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Linking Prostitution and Human Trafficking Policies: The Nordic Experience
Abstract
In international debates on prostitution policy and in debates on prostitution that takes place within individual countries, references are often made to ‘the Nordic’ or ‘the Swedish’ model of prostitution policy. In Sweden, Norway and Iceland, the purchase of sex is a criminal offence, while it remains legal to sell sex. In debates, references are made to the effects of such a policy on the extent of human trafficking. While politicians and activists are eager to treat this particular way of regulating prostitution either as a great success or a great failure, researchers need to take into consideration how a country’s anti-trafficking and anti-prostitution efforts impact identification of cases, and therefore available figures. In this chapter, we investigate the evidence for how the Swedish Sex Purchase Act influences trafficking to Sweden, and we particularly argue that researchers must avoid underestimating the complexity of the relationship between law and the phenomena they regulate.
... Sweden has been discussed internationally as a role model in efforts to combat trafficking because of its 1998 ban on prostitution that criminalizes the purchase, but not the sale, of sexual services (Skilbrei and Holmström 2017;Cho et al. 2014;Erikson 2017). Although this policy does not explicitly targeting trafficking, it has been discussed as a measure for cutting the demand for sexual services that would thereby comprise a means for combating trafficking as well (Skr. ...
The use of collaborations and partnerships that engage a variety of actors from both the public and private spheres has drawn attention during the last decade as a promising strategy for combatting trafficking and improving assistance to victims of trafficking. This article investigates the Swedish Civil Society Platform against Human Trafficking as an example of successful collaboration between civil society actors. The aim is to explore how the platform as a distinct organizational form is capable of dealing productively with some of the challenges facing internal and external collaboration. We utilize interviews with key actors and a study of policy documents as we argue that the modularity and flexibility of the platform organizational form are key factors in its success. While it is a robust type of organization that may be regarded as a trustworthy partner, it also permits its member organizations to continue functioning as independent entities.
... This suggests that structural changes are needed in the workplace environment to support healthy work environments for FEWs. In some countries, larger structural changes such as partially legalizing and regulating sex work following such frameworks as "the Nordic Model" has shown some benefits to the health of sex workers without criminalization (Skilbrei & Holmstrom, 2017). Creating laws, with effective monitoring and enforcement, that respond to the health and safety risks faced by FEWs may allow for the provision of certain protections such as venue-based policies allowing FEWs to decline drinking without recourse or to eliminate economic incentives for drinking, as well as regular health care or legal aid in the case of sexual violence. ...
Background: Female entertainment workers (FEWs) in Cambodia work in predominantly alcohol-based venues and therefore may face occupational risks. Studies have suggested that FEWs are pressured to consume alcohol while at the workplace, which may have adverse health outcomes. This study aims to explore the experiences of alcohol use among FEWs in Cambodia. Methods: Twenty-seven focus group discussions (FGDs) with FEWs were conducted across five sites in four provinces in Cambodia. FGD participants were FEWs who worked at entertainment venues, including karaoke TV bars, beer gardens, and massage parlors, as well as women who worked as on-call or street-based sex workers, and women across entertainment venues who were parenting. Results: The authors modified a conceptual model to create a framework based on the major themes identified within the FGDs on autonomy in alcohol use among FEWs. The framework and thematic components highlight the continuum of autonomy from pressured or coerced alcohol use to, economically or socially rational alcohol use to voluntary alcohol use. Factors that impacted alcohol use across the spectrum include experiencing an economic shock, needing to maintain a livelihood, experiencing psychological distress, having the desire to thrive in employment environment and drinking socially for personal enjoyment. Conclusion/Importance: Much of the motivation behind alcohol use is related to the need for economic security. For women who do not have other employment or income-generating options, individual behavior change programing is unlikely to be effective. Structural changes are needed to improve the health and safety of FEWs in Cambodia.
This contribution analyzes the sex worker-led project Reimagining Sex Work, which included focus groups of sex workers and (photo) journalists, shared production of a media guide, and photography workshops, and aimed at destigmatization of sex work in the Netherlands. The resulting “sex worker proof” photos were made available through an image bank and exhibited throughout the Netherlands. We found that the participatory, visual approach enabled sex workers to reclaim control over their embodied representations and, in a radically democratic way, demand access to privileged spaces. Collaborating across differences—with media, academic, governmental, and other actors—created space for alternative, more respectful, and inclusive representations of sex work, which have the power to penetrate resistant structures of willful ignorance and innocence.
In 2003, Nigeria enacted the Trafficking in Person (Prohibition) Law and Enforcement Act as the primary tool for the control of prostitution. It was amended in 2015 with tougher penalties for offenders. Currently enforced by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), the Act has not only inspired a lot of popular and policy responses towards sex work in Nigeria, it has underscored the state’s anti-prostitution stance. This paper examines the dynamics of sex work in a changing legislative and advocacy context. Using a historical view, it explores the relationship between sex work and the Nigerian state and offers reflections on the future of prostitution in the country.
