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Sweden's prostitution law a success: report

AFP/The Local · 3 Jul 2010, 09:24

Published: 03 Jul 2010 09:24 GMT+02:00

"The evaluation shows that the ban on the purchase of sexual services has had the intended effect and is an important instrument in preventing and combating prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes," the report said.

The report, which was handed to Justice Minister Beatrice Ask on Friday, maintained "that prostitution in Sweden, unlike in comparable countries, has not in any case increased since the introduction of the ban" on buying sexual services went into effect in 1999. It is not illegal to sell sexual services.

While the law punishing the client rather than the prostitute may not have caused a dramatic drop in prostitution as a whole, its true triumph, according to the report, is that "street prostitution in Sweden has been halved."

"This reduction may be considered to be a direct result of the criminalization of sex purchases," it said.

The drop in street prostitution has been a little less dramatic in Stockholm than in all of Sweden, but the capital nonetheless saw its number of streetwalkers drop from 280 in 1998 to 180 in 2008, according to official statistics quoted in the report.

Before Sweden became the first country in the world to criminalise buying sex, the number of street prostitutes in its capital was on a par with the number in the capitals of neighbouring Norway and Denmark.

But while the number of streetwalkers was slashed in Stockholm during the decade ending 2008, they had multiplied in Copenhagen and Oslo in the same period, the report said.

Norway introduced similar legislation to Sweden's on January 1, 2009.

The Swedish law stipulates that "purchasing a sexual service on one single occasion is sufficient for criminal liability," whether with money or other means such as alcohol or drugs.

But while cracking down on sex purchasers on the street has paid off, the report acknowledges that prostitution in other more hidden and obscure areas is hard to assess and limit.

The internet especially constitutes a new and dangerous arena, allowing sexual favours to be sold "in secret" and purchasers to remain "fairly invisible," it said.

"Prostitution where the initial contact is made over the internet is an important and growing arena," according to the report.

It stressed however that "the scale of this form of prostitution is more extensive in our neighbouring countries."

"There is nothing to indicate that a greater increase in prostitution over the internet has occurred in Sweden than in these comparable countries," it said, insisting that "this indicates that the ban has not led to street prostitution in Sweden shifting arenas to the internet."

Critics of the law claim it is driving prostitution into a dangerous shadowland where the mostly women selling sex are at a greater risk, but Friday's report insisted that was not the case.

The ban "is an important instrument to prevent and combat trafficking in human beings and to protect those people who are, or who risk becoming, involved in prostitution," it said

The report called on lawmakers to go even further and to double the sentence for sex purchasers from the maximum six months prison term today.

"In our view, the current level of penalties for certain sexual purchase offences is not proportionate to the seriousness of the crime," it said.

Swedish public radio reported on Friday that out of the 650 people who so far had been sentenced under the anti-prostitution law, none had been sent to prison.

AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)

Your comments about this article

11:23 July 3, 2010 by Nemesis
All this law has done is increase the number of women and children trafficked to Sweden to be prostitutes and increased the level of abuse of prostitutes in Sweden.

The Swedes need to grow up and look at prostitution as adults and stop being hypocritcal about the situation.
11:49 July 3, 2010 by Bisonex
This is a piece of feminist-inspired ideological nonsense. Check out some serious research to show how counterproductive this is:

12:00 July 3, 2010 by Renfeh Hguh
Stupid Swedes

What they can't see wont hurt them.
12:33 July 3, 2010 by Plowbridge
Yet more living in denial from Sweden. They can cheer that there are less tarts on the street and then ignore the fact that more and more are pushed underground where they are less protected from unscrupulous pimps. Feminista morons rule here.
12:35 July 3, 2010 by Kevin Harris
What is the point of a law that simply turns "street walkers" into home workers? If it was just to make the place tidier, then it worked. If it was to reduce prostitution as a whole, then it didn't do much. If it was to reduce trafficking, it had the opposite effect.

The phrase " the ban has not led to street prostitution in Sweden shifting arenas to the internet." is simply wrong and devalues the report as a whole. Prostitutes and their customers in Sweden have of course taken advantage of the anonymity of the internet, and adapted their business methods accordingly. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.

Concerning the overall statistics for prostitution in Sweden, the best the report's authors can say is "Well, it hasn't got any worse."

