Sweden Against Prostitution

Prostitution
in Sweden is technically illegal, since it is a crime to purchase the service.
Sweden considers prostitution a form of violence against women so the crime
does not lie in the prostitute selling sexual services, but in the
customer’s buying of such services.

In 1907 prostitution was legalized;[2] in 1999 the act of buying the
service was criminalized.

The law was put in effect on 1 January, 1999 and inserted into the Criminal
code on 1 April, 2005. The penalty is fine or prison of maximum of six
months.

At the end of the 1990s, while Germany as well as Belgium and the Netherlands
legalised prostitution, Sweden adopted a “hard” line and made the
purchase of sex a punishable offence. Nowadays Sweden is regarded as a
shining example, the newspaper writes. “There are around 400,000
prostitutes in Germany today. Their legalisation was intended to combat
discrimination, however so far there has been no major improvement in their
situation. Only one percent of all prostitutes have taken out an
unemployment insurance policy. The Greens, who enthusiastically backed the
law, are now in the opposition, and the CDU doesn’t like the law. The wind
has changed. … In Sweden the number of prostitutes is comparatively low.
One explanation for this is the successful campaign of the Swedish feminist
movement at the end of the 1970s. … As a result of the law against the
purchase of sex, prostitution has disappeared from Sweden’s streets. To
date there has not been a detailed assessment of the effects of the law,
but it’s not necessary anyway. 80 percent of the Swedish population is in
favour of it.”