Prostitution, payment for the exchange of sexual services, is deemed a major social problem in most countries around the world today, with little to no consensus on how to address it. In this Target Article, we unpack what we discern as the two primary positions that undergird academic thinking about the relationship between inequality and prostitution: (1) prostitution is principally an institution of hierarchal gender relations that legitimizes the sexual exploitation of women by men, and (2) prostitution is a form of exploited labor where multiple forms of social inequality (including class, gender, and race) intersect in neoliberal capitalist societies. Our main aims are to: (a) examine the key claims and empirical evidence available to support or refute each perspective; (b) outline the policy responses associated with each perspective; and (c) evaluate which responses have been the most effective in reducing social exclusion of sex workers in societal institutions and everyday practices. While the overall trend globally has been to accept the first perspective on the “prostitution problem” and enact repressive policies that aim to protect prostituted women, punish male buyers, and marginalize the sex sector, we argue that the strongest empirical evidence is for adoption of the second perspective that aims to develop integrative policies that reduce the intersecting social inequalities sex workers face in their struggle to make a living and be included as equals. We conclude with a call for more robust empirical studies that use strategic comparisons of the sex sector within and across regions and between sex work and other precarious occupations.
This thesis focuses on legal protection of victims of human trafficking in Sweden. Human trafficking involves the exploitation of often already vulnerable individuals and is a violation of their human rights. Human trafficking is also a threat to state security as a component of transnational organized crime and illegal migration, and has therefore long been a subject of international cooperation.
In this thesis international responses to human trafficking are categorized as being focused on two distinct and separately protected parties, namely the individual and the state. The implementation of these international responses have, in the case of Sweden, mainly led to new criminal regulation relating to human trafficking, and in this thesis international as well as Swedish legal measures against human trafficking are analyzed from a victimological perspective. The overall aim is to investigate and analyze whether victims of trafficking have received an enhanced legal protection through Swedish criminal law.
The thesis shows that human trafficking is not considered a problem in the Swedish legislative context, and that the international measures to protect victims of trafficking have not been regarded to any great extent. Few victims of trafficking in Sweden are even identified as victims, and measures against human trafficking have largely been associated with measures against prostitution. To legally connect human trafficking with prostitution is, however, problematic because these crimes have different primary protective interests and the victims have different roles in the investigation and litigation process. From a victim's perspective, the categorization of the crime is crucial because the status of plaintiff, as is required for the possibility for financial redress and other legal rights, is assessed in Sweden by how the offense is classified. It is therefore important for the victims of human trafficking to be identified and categorized correctly in order to be defined as plaintiffs and obtain protection under criminal law. As a result of all these factors, the intended enhanced legal protection for victims of trafficking in Sweden is lost.
Protection of victims and prosecution of traffickers are established as core principles in international and national anti-trafficking policies. In this article, we discuss the dilemmas of linking protection of victims (a term that includes social protection) to their cooperation with authorities, using Norway as a case. Our analysis of the Norwegian case is based on interviews with victims of trafficking, social workers, police and prosecutors, and examination of court decisions on cases of trafficking. The linking of protection and prosecution is anchored in international conventions and directives. While this is often framed as a mutual advantage for both protection and prosecution, in reality both goals may suffer. We discuss how the goal of prosecution affects assistance available to different groups of victims. It creates unequal access to assistance and different preconditions for well-being and predictability, depending on how useful their information about traffickers is perceived to be, and police capacity to investigate. We then move on to discuss how the incentive of protection for cooperation is interpreted and dealt with in the justice system. Victims who receive assistance and have a chance of getting permanent residence permits in exchange for their testimonies are considered to be less reliable and credible witnesses. This also brings into question how victims of trafficking are understood and constituted as witnesses. We discuss these issues in light of a broader literature on gender, law and victimhood.
There is great interest internationally in the development of prostitution policies in the Nordic countries after Sweden, Norway and Iceland have introduced general bans against buying sex whilst selling sex remains legal. In addition, there is a partial ban against buying sex in Finland. This is a different approach from that of several other European countries, where we have seen a decriminalisation of third-party involvement in prostitution as well as to that of the USA which criminalises both the buying and selling of sexual services. Thus the Nordic countries are often treated as representatives of a 'Nordic model' of prostitution policies. In this book - the first on the subject - Skilbrei and Holmstrm argue that these models of policies or policy regimes tend to ignore the trajectories, contexts and consequences of the full range of approaches to prostitution, thus they are too simplistic and static. Prostitution policies in the Nordic countries are multifaceted and dynamic, and cannot be represented as following a straight path and detached from empirical contexts. Their analysis treats Nordic prostitution policies both as a product of history, of current national and Nordic debates, and of international obligations and changes in the international and national prostitution markets. Furthermore they argue that a broad understanding of the relevant context is necessary so as to place Nordic prostitution policies within broader policy concerns related to gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, social welfare, immigration and organised crime, as well as to neoliberal forms of governance. © May-Len Skilbrei and Charlotta Holmström 2013. All rights reserved.