The change in the law has introduced cosmetic changes, driving "street" prostitution underground, where, traffickers are far more comfortable, than having their 17 year old eastern European girls parading the streets, where they can be less easily controlled, identified and rescued.

The new law, and this report, are a sham. It has led to the police misdirecting their resources against capable middle aged Swedish ladies and their johns, instead of hunting down traffickers and rescuing their victims. Meanwhile smug politicians walk in the prostitute free streets of Stockholm claiming a "success", and a young girl from Kalingrad gets nailed 6 times a day on a sperm stained mattress in a stinking flat.

Shame on them.
12:43 July 3, 2010 by Iraniboy
Well , if you don't like Sweden. Leave this country!! This forum is full of non-Swede who complain about every bit of incidents in Sweden.

No it hasn't increases nor has it gone underground. Those who want simply travel to Berlin or Amsterdam!
12:54 July 3, 2010 by hjoian
@iraniboy just because people complain does not mean they should leave the country. Nothing changes unless the people force it to be so. The problem is the Swedes (most) dont like to confront authority, unlike some of the non swedes who are living here and post on this forum. This is supposed to be a democracy.

This report is bollox, another case of blinkered governing. I have the right to complain AND live here,and if YOU dont like that,maybe its you who should go home.
12:58 July 3, 2010 by Kevin Harris
@ Iraniboy

I certainly won't leave Sweden because it allows young girls to be enslaved into prostitution. I am much better than that.

I will speak against it, and against those who seem to support it (you), and try to encourage others to do the same.
13:03 July 3, 2010 by skatty
Sure, you can just realize how effective the law is by charges against the man of the law, Ex-police chief of Uppsala; he got prostitutes by considering the law, so sweet !!
13:27 July 3, 2010 by Plowbridge
The world evolves as a better place by people using their democratic right to discuss and challenge what they think is wrong. Those who do, are applauded. Those who don't, the ones that run away from taking responsibility for their own societies, people, countries are not only selfish, weak and cowardly; but are as much as the problem as the misdoers.
14:54 July 3, 2010 by bravedave
im a bartender in a 5 star hotel. In the last 3 years prositution has escalated in stockholm. Humman trafficking is clearly on the rise now with more african sellers of sex, mainly from ghana. These girls find buyers and discuss a few right in front of us. We are powerless because we need to see money exchanging hands! This stupid feminst state is really starting to annoy me. Make prositution completely illegal and jail those who break the law, despite what sex they are. Why are the swedes so deluded over this law!?
15:19 July 3, 2010 by Jes
The law that bans prositution is STUPID , period !

Its also aganist human rights . An adult should be free to chose whether they want to earn a living on their gift (body ) or not .

Of all countries , Sweden should not be making laws that controll any one`s "sexuality " A country that is full of men who sleep with men , women who "marry "other women should not be forbidding a man who prefers paying for sex.

Some of these morons have told us that prositution promotes drug use and so on . This is bull crap ! Most drug users have never been prositutes . Its silly to punish someone for what you think they might do. Besides , its up to an adult to do whatevver they want to do with their bodies , Isn´t that the reason why homosexuals in Sweden are free today ?
15:41 July 3, 2010 by Open Minded
Imagine if your young mother, and sister go to street to sell her body parts to a thirsty men who love to F** your sister and Mother's mouth *

Is it okay? Would support this happen to your female member of family? to get drunk, HIV, or gangs rape or ask her your sister and mother to dance naked for them? That is how these poor girls who needs money would do that.




DID YOU see how Swedes and all were so emotional at the of Princess and Prince marriage, Many people were crying , Do you notice the legal marriage effect than sambo shitts?
15:46 July 3, 2010 by SilentLogic
hahaha, very well said "Iraniboy" I agree 101%. A number of readers are always there concerning about Sweden's every matter and criticizing senselessly as they are employed for that.
15:47 July 3, 2010 by Jes
Personally , I think that prositution is good for a country that has so many people living alone with no change to have real sex. I also think that it will save a lot of cold marrieges from collapsing . Its better for a man with a tiny penis to buy sex and return to his artless cold wife thereafter than having an affair with a workmate who is eqaully bored at home .
17:19 July 3, 2010 by Bisonex

There are lots of great things about Sweden. However, those of us who have made this country our home are as much allowed to speak up about the bad things as are the native Swedes. That is our contribution to making the country even better.

