some women were
convicted for this crime, for example in 2003, out of five
persons sentenced in Sweden, two were female (Table 2).

Enforcement of the Law Against Trafficking

The reported crimes of trafficking in human beings for
sexual purpose were higher in the first years after the
introduction of the crime, then diminished, but the absolute
numbers are quite low. Reasons explaining these trends lie
exclusively with police engagement and priorities (Table 3).
Up to 2006, police did not investigate trafficking in
situations other than prostitution, and small-scale trafficking
was not investigated either, due to lack of resources. In
2003, for example, 300 cases were reported to the police,
but police actions were a much lower number. If investigators discover one or two women in a flat (usually rented
by a figurehead and watched over by a man), they do not
proceed, expecting women not to testify, because the
means available to prove the crime (surveillance, photographs and telephone taps) require major resources. Most
foreign women we meet in prostitution, said a policeman
working in the unit against trafficking in Stockholm, have
not been forced or deceived. Instead, they have a difficult
situation in their country. They may be unemployed, or have
young children, and no other way of earning money [my
interview].
In practice, the proof of this crime was essentially based on
the victims being a minor. If the alleged victims are over 18, it
is difficult to prove they were not in consent, and the police,
based on past experience, do not expect them to cooperate [my
interview]. Clients do not want to testify either, since they run
the risk of being punished for purchasing sexual services,
whereas prior to 1999, the police did receive information from
clients who suspected coercion, as it is stated also in official
reports (Gripenlv 2003).

Victims of the crime of trafficking come especially from

Estonia, Lithuania, Russia and Poland, but also from
Thailand, Hungary, Morocco and Moldavia, while traffickers, sometimes resident in Sweden, come from Estonia,
Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Thailand, Tunisia and also
Sweden.
Temporary permits valid until the end of the trial are
issued in order to allow victims to give testimony against
traffickers: my interviewees recall four Estonians and a
Vietnamese, and another woman that was given a permanent
residence permit for humanitarian reasons. This very low
number, together with the very seldom discussion of residence
permits to victims in official reports (see Socialstyrelse 2008),
supports the point made by Julia OConnell Davidson (2006)
about the lack of real concern by the authorities regarding the
fate of victims of trafficking.
In 2005, a total of 20 victims were assisted by municipalities in Sweden (U.S. Department of State 2005). From 2008
on, 3040 victims a year are assisted in the Stockholm
district. A permission to stay for a minimum of 6 months
until the end of the process was introduced in 2004
(Justitiedepartementet 2005).

Changes in Street Prostitution

Swedens climate does not favour street prostitution. The
National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelse 2000,
2004, 2007, and my interview) judged that only a quarter of
the exchanges of sex for money takes place outdoors,
synthesizing the observations by police and social services.
At the time of my research (March 2006), Stockholm was
covered in snow and night-time temperatures went down
to 5C. In the summer, according to the prostitutes
themselves, the street is much more crowded and lively,
with dozens of women.
Right after the introduction of the law, street prostitution has halved in quantity everywhere, according to the
first official evaluation (BR Brottsfrebyggande rdet