This paper investigates the impact of legalized prostitution on human trafficking inflows. According to economic theory, there are two opposing effects of unknown magnitude. The scale effect of legalized prostitution leads to an expansion of the prostitution market, increasing human trafficking, while the substitution effect reduces demand for trafficked women as legal prostitutes are favored over trafficked ones. Our empirical analysis for a cross-section of up to 150 countries shows that the scale effect dominates the substitution effect. On average, countries where prostitution is legal experience larger reported human trafficking inflows.
We develop an index measuring the three main dimensions – prosecution, protection, and prevention – of the anti-trafficking policies of the governments of up to 180 countries over the 2000−2010 period. Overall, developed countries perform better than the rest of the world; compliance with prosecution policy is highest, while governmental efforts to protect victims of human trafficking remain weakest. We employ the new indices to investigate which factors determine anti-trafficking policies. We find that compliance with anti-trafficking policies significantly decreases with corruption and is higher in countries that also respect the rights of women. We also find some tentative evidence for spatial dependence in anti-trafficking policies.
This article explores some of the key current research and statistical evidence available on the global scale of trafficking in human beings, and considers the assumption that the occurrence of trafficking is increasing. The value and limitations of this statistical data is identified, as is the relationship between the research base and the resulting legal and policy responses. This allows an assessment of whether there is a connection between the perceived problem and the responses to trafficking victims’ circumstances. It questions whether assumptions, generalisations and policies can be based around the available data and the responsibilities of individual countries, including the UK and the wider international community, in relation to the improvement of data collection. The article also considers signs of progress in terms of data collection and suggests further future improvements that need to be made to the approach taken.
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 workers – constructed 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.
This article examines different types of comparative research designs as applied to either prostitution or sex trafficking. I first present several comparative approaches that are found to be deeply flawed either because of the problematic assumptions of the analysts or because the data provided are insufficient to support the conclusions drawn. I then review research designs that compare two to four cases in depth and have the potential to yield stronger evidence-based findings and richer theoretical insights. The article concludes by discussing a set of methodological issues that face researchers who conduct comparative research on sex work.
Marinova, Nadejda K. and Patrick James. (2012) The Tragedy of Human Trafficking: Competing Theories and European Evidence. Foreign Policy Analysis, doi: 10.1111/j.1743-8594.2011.00162.x
This paper explores an issue that is both domestic and international: whether legalization of prostitution leads to an increase in human trafficking. For both theory and public policy, this is an important query to answer, with implications beyond the cases in question. The principal domains of investigation are Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands. These states subscribe to UN, EU, Council of Europe and OSCE agreements and are located in the same geographic region, yet have adopted opposite approaches to prostitution. The Netherlands and Germany legalized prostitution in 2000 and 2002, respectively. Sweden outlawed it in 1999 and imposed criminal penalties for the purchase of illicit sex. The preceding characteristics make these states ideal for a comparative exercise in the context of competing perspectives on human trafficking and legalized prostitution. We find that legalization leads to an increase in trafficking. The dynamics of trafficking are also associated with numerous factors, among which the most critical are government efforts specifically targeting the activity in the field of law enforcement. Implications for theory and public policy are offered, along with ideas about future research.
In 2000, the Dutch authorities lifted the ban on brothels in the Netherlands.
The essence of their approach was to regulate prostitution. People of legal age could
now voluntarily sell and purchase sexual services. Brothels which complied with
certain licensing conditions were legalized. This paper critically assesses the logic of
a position that argues that human trafficking is reduced when actors in the legalized
prostitution sector are made responsible for what happens on their premises (using
licensing conditions). This idea is confronted with empirical evidence about the
Netherlands in general and the city of Amsterdam in particular. Furthermore, the paper
addresses two questions. What are consequences of the regularization of prostitution for
the criminal investigation and prosecution of sex trafficking? How do criminal justice
agencies collaborate with regulatory authorities in the regulated and non-regulated
sectors of the prostitution market? The main conclusion is that the screening of brothel
owners and the monitoring of the compliance of licensing conditions do not create
levels of transparency that enable sex trafficking to be exposed. The prostitution
business retains many characteristics of an illegitimate market and the legalization
and regulation of the prostitution sector has not driven out organized crime. On the
contrary, fighting sex trafficking using the criminal justice system may even be harder
in the legalized prostitution sector.