Open Minded


There is no such entity as Allah. This is all there is, so get used to it.
17:20 July 3, 2010 by old git
wonderful pseudo "open minded"...
17:35 July 3, 2010 by DAVID T
It's the oldest profession in the world - it will never go away - make it safe for everyone involved
18:03 July 3, 2010 by Jes
@Open Minded ,

this is not about " mothers & sisters " Its about the kind of women and men who belong to a different World than yours. I know it can be hard for an extreme muslim to keep things in proper context , so I will not ask you to do that . But I will educated you : there were prositutes during the time of Jesus . When mugs like you brought a prositutes before him, he said : " any one without sin should cast the fist stone " They all walked away .

Nabbi Muhamed and Hadija were called ugly names . She was acccused of using her wealth to "buy " a young mans sex .

So , stop preaching about things that you cannot controll. Just hope that none of your family`s women never needs to do this kind of thing . Rember also that whereever you find a woman hooker , there is a male customer like you .
18:24 July 3, 2010 by davidz
Prostitution is a plague and any measure used to make it drop as a business is justified, swedish gov. is doinfg the correct and best work possible about this, the porstitute is a victim and as such should be adviced to change course and since it is a market plain and simple no demand there will be no offer.

You people must remmeber that in most other countries prostitution business is held and run by various maffia, and mob using it also as a highway for other plagues such as drugs and money laundry, with little or no risk since its the prostitute that ends up in jail with little choice between being a slave or jail inmate, in many countries prostittues are more and more underage, human traficcking is on the rise street prostitution is the most dangerous and visible way of prostitution how about hhving cars and "customers" traffick in front of your house? drug dealers at your kids school? americans are very comfortable with that im not !

criticizing a wellfare country by americans english or whatever countries you come from That is insulting in sweden we DO fight plagues and do not encourage them in sweden there are no offlimit areas like in most other countries,i also acknowledhge that sick people do sex travels like into thailand but if the thai and others follow the swedish method there also will drop sharply but unfortunatly the business is big and held by both corrupt police and local mob gov have no control at all.

you are free to comment on whatever you like this is not a discussion about a footbal game it involves a whole society and human lives as a swede i im proud of my gov. country and my people some rotten aplles there will always be but never in pandemic proportions like other countries not happy ? really dont care

at least we dont need advice where to relocate to live relativly safe


"Detroit is not safe enough even for the Department of Public Safety.

The building has been abandoned ..."

ref http://www.neatorama.com/2009/01/23/the-most-dangerous-places-in-the-united-states/

clearly there are hundred of thousand of reports on each country.

Immigrants from anywhere int he world are welcome but ungratful ones are not

sorry for my unperfect english
18:35 July 3, 2010 by redfish
Its people's right to disagree with criminalizing prostitution (or this particular law), but I think most of the criticisms of the report in the comments don't make sense.

If prostitution is driven from the streets to underground, like people argue, its not fair to automatically assume the amount of prostitution hasn't been reduced, that there's no difference, and its just underground.. since its less easy for men to find prostitution services, and when its less easy to find services, the market will go down.

Second, to Kevin Harris' argument that its easier to do sex trafficking underground: they could have always done sex trafficking underground at the same time as having volunteer workers on the street. The law wouldn't necessarily make any difference. It didn't give any more ways to market sex workers.

It just seems to me a lot of people are trying hard to find ways for the report to be wrong rather than being objective, just because you don't think its a good law.
19:10 July 3, 2010 by DavidtheNorseman

Good. Now hunt down and execute the underground services, too! Death to all pimps.
21:46 July 3, 2010 by Mr. Puppy
There are a lot of good things about Sweden, but the view that ALL prostitutes are victims and need to be persuaded to change course is not feminist at all.

Human trafficking and sex slavery are best combated by first providing a regulated, legal prostitution market to take away a significant chunk of the income that goes into organized crime. Then police work against the remaining, financially weakened, sex traffickers will be much more effective.

I can sympathize with the people who are tired of every aspect of Sweden being relentlessly criticized by people on this site, because a lot of it is bullcrap, but on this particular issue there are a lot of people who love Sweden and do not often criticize it, who are criticizing this law and this report.

The reason is that many of us, who love Sweden, truly believe that this law harms women and takes police resources away from fighting sex trafficking and sex slavery.

Also, I don't know if it's just The Local's shoddy journalism or the report, but we are not given any evidence in this article that what the report claims is true. What are their criteria for judging the underground market, that they admit is very difficult to assess. And what's more, WHY aren't they trying harder to assess the underground market, which they admit is a more dangerous place. That is what is really remarkable about this report.