Table 2 Reported crimes of procuring and exploitation of prostitution

Stockholm county

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

210

16

25

13

22

33

27

25

26

34

26

53

48

Source: Communication by BR

88

Sex Res Soc Policy (2012) 9:8093

Table 3 Reported crimes of trafficking in persons for sexual purpose

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Stockholm
county

13

12

Source: Communication by BR

2000). Estimates on the number of women who came to

Malmskillnadsgatan and the streets nearby over the course
of a year also point to a decrease. In 1998, a social service,
Stockholm Prostitutionsgruppen, estimated around 280
women, decreased to 170 in 1999 and in the following years.
Another social service, Socialtjnstens prostitutionsgrupp,
stated that in 2003, they knew of about 180200 women
who prostituted themselves. Estimates by them on any given
day in 2003 run between 25 and 30 prostitutes on the street, as
opposed to 50 before the law was approved. The police report
much lower numbers for the same year: 57 women per night
(they say the shift is really from noon to about three in the
morning), and a total of between 50 and 60 women. According
to a social worker interviewed at Pros-centrum,11 the number
of women decreased just after the law became effective, but
not much.
According to the police, clients markedly decreased: only a
tenth of the automobile traffic observed in 1998 was still there
in 2003 (Gripenlv 2003, 9). In the following table, a rough
calculation of street presence according to police observations is shown (Table 4).
Estimates for 2005 and for 2006 are, respectively, 150 and
200 women, while the proportion of migrants is not known
(Socialstyrelse 2007, 7 and 43).
Personal observation at various times of the day and
week in March 2006 never revealed more than ten women
(one MtF transsexual or transvestite), but street presence is
obviously lowest in winter. The social services street unit I
interviewed at Pros-centrum reports between 2 and 20
women on the streets every day, blended in with the crowd,
and state that half are drug addicts or alcoholics and the
other half have mental problems, in line with official
reports stating that women in prostitution almost without
exceptions have mental problems (SOU Statens offentliga
utredningar 1995, 212). In my contacts with some of these
women, I met not only some who take drugs and have
addiction problems, but also some non-addicted women
aiming at setting money aside to make large purchases. I
did not meet anyone with evident mental problems. The
women interviewed by Tanya Holm (2005, 356) stated to
11

The two services mentioned (Prostitutionsgruppen and Socialtjnstens

prostitutionsgrupp i Stockholm) have been combined in the Pros-centrum,
the only centre active at the time of my visit, home to Prostitutionsenhet e
Kast.

have started sex work simply to earn a living; for one of

them, prostitution meant being able to escape a domestic
job she described as slavery.
The presence on the streets of migrants recently arrived
in Sweden appeared negligible, while in 1998, police
received information about Eastern European exploiters
dividing the streets amongst themselves and sending
Swedish prostitutes away. In that occasion, a procurer was
arrested and six Russian women were deported. The peak of
migrant presence, mainly by women who come as tourists, was
in 1999 (Gripenlv 2003, 14 and 8). The police check papers
and deport women from Eastern Europe found on the streets
acting suspiciously. Surveillance has contributed to the low
presence of migrants in the streets, compared to the
neighbouring countries.
As for male street prostitution, in 2002, social services
identified about 15 men between 18 and 25 years old. Most of
them were already known to social services because they used
drugs, were homeless or had mental problems.
No definite data are available regarding whether or
not violence against street prostitutes increased since the
new law was introduced. The sex workers association,
Rosea,12 stated that there has been an increase in violence,
both on the streets and elsewhere: the law scares away
normal clients but not violent ones, forcing prostitutes to
accept the latter. Rosea reports also an increase in thefts
against clients by prostitutes, who know clients are
unlikely to report them. An obstetrician working with
abused women said there was an increase in violence on
the streets, particularly sexual violence, since non-violent
clients preferably seek offers on the Internet (Arbeidsgruppe om rettslig regulering av kjp av seksuelle
tjenester 2004). However, no trace of this increase was
reported by the police. In stergren (2003), the 15 sex
workers she followed and interviewed said that clients on
the streets were more scared and tense, making it more
difficult for them to judge clients reliability or dangerousness. They also stated that relationships with the police
have gotten worse. However, this was not confirmed by the
opinions of the women from Malmskillnadsgatan with whom I
personally spoke.
Prices have gone down or remained the same, which
means they have de facto decreased with inflation.

Contacts via the Internet

Internet pages in Swedish offering sexual services, with
code words like secretarial services or looking for
generous man, are on the rise. For instance, the offer of

12

It ceased to exist. Soon after it was replaced by The Rose Alliance.

Sex Res Soc Policy (2012) 9:8093

89

Table 4 Street prostitution in Malmskillnadsgatan

Number of prostitutes
Number of foreign prostitutes

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

101
13

112
5

112
5

77
1

104
7

Source: Stockholm police Prostitution group (Gripenlv 2003, 7)

escorts in Sweden on the web pages called Secretaries

Academy grew from a dozen in June 2002 to 106 in
September 2003. Mnsson and Sderlind (2004) found
between 80 and 100 women with their own web pages,
consistent with police observations of 93 women the year
before, of which 41 in Stockholm (Gripenlv 2003, 11).
Men looking for other men were not taken into consideration in both studies.
A research on the Stockholm metropolitan area,
lasting for 6 months in 2005, found 327 persons selling
sexual services: 272 women and 55 men (Socialstyrelse
2007, 5013).
The Internet also offers many possibilities for contact
via forums and chat rooms. Porno-clubs, swingers and
strippers also advertise for contacts. It is possible to
watch a striptease on the Internet, via web-cam, and pay
by credit card. This is completely legal since no direct
contact is implied. Journalists reported on one company
that hired 50 girls for this purpose and even paid them
benefits.14
Here is another example of a controversial interpretation of the effects of the law. Supporters say, not
without reason, there is no direct causeeffect link
between the expanding advertisement in the Internet and
the approval of the law against the purchase of sexual
services, since Internet sex announcements are on the
rise in every country as the use of Internet popularizes.
But surely, the existence of an expanding market on the
Internet does not exactly point to an achievement of the
laws aim.

