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Prohibited Sexual Behavior and Sexual Violence
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Prostitution: Legal Aspects 3
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A unique approach is being tried in Sweden: Selling sexual services is legal, but buying them is a crime. Thus, a prostitute walks free when her customer is arrested. The rationale behind this legislation is stated in the government's literature on the law:
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"In Sweden prostitution is regarded as an aspect of male violence against women and children. It is officially acknowledged as a form of exploitation of women and children and constitutes a significant social problem, which is harmful not only to the individual prostituted woman or child, but also to society at large.... Gender equality will remain unattainable so long as men buy, sell and exploit women and children by prostituting them."
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Since the enactment of this law in 1999, proponents have praised it as a great success and recommended it to other legislatures. Opponents have denounced it as a complete failure and have warned other countries against making the same mistake as Sweden. This often passionate debate involves a great variety of legal, psychological, sociological, and economic arguments and assertions that are not easily verified. In the present course, we must therefore be content with pointing to some original sources on both sides of the issue.
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