And for us Americans, this report resembles reports in the U.S. from ultra-right Christian groups that try to defend their way of thinking without providing solid evidence to back up their claim, oftentimes by not investigating half of the problem (in the case of this article, the underground market that is apparently 'so hard to assess' [but why?])

There is definitely room for reasoned, intellectual debate about this issue.
22:52 July 3, 2010 by redfish

There's nothing 'ultra-right' about disagreeing with legalization of prostitution... I don't think the agency which created this report expects people to read it as a complete argument for or against the law.. its just a preliminary study on one result of the law... and people on every side of a political debate often present arguments that are incomplete, so I have no idea why you're picking on ultra-right Christian groups in particular.

Personally, I favor decriminalization of prostitution, but I think full legalization (making prostitution like any other business, able to be incorporated and registered with cities, etc.) would be a big problem. There are not only social implications but huge -legal- implications to treating someone's body as just another good on the market. You create a gray area where you could argue a rape charge be downgraded to assault+theft of service. But I don't see why people out of the business market wanting to make a voluntary arrangement is a problem that the government has to address.

What is truly 'feminist' or not truly 'feminist' shouldn't be an issue, the issue should be what good policy is. You also shouldn't assume that all moral considerations of prostitution are just patriarchical, prudish, outmoded poppycock. While from a government perspective, people should be free to do whatever they want, its just impossible from a moral perspective to view sex just as any other service, because it isn't just any other service. The most beneficial thing, I think a lot of supporters of legalization would even agree, would be to have a situation in which less women feel they need or want to go into the prostitution business to make a good living or have a job they like.
22:58 July 3, 2010 by davidz
I do not agree with Mr puppy prostitution with all derivates is a crime you dont regulate crime by market rules or by controlling it (which make you an accomplice in a crime too) do you really think that in amesterdam that all prostitutes are in the red quartier ? or like when switzerland legalized heavy drugs under state control it failed miserably drug market did not dwindle or got weakened at all instead it increased the number of addicts (maybe less overdose deaths but many more ruined lives).

About the underground market the report is even more accurate than most others which gives only absolute numbers and it keeps the underground as a variable to account for and as a variable it cannot be exact, its like the rape statistics you cannot set the value of rape ratio as absolute because there are unreported rapes, not prosecuted cases, in the family rape and so on if you want statitstics overall numbers are not exact and cant be.

About statistics as everyone knows sweden had the myth of high ratio of suicide that too is uncorrect because if you take latin countries suicide is "natural death" and most of the times get ureported for cultural and religious reasons and we can keep on forever.

swedish statistics are very serious and accurate as it can be mostly because there is no lobbying and power groups that can have a certain interest in manipulating reports, news and so on.


this is statistics in usa that could be intreperated in many ways

rape rates examples there are are total (reported and prosecuted cases which obviously cannot take into account variables)

90 427 per year which can sound worse like 247.7 a rapes a day or less severe 10.3 an hour or insignificant like 0.17 a second so you can see that even absolute numbers are subject to interpretation

in the end i wish the best for all and please enjoy your stay in sweden maybe it is not paradise but compared to the rest it sure do look like one
23:24 July 3, 2010 by shame, shame
so this law is wrong, is naive and doesn't work, you say.

Democracy affords you the right to criticise what you think is wrong. It also gives you the responsibility to argue what should be done instead, and there appears to be a distinct lack of constructive suggestions here.

Democracy does not afford the freedom to decide when and when not to opt out - if you are a part of the society and vote, you are a part of Sweden, thus collectively responsible for how the society is formed.

So, if you consider buying another human being for sex is wrong and we don't want it in our society, what should be done?
23:51 July 3, 2010 by procrustes
The fundamental question that no society wants to answer is, "Who owns your body? God? The State? You?"

This covers a wide range of pressing social issues such as the right for people to choose to die.

If one answers, "God", then who gets to speak for God? If one says the The State, then...well, we know where that goes.

The only sane answer is that each human upon majority age owns their body and may do what they wish with it so long as they live within mutually consenting bounds.

And whoever compared those sponsoring such laws to American Right Wingnuts is spot on. Tread carefully Sweden, or you will end up just as divided and socially ill as the States.
00:12 July 4, 2010 by davidz

if this is freedom you can keep it !

take alcohol as an example actully i really dont care if you drink yourself to death but then again if you drive and kill somebody dear to me or not then I DO CARE.