1 year after the new lawwhich should be more than the

Stockholm-based quarter of the 13 Swedish clubs open in
1999 (SOU 2001, 14), but it is uncertain whether all these
clubs can fall under the same definition. According to the
BR report: There are indicators that the kind of
prostitution where parties take contact in hotels and
restaurants has grown and that some Russian prostituted
women have been traced there (BR Brottsfrebyggande
rdet 2000, 20).
Street prostitution has diminished, but it is unclear
whether prostitutes have moved indoors, and whether
clients have started to look for indoor prostitution:
Whether or not the new law has thereby led to the visible
prostitution going underground has not been studied
(BR Brottsfrebyggande rdet 2000, 54). Same conclusions in the Norwegian report by the Ministry of Justice
(Arbeidsgruppe om rettslig regulering av kjp av seksuelle
tjenester 2004). The police do not think that prostitutes
have moved indoors because the majority in Malmskillnadsgatan consists of drug addicts who are not able to
organize indoor activity (Gripenlv 2003, 8).

Changes in Trafficking and Prostitution

of Migrant Women
It is claimed that the combined effect of the two laws against
the purchase of sexual services and trafficking is the relative
immunity of Sweden, compared to other Western European
countries and especially Nordic ones, to the presence of
migrant prostitutes on the streets [my interviews, press review,
SOU 2010]:
Although it is hard to assess the exact scale of
trafficking for sexual purposes, in Sweden the
establishment of this kind of crime is considered to
be substantially smaller in scale than in other
comparable countries. According to the National
Criminal Police, it is clear that the ban on the
purchase of sexual services acts as a barrier to
traffickers and procurers considering establishing
themselves in Sweden (SOU 2010, 37).

Changes in Prostitution Indoor

The extent of prostitution indoor is completely uncharted.
Even indicators as the number of venues like striptease
clubs and massage parlours where it is suspected that
prostitution may take place are not monitored. The BR
report states that five to six striptease clubs were open

The evidence quoted are telephone taps of traffickers

choosing other destinations because of surveillance in
Sweden and the small dimension of sex market15: There
is information from the victims of trafficking in human

15
13

The original reference is Johansson, M., and P. Turesson. 2006.

Slutrapport frn projektet Ntprostitution. Prostitutionsenheten,
Stockholms stad.
14
Rydhagen, M. and H. Borstrmm.Mathias driver. Expressen,
July 5, 2002.

The estimates prior to the change of policy pointed to a diminution

in the eighties and then a rise in the nineties. Street prostitution was
limited to 650 women, 2,500 should have been in the sex trade in
general, with very little organization by third parties (SOU Statens
offentliga utredningar 1995). This was a very small number in
comparison to estimates for other countries (Danna 2000).

