Eliminating prostitution and sex trafficking: something has actually worked!

So let me start by outlining a very successful initiative taken in Sweden in an attempt to reduce – hopefully eliminate – not only sex trafficking, but prostitution altogether.

Yesterday I was actually very pleasantly surprised to find out how well Sweden is getting on with extinguishing prostitution and, consequently, the illegal trafficking of women and children for the purposes of prostitution*. During the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s – when prostitution was still legal in Sweden – everyone would have known of Sweden’s brothels and massage parlours; these are now, in their majority, things of the past. As for trafficking? Well, whilst Finland’s numbers reach up to 17,000 females being trafficked per year, Sweden’s comparative estimation lies somewhere between 200 and 400 – a negligible figure considering the statistics. Could there be hope?

Sweden’s 1999 policy has proved triumphantly successful and surprisingly simple: legislation concerning the violence against women, which “a) criminalizes the buying of sex and, b) decriminalizes the selling of sex”; short and sweet! The theory behind this legislation is the notion that prostitution is abuse of women and children in chauvinist society, in which men trade and exploit them. So long as it is legal for men to do this, gender equality within a state can never be attained. Having embraced this theory, Sweden treats the men who buy sex as criminals and the prostitutes as victims that need help to come out of the way of life they have been forced to follow.

Nevertheless, this was not the case from the beginning. During the first two years after the legislation was passed, minimal arrests had occurred and figures did not seem to be going down significantly. Until the State realised that it was the police force that was being inefficient, due to lack of understanding the true severity of the problem, as well as lack of training. Appropriate funding was spent tackling this inefficiency, and prostitution became a thing of the past for Sweden. If this has worked for Sweden, then why do other nations not follow this paradigm?

I have mentioned before how inefficient the Cambodian police authorities were in finding the brothel owners and closing the brothels down. Buying, forcing into prostitution and torturing under-aged girls are obviously against the national laws, but nothing effective is being done. Apart from inherent corruption within the authorities, another factor disrupting the work against prostitution that I can think of is lack of money; Cambodia is a desperately poor country and obviously the government cannot afford to spend as much as Sweden is spending on just one of its problems. In addition, the general Swedish public seems to be in support of the legislation, at an overwhelming 80%. The state has made the effort to educate its people, teaching them that prostitution is unacceptable and they should fight against it. Unfortunately, very few states can say that their people are against prostitution, and even fewer would educate against it or even think of doing it. Especially in developing countries or countries, which are used to accepting prostitution, getting the support of the public, especially the males, which are using the “services”, is practically impossible. Let’s not forget that not only is sex trafficking acceptable, but also, everyone – clients and brothel owners – are more than happy to pay extra for a very young girl. If, in their conscience, they can prostitute a child, they are, obviously, incapable of supporting a legislation against prostitution altogether, especially if it means criminalising themselves.

When a country can barely provide food and education to its people, how can it control prostitution? Of course, the reality of poverty and its wrecking effects have to be brought to the attention of the heads of the state and to national organisations, so that something IS actually done to save those children that are being sold and bought every day. The difference between countries such as Sweden (also Finland, Norway and Scotland seem to be ready to follow) and other countries lies in the fact that, in the case of the former, the government can somehow trust its public. The latter, however, have to FORCE their public to accept certain rules and ENFORCE them, rather than relying on them to abide.

All we can do now is hope that Sweden’s success on eliminating prostitution will persuade and encourage other states to follow its policies.

Take care x

* http://www.justicewomen.com/cj_sweden.html