Your cognition of state is corrupt (nothing to do with right or left) because the state you come from dont care about you or your welfare (unless you are a fund raiser) we swedes believe in the state as it will take care of us and do the best job possible to make us have a decent and safe life our politicians dont have body guards 24/7 in many places in sweden doors stay unlocked and we dont fear the curfew or dark alleys and parking lots as you do, clearly crime exist but in such proportions to seem irrelevant but we are still appalled when a crime is reported and outraged and get front page attention we dont care if obama or any other president has a cat a dog or a rat to report if a crime happens our society is shocked maybe where you come from it is so widespread you dont bother and care UNTIL it hits you.

Again to the topic prostitution is a crime according to the actual law you dont like it ? the majority does and since we are democratic country majority rules not war machine indistries weapon industry, oil industry and so on we like ou country as it is
00:16 July 4, 2010 by redfish

The people causing division in the States are those who make extreme, patronizing us vs. them statements like "there are those who think humans own their own body vs. those who think humans don't own their own body". Thats what prevents actual civil discussion of issues.
00:58 July 4, 2010 by Nilspet
This law is stupid...very stupid. It is nonsense as it is.

It is better to legalize the prostitution OR make it all illegal whoever not just the buyers. It is simply not democratic ..it is intimidating and you can imagine who were behind this stupid idea, right?
01:22 July 4, 2010 by Rebel
Maybe as long as the prostitutes are from Latin America and Russia the Swedish authorities don't really care what happens to them. So if they are off the street, the authorities feel like the job is done.

By the way, why is there no talk of male prostitutes? I mean really, Stockholm must be full of guys wanting to purchase sex from other guys. There may even be a few old ladies getting horny after watching Twighlight and wanting a male fix.
04:40 July 4, 2010 by memyselfandi
What I like the most about Sweden is the fermented herring.
04:53 July 4, 2010 by redfish
I think you're lying, memyseflandi
05:13 July 4, 2010 by glamelixir

I totally agree with you.
05:57 July 4, 2010 by logi
what is this thing about persecuting buyers and not sellers?To me they are both on the same ladder and i strongly believe that if the prostitute knows that security is after them, then there is every possibility that they will stay off the road. And for men why buying sex?
09:07 July 4, 2010 by gplusa
This is no woman's first choice of profession. It is the last choice for the desperate and vunerable in our communities, and always has been. Those running the "industry" are preying on the very people that we, as a society, should be trying to protect. Anyone who thinks that any woman is considering this line of work by choice is living in a fantasy world of Pretty Woman and Chicken Ranches. The reality is far less appealing. Just because people have been forced to sell their bodies for centuries doesn't make it right, and should never be used as an excuse. As a society we should be progressing and evolving to create a better live for all our citizens. Otherwise we would still be burning witches.
09:49 July 4, 2010 by Renfeh Hguh


This is the corner stone of Swedish society. Make it illegal and it will go away.

Guess what it hasn't - "Prostitution where the initial contact is made over the internet is an important and growing arena,"

Wake up you ignorant fools.
11:32 July 4, 2010 by procrustes

I didn't state the case as a dichotomy as you write in your redress. And, I fail to see how there is anything patronizing in my stating a case. I have noticed that Swedes when debating Americans typically to go "patronizing" or "double moral" whenever they have no good rejoinder.

Who do you think owns your body?

If the State really cared about these victims they would set up a special rehabilitation center, sweep the streets and make their admission to the center mandatory. There, they could treat the victims, give them a place off the street, and treat their mental trauma and maybe even train them in a skill.

This law is not thought through, nor is it morally consistent. It springs from ill-thought-out feminist (perphaps feminist misandry) passion.
11:36 July 4, 2010 by Jes
@davidz ,

how can Swedish statitics be "serious & accurate " if the investigator does not know at what rate prostitution is growing undergroud ?

You are wrong ; feminist party is a lobby group .

@ shame shame ,

why should it be you or me to decide whether X wants to sell her services to Y , as long as they are both adults and they agree ?

If the question was about societies endorsement of every individuals choice of sex ,then I would suggest that it should be illegal for a man to have sex with another man .

AND you ALL ,

selling SEX happens in many forms . Elin is demanding 750 million from Tiger , but what did she do to earn so much money besides sleeping with the rich guy , getting pregnant as a result ?