90

Sex Res Soc Policy (2012) 9:8093

beings in Sweden that traffickers have had problems finding

enough sex buyers in Sweden, the demand has been much lower
than expected (Transcrime 2005, 102). But testimony contradicting this conclusion can be found also in official reports:
The prevalence of these cases [procuring and trafficking]
varies widely from year to year, depending on the resources
invested and the priorities that the police, in particular, have
set (SOU 2010, 39). It is not possible to quantify trafficking
by any definition, and the criminal statistics only show police
engagement, not the real phenomenon.
Based on the notifications received, the police estimated
that at the time of the approval of the law, there were in Sweden
between 200 and 500 victims of trafficking (RKP-KUT
Rikskriminalpolisen-Kriminalunderrtterlsetjnsten 1999). In
2003, the estimate rose to between 400 and 600; police noted
this does not necessarily imply an increase in the number of
victims, since estimates can be wrong. After 2003, official
estimates were no longer made. Also, Holmstrm and
Skilbrei (2008) affirm that the number of women active in
prostitution who have been subject to trafficking is almost
impossible to estimate.
In a police report on trafficking, the police complained
of a 19% decrease in information on trafficking; this is
attributed to the fact that many Eastern European countries
have become part of the European Union and therefore
controls at the borders with the East have diminished (RKPKUT Rikskriminalpolisen-Kriminalunderrtterlsetjnsten
1999, no. 7).
Clients of prostitutes in some cases were prosecuted as part
of an investigation into the exploitation of prostitution or
trafficking. However, the opposite is not true; no investigation
of sexual purchasers has ever led to the discovery of more
serious crimes.
In report no. 5 (RKP-KUT RikskriminalpolisenKriminalunderrtterlsetjnsten 1999), it is mentioned that
Latvian police noted organisers of prostitution in Sweden
offered women better conditions in the hope of not being
denounced for the specific crime of trafficking that had
been established that year.

Conclusions and International Perspective

The first official investigation into the effects of the new law
after 1 year (BR Brottsfrebyggande rdet 2000) found a
diminution of street prostitution and uncertainty about all the
other kinds, results that have been confirmed at the time of
my empirical research and after, particularly by the official
evaluation (SOU 2010). If we read carefully the wording
used, its conclusions are undecided, too:
There is nothing to indicate that the prevalence of
indoor prostitution that is not marketed through

advertisements in magazines and on the Internet, e.g.

prostitution in massage parlours, sex clubs and hotels,
and in restaurant and nightclub settings, has increased
in recent years (SOU 2010, 36).
But there is nothing to indicate that it has diminished, either.
The shift from outdoor to indoor is also debated in the report:
In the last five years, Internet prostitution has increased
in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. However, the scale
of this form of prostitution is more extensive in our
neighbouring countries, and there is nothing to indicate
that a greater increase in prostitution over the Internet
has occurred in Sweden than in these comparable
countries (SOU 2010, 35).
But, again, nothing points to a diminution. The report states
openly that the extent of prostitution and trafficking is Sweden
is unknown:
Increased internationalisation and the Internet as a new
arena for prostitution also make it difficult to assess its
prevalence. Even though there are many reports, articles
and essays that address these phenomena, knowledge on
the scale of prostitution and trafficking for sexual
purposes is consequently limited (SOU 2010, 34).
The overall conclusion amount to a non sequitur:
Criminalisation has therefore helped to combat prostitution
(SOU 2010, 36), but criminalization was adopted precisely
because it was decided to combat prostitution. The policy of
criminalizing the client could not be really evaluated,
because the mandate was to investigate only if the law was
effective in fighting against prostitution: One starting point
of our work has been that the purchase of sexual services is
to remain criminalised (SOU 2010, 30). This is understandable as client criminalization has become a matter of national
pride. Great efforts have been made to export this model
with conferences organized by the Swedish Institute and
embassies in many foreign cities, also screening Lilja 4-ever
(see also Prostitution Licensing 2011).
According to various studies, the gradual fading of the
guarantees of the welfare state led to the need to find another
area of excellence for Sweden in order to maintain the pride of
being Swedish towards the rest of the world (Gould 2002;
Kulick 2003; stergren 2006; Dodillet 2009). Gender
equality has replaced welfare as the central theme in the
speeches of politicians, since Sweden has been classified by
U.N. in 1995 as the most gender equal country in the world
(Dodillet 2009, 345 ff.). Suggestively, the expression
Swedish model has come to shift its meaning, from the
construction of a welfare state to the much more modest
criminalisation of clients only to combat prostitution.
The quantity of street prostitution to begin with in 1998
was already low compared to other countries [see note 15],