After several years of public debate initiated by the Swedish women’s movement, the Law That Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services came into force on January 1, 1999. The Law is the first attempt by a country to address the root cause of prostitution and trafficking in beings: the demand, the men who assume the right to purchase persons for prostitution purposes. This ground breaking law is a cornerstone of Swedish efforts to create a contemporary, democratic society where women and girls can live lives free of all forms of male violence. In combination with public education, awareness-raising campaigns, and victim support, the Law and other legislation establish a zero tolerance policy for prostitution and trafficking in human beings. When the buyers risk punishment, the number of men who buy prostituted persons decreases, and the local prostitution markets become less lucrative. Traffickers will then choose other and more profitable destinations.
We explore three hitherto poorly understood characteristics of the human trafficking market – the cross-border ease of mobility of traffickers, the relative bargaining strength of traffickers and final buyers, and the elasticity of buyers' demand. In a model of two-way bargaining, the exact configuration of these characteristics is shown to determine whether domestic and foreign crackdowns on illicit employment mutually reinforce or counteract one another in efforts to stem the tide of trafficking. Estimation results from a gravity model of trafficking present evidence consistent with the mutual reinforcement view, indicating considerable ease of mobility, partial bargaining power, and inelastic demand.
We develop a new index measuring governments’ anti-trafficking policies for up to 180 countries over the 2000-2010 period. We assess a country’s level of compliance in the three main dimensions of anti-trafficking policies – prosecution, protection and prevention. The results show that compliance with prosecution policy is highest, while governmental efforts to protect victims of human trafficking remain weakest. Overall, developed countries perform better than the rest of the world. We employ the new indices to investigate what determines anti-trafficking policies. We find that compliance with anti-trafficking policies significantly decreases with corruption and is higher in countries that also respect the rights of women. We also find some tentative evidence for spatial dependence in anti-trafficking policies.
This paper investigates the impact of legalized prostitution on human trafficking inflows. According to economic theory, there are two opposing effects of unknown magnitude. The scale effect of legalized prostitution leads to an expansion of the prostitution market, increasing human trafficking, while the substitution effect reduces demand for trafficked women as legal prostitutes are favored over trafficked ones. Our empirical analysis for a cross-section of up to 150 countries shows that the scale effect dominates the substitution effect. On average, countries where prostitution is legal experience larger reported human trafficking inflows.
Trafficking in humans for sexual exploitation is an economic activity driven by profit motives. Laws regarding commercial sex influence the profitability of trafficking. Using cross country data we show that trafficking of persons for commercial sexual exploitation is least prevalent in countries where prostitution is illegal, most prevalent in countries where prostitution is legalized, and in between in those countries where prostitution is legal but procuring illegal. Case studies of countries that have changed legal framework support the claims on the direction of causality as well as the causal mechanisms. The results suggest that criminalizing buying and/or selling sex may reduce the amount of trafficking to a country.
This article discusses the implementation of duties to reduce the market for sexual services of trafficked persons, both adults and children. The article begins by describing the duties that stem from international and European obligations. It then presents the legislation and practice of five European states (Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom) regarding human trafficking and the purchase of sexual acts from trafficking victims. The states in the study have introduced measures to combat human trafficking by effective prosecutions and sentencing of traffickers. They have, however, taken few measures to combat demand for the sexual services of trafficked persons; in some countries, no measures at all. As all the countries criminalise the purchase of sexual acts from children below the age of 18, the article examines whether this has afforded trafficked children effective protection against sexual exploitation. One key element in the crime of purchasing sex from a minor is knowledge of the child’s age. The subjective elements that states require range from strict liability (below certain ages) to negligence, and their practice also varies. The article ends by discussing the lacunae that remain before states can be said to secure trafficked persons’ right to effective protection against sexual exploitation.
This article explores the policy underpinning Sweden's 1999 ban on purchases of sexual services with a focus on the social and health service sectors and their role vis-à-vis people who sell sex. It argues that the rationale behind the ban is difficult to reconcile with legislation and practices beyond the merit of criminal justice. While an understanding of prostitution as “men's violence against women” may serve symbolic functions at central policy level, it can hardly guide local implementation without conflicting with core social policy principles. The article concludes that a there is a need to address the agency of people who sell sex, since denying or minimizing such agency may be counterproductive to the policy's own objectives.
Monitoring trafficking in human beings for sexual or other forms of exploitation is at present difficult because of the lack
of common definitions and measuring rules, but also because of a general lack of adequate records of the phenomenon. Reasonable
measurement would need to combine law enforcement and NGO sources for a fuller and more complete review of the phenomenon.
It is suggested that the Dutch trafficking reporting system be taken as a starting point for developing improved monitoring
systems.
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