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Katrin:
So that law, which (at least ostensibly) intended to eliminate an extremely exploitative profession, is a complete failure.

As I noted when the law was introduced, the situation of the prosititutes where not high up on the debate agenda of either side. But a purpose of the law is to decrease prostitution through a decrease of demand, in turn both through risk of detection and through stigmatisation of sex buying.

After some googling I find a government inquiry (SOU 2010:49 if anyone wants to read it) concluded that during the first ten years the effects included a decrease of street prostitution in Sweden when compared to Norway and Denmark. Internet prostitution increased in similar numbers in all three countries, leading to the conclusion that compared to not having the law (as in Denmark and Norway).

I don't think you get rid of public morality, I think you change it. Perhaps we are using different definitions.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Tue Jun 11th, 2013 at 03:07:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Internet prostitution increased in similar numbers in all three countries, leading to the conclusion that compared to not having the law (as in Denmark and Norway).


Finance is the brain [tumour] of the economy
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jun 11th, 2013 at 03:11:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes.

After some googling I find a government inquiry (SOU 2010:49 if anyone wants to read it) concluded that during the first ten years the effects included a decrease of street prostitution in Sweden when compared to Norway and Denmark. Internet prostitution increased in similar numbers in all three countries, leading to the conclusion that compared to not having the law (as in Denmark and Norway) total effect was that the law decreased prostitution.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Tue Jun 11th, 2013 at 04:57:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
BTW, when assessing these developments, does the study mention Viagra? AFAIK another mayor booster of prostitution (and adverse health effects on prostitutes).

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Tue Jun 11th, 2013 at 05:14:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Not that I can find.

I hasten to add that I have not read the whole thing, just the summary and the proposals. But the search function could not find Viagra. I think it would have been interesting if they had checked the developments in prostitution against Viagra sales in these three countries, but it appears they did not.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Wed Jun 12th, 2013 at 07:51:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes. I meant something else: the notion that "public morals" are objective norms and have to be upheld, as opposed to the approach of protecting vulnerable persons from consenting under pressure.
by Katrin on Tue Jun 11th, 2013 at 03:16:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I thought so. Poor choice of words there, changing the public attitude in regards to buying sex would have been less ambigious.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se
by A swedish kind of death on Tue Jun 11th, 2013 at 05:05:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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