Sex Res Soc Policy (2012) 9:8093

but prostitution in the streets has diminished yet not

disappeared, and the rise in Internet advertising does not
support official claims of a reduction of sex work. The
pathology-therapy model adopted by social services in
Stockholm in their interaction with prostitutes does not
facilitate dialogue, and the explanations based on trauma
are rejected by the prostitutes themselves. Trafficking
networks, or organizers of illegal migrant work, are active
in Sweden and provide women who agree to work in
prostitution a place indoors to practice it. The police
intervene only where there are minors or large numbers of
women, hoping at least some of them will press charges
against their traffickers.16 Only one client has been
condemned to prison, and most men were convicted
because of evidence they visited (illegal) brothels, or
because they accepted the fine on the spot. Otherwise, this
crime remains extremely difficult to prove.
And what happens beyond the border of prohibitionist
Sweden? Clients have shifted to the neighbouring countries.
In fact, Malm, the regional capital of Skne, is very close to
Copenhagen, the Danish capital, and has always exported
Swedish visitorsas well as Swedish sex workersto spend
Saturday nights in the Danish capital. The Oslo Pro Sentret
also stated they encounter more Swedish clients as well as
more girls from Sweden.17 Norway has complained that
Sweden has shifted their share of migrant prostitution over
to them.
The Norwegian report objects also to the claim that
Swedish laws prevent trafficking: In the global context,
the fact that traffickers in human beings move to other
countries, as Norway and Denmark, cannot be considered
to have a preventive effect on the trade in women and
children (Arbeidsgruppe om rettslig regulering av kjp av
seksuelle tjenester 2004).
The task of connecting prostitution policy models and
levels of trafficking was undertaken by an international
group of research institutions (Transcrime 2005). In the
study itself, it is recognized that the task is impossible
because there are many more variables than just these two
to be taken into consideration. This is their conclusion:
Old EU Member States display higher numbers of
victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation. This,
independently from their model on prostitution, also
seems to be the effect of two concurrent factors: a)
these countries often possess more reliable quantitative
data on victims; b) these countries are destination
countries of the trafficking chain []
16

The introduction in 2010 of the Palermo protocol definition of

trafficking has probably changed this.
17
Petterson, Mats. Svenska torskar kar norsk prostitution. Expressen,
March 10, 2004.

91

In countries that provide comprehensive schemes of

protection and assistance to victims of trafficking (e.g.
Belgium, Italy, and The Netherlands), the data on
trafficked persons are more reliable and the figures
are higher (Transcrime 2005, x-xi).
And Sweden is a country with few provisions for victims
(Forsman and Korsell 2008) that can more hardly be
discovered due to lack of tips by clientsa recognized effect
of criminalizing them (RKP-KUT RikskriminalpolisenKriminalunderrtterlsetjnsten 1999). The Transcrime study
concludes:
Should the Member States take actions to implement a
model of prohibitionism they should consider that this
model seems to produce less victims of trafficking for
sexual exploitation even tough this is not sufficiently
proven by the collected data and, most of all, it can arise
from misleading evidence resulting from the fact that,
under a regime of prohibitionism, victims are less
visible and therefore can be less easily registered or
recorded by statistics (Transcrime 2005, 137).
And even this prohibitionist model of policing prostitution
faces problems of regulation. The presence of sex workers is
basically tolerated in the street where they are concentrated in
Stockholm. My research does not confirm Elisabeth Bernstein
(2007, 178) application to Stockholm of a model of inner
city gentrification as a cause of expulsion of prostitution
from traditional locations that works for San Francisco and
Amsterdam.
An easy step to face changes in prostitution scene with the
arrival of migrants is adopting a repressive policy, which
usually can give spectacular results highlighted by media at
the beginning, but diminishes in effectiveness over time as
those who exploit the potential for high earnings from
prostitution reorganise, outdoor or indoor (Danna 2006).
In sum, the Swedish decision to prohibit prostitution by
criminalizing only the client was the culmination of a very
rigid abolitionism and follows the path already taken before
1998 of harsher laws and intensification of police action
against extremely limited street prostitution. The stated
objective of the law, the abolitionist goal of eliminating
prostitution so as to diminish violence against women and
to stop women being reduced to sexual objects for male use
and consumption (which happens also outside prostitution)
has so far not been accomplished, and even diminution of
prostitution cannot be proven. And although, officially,
prostitutes are not criminals, in practice they are often
considered as such. If they refuse to stop prostituting
themselves, they are viewed as betrayers of the female
gender. The interpretation of Swedish prostitution policy as
not unique, but similar to all other countries who act against
prostitutes, an interpretation proposed by Dodillet and

92

stergren (2011) is confirmed by the present study,

especially by the interviews describing the actions of social
services. Finally, those who state they are defending women
by prohibiting prostitution are actually deaf to the voices of
those who decide to prostitute themselves and see in this
activity many positive aspects, offering a service and relating
on many levelsnot exclusively sexualwith clients who
seek sex and human contact.

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