How can banning prostitution make any sense when all studies show that Police forces all over the World recruit prostitutes to collect all kinds of intelligence for them, even in matters of serious crime ?

OBS !!! some comments look like lectures . I wonder why that is . . .
12:54 July 4, 2010 by RobinHood
This report doesn't add up. We are told that prostitution figures in Sweden remain the same after the law as they were before, but that the law has been a great success!

We are told the number of street prostitutes has fallen significantly, but the number of prostitutes doing business by way of the net has not risen. How can this be if the number of prostitutes overall has remained constant?

How do you accurately count prostitutes anyway? Do they all line up in a parade? Bravedave who posted at #11 is probably in a better position to assess than most, and his experience shows that street prostitution is rising, not falling.

This report seems to be a triumph of wishful thinking and numerical manipulation over hard facts, and smells like a desperate attempt to justify a dodgy law. If the law was any good, the authors wouldn't need to play fast and loose with the statistics, they would speak for themselves.
13:17 July 4, 2010 by John D.
This law does nothing to reduce prostitution. All it does is keep the government from having to support/rehabilitate these women since they are not breaking any law.

It has always been legal in Germany and in most countries where it is illegal they just call it escort service instead and advertise on the net. Prositution is everywhere whether or not it is legal or not.
14:03 July 4, 2010 by Jes
Every year , more than 3000 thousand people die in Sweden because of smoking . Although smoking inside homes places of work and public places is forbidden , nothing is done to punish parents that smoke in cars where there are children. No one cares if a pregnant woman smokes !

I have also noticed that a lot of nurses and some Doctors smoke while at work , regardless of whether the patients that are in contact with are allergic to tobacco or not .

If Sweden is so clever , why don`t we have laws that protects children from irresponsible parents that smoke infront of them ? Is it not child-abuse to expose babies to tobacco poison ?

. . . oh no , we can`t have that because the tobacco industry generates a lot if revenue for the nation and creates a lot of jobs for a lot people , yeah ?

Ironically , its okay to sell poison as a nation , but an adult woman cannot sell her "property " to a willing buyer !

Here is an intelligent suggestion : donnot go to the streets and bedrooms to hunt for adults that are simply indulging in a harmless sexual deal when you cannot protect children in their homes and cars ?

BAN SMOKING before regulating sex, I say !
14:56 July 4, 2010 by j.Olsson
What do any of you do to create a safe house for prostitutes that need to escape their pimps? If this law drives them underground, then the internet could be used to help get information to them where they can escape to safety.
15:59 July 4, 2010 by Tope

Sweden is full of delusional people and you are one of them. Just because you BELIEVE your beloved country is "perfect" does not make it so. The crime in sweden is horrible!!!!. Look it up. But of course you will not, because researching will make you and crazy feminists actually see things as they really are.

Prostitution IS not only legal in sweden, it's promoted. Your code basically says that sex for money is only ever the man's fault even though a woman is just as involved. Which is why swedish females run ads like this


and had no qualms soliciting my coworkers when they visited stockholm on business.

Yet for some reason your politicians actually believe that someone who charges that much and has such a pretty website is a victim???? Can you not tell the difference between an addict and greedy sl*t.

And do you people really think that arresting the 300 husbands that a hooker screws in a year is smarter public policy than locking up their 1 lazy swedish wh*re? I have lived in both the far east and the west and can appreciate the Japanese and American, but the "Swedish" way is nuts!!!
16:11 July 4, 2010 by Nilspet
I totally agree with Jes !!!

How about porn film industry? So there is a loophole right?

What if you set up a P film company and hire 20 girls to sleep with a couple of guys and shoot a film .. this is perfectly legal right?
16:12 July 4, 2010 by Marc the Texan
Seems like overkill if the victory was a decrease in street walkers. Just outlaw prostitution in public. If they are worried about human trafficking then get better at actually enforcing those laws. Worrying about whether people are engaging in prostitution on the internet between consenting adults is absurd. I'd imagine that 50% of dating could qualify as prostitution. What is the real problem with prostitution if its kept between private parties? There isn't one. This blanket law doesn't really make Sweden a better country. It just makes Sweden less free.
18:33 July 4, 2010 by Kevin Harris
@ Marc the Texan

"This blanket law doesn't really make Sweden a better country. It just makes Sweden less free. "

You have it. The new law reduces our human rights, which might have been tolerable if it made Sweden a better place. But total prostitution numbers are unchanged.

