NCJ Number
231830
Date Published
2010
Length
295 pages
Annotation
This paper is the English-language summary of a report on the impact of Sweden's legislation that bans the purchase of sexual services.
Abstract
On January 1, 1999, Sweden became the first country in the world to introduce legislation that criminalized the purchase, but not the sale, of sexual services. It is currently found in Chapter 6, Section 11 of the Penal Code. Sweden's legislative body ("Riksdag") enacted the ban on the purchase of sexual services based on the principle that it is "shameful and unacceptable that, in a gender equal society, men obtain casual sexual relations with women in return for payment." It was anticipated that this criminalization of the purchase of sexual services would have a deterrent effect on prospective purchasers of sex and serve to reduce the interest of various groups or individuals abroad in establishing more extensive organized prostitution in Sweden. At the time of this assessment of the impact of the ban, the law had been in force for over 10 years. The study of the ban's impact has found that although there has been an increase in prostitution in neighboring Nordic countries in the last decade, there is no clear evidence that prostitution has increased in Sweden. Although there may be several explanations for this trend, given the major similarities in all other respects among the Nordic countries, it is reasonable to conclude that prostitution would also have increased in Sweden if the ban on the purchase of sexual services had not been enacted. Police officers and social workers report that due to the ban, purchasers of sexual services have become more cautious and that the ban has led to a decrease in demand, at least for street prostitution.