So we all lose a little bit of personal freedom, and we all gain nothing. Meanwhile nothing worthwhile is done about prostitution, despite all this "success".
21:18 July 4, 2010 by Raiha
People do seem to be deluded that prostitutes are victims and no woman would choose to be a prostitute...LMAO

Decriminalise prostitution while prosecuting street solicitation. Working out of a brothel paying taxes in a regulated industry is safer for everyone. Statistics in my homeland show that prostitutes in brothels are less likely to spread diseases than most casual one night stands. (Health and safety laws, hygiene, condoms etc). Security is also on hand to protect both parties. Interesting note: During the GFC the number of clients visiting Sydney prostitutes doubled. When the world is going to hell in a handbasket the only way to counter depression is with sex! And you guys do have long, depressing winters.

Sex-trafficking of minors is completely unrelated and has nothing to do with 'legalised' prostitution, unless of course, you're deluded, or (thanks Mr Puppy) an ultra-right Christian group bent on clouding the issue.

And yes (thanks Jes), women have the right to do whatever they so choose with their bodies. Even (Open Minded), shock horror, your mother or your sister...
22:31 July 4, 2010 by davidz
Im proud of being swedish and do not hide my nationality, would be nice to to know where all the critics and smart guys from we may as well compare their crime rate and prostitution problem with ours then after we could discuss why is sweden always been in the top list of best countries in the world about socio economics, welfare, safety, good health in brief one of the best places to live and raise family.

Guess harps and quiet heaven is not fit for you strong guys it is so much better just wonder if my kids i leave everyday will ever comeback, ot myself and my wife, can i afford decent school for my kids?. can i afford a doctor? and the list is endless well you know what i wont trade my country for anywhere in the world not happy to find any of our daughters on the streets? well sorry you can just pack and leave really im not holding anyone i will gladly give you a drive to the airport.

Here is why reports cannot be accurate at a 100% ratio (and yes i did my homework)

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/Compiling-and-comparing-International-Crime-Statistics.html United nations ref is that serious enough?

somebody pointed about japan as safe and (just wondering why he do no live there instead of horrible sweden)


Without considering equality between sexes is as much comparable to saudi arabia not to any "democratic and free" society

An about prsotitution (again) seems that the guy pointing to swedish escort sites know very up and close the "problem" and advertisement on those sites ( i did check most of them are non swedes and even if some are that makes no difference) its like when you open msn and automatically you have a dating agency offering a nude girl to meet nearby only by triangulating your isp and identifying your position and of course we know that is untrue.

It seems also im one of the few bringing up data statistics and fonts but the critics has none only they "feel" its wrong is it just because you got problems finding a girl? or a boy? oh noo its for freedom and human rights yeah right !.

My final advice you dont like it just get back home and check if your local pimp is still there he will surely make an extra discount for an old customer and by the way internet can also used to find god references and statistics not for porn only

I actually changed my mind i feel that destroying our society are not the muslims and so called terrorists it is instead those people who want to make our homeland like their own a living hell sorry democratically hell for all
01:01 July 5, 2010 by Buccaneer
Common guys, why make me pay for good times? If I was made to pay for all the lovely girls I did stuff with in Sweden my account would be in the RED.

If this debate continues, all the LOVELY girls in Sweden would figure that nothing goes for nothing. My point is let sleeping dogs lie.
14:26 July 5, 2010 by Jes
@davidz ,

you are behaving like a desparate dumb ass . How on earth can you tell who is a Swede and who is not on this board ? If you are so proud to be so protective of your wonderful homeland , why the hell don`t you start be revealing your Swedish name and adress ?

@ Buccanear ,

donnot worry . The lovely girl is Sweden is free

* to smoke poison if she likes

* to pose naken or be filmed having sex .Porn magazines are displayed and sold next to children`s candy .

* to marry another lovely girl

* to change into a man ( transvestite )

* to get pregnant and then kill the baby (abort ) without having to explain why .

Should this same lovely girl ask you to pay for sex , why should it matter at all ?
14:45 July 5, 2010 by Taxalien
More nonsense from a political elite who have absolutely no understanding of reality.

A good take on it from a blogger is


I can't imagine why she is (c) though. That is a mystery. She is way to clever for that bunch of politocrats.
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