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Criminalising the Purchase of Sex : Lessons from Sweden.

By: Material type: TextPublisher: Oxford : Taylor & Francis Group, 2014Copyright date: ©2015Edition: 1st edDescription: 1 online resource (270 pages)Content type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9781317811435
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 364.153409485
Online resources:
Contents:
Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of figures -- Acknowledgements -- Glossary: abbreviations, acronyms, translations -- Introduction: Sweden - A brief history of 'The People's Home' -- Social engineering in The People's Home -- Broad constructions of sex work - a threat to normative society -- Swedish containment and control -- Overview of this book -- Notes -- Methodology -- Overview and background of research -- Fieldwork and data collection -- Mixed and holistic methodologies -- Making contact, sampling and surrounding difficulties -- Key respondent/informant sampling -- Targeted sampling and participant observation -- Overview of respondents -- Considerations prior to fieldwork and interviewing -- Positionality and reflexivity -- Concerns of location -- Consent and confidentiality -- Interviews and interview structure and content -- Description of formal interviews -- Categorisation of data -- Language during interview -- After fieldwork -- Presentation of research and referencing -- A note on my preferred terminology -- Summary - mixed methods, careful analyses -- Notes -- 1 The sexköpslagen - legal and discursive precedent -- Abolitionist radical feminism, gender equality and a fear of the foreign -- The commissions and remiss responses -- Criminalising the purchase of sex -- Liberal models of understanding and legislation? -- An understanding of sex work as work -- The harms of criminalisation and a call for decriminalisation -- Swedish dismissal of the 'liberal' models -- Creating consensus -- The role of the women's movement -- Absence of divergent voices -- Exclusions of sex workers - radical feminism's modes of silencing -- False consciousness -- Putting-on-a-brave-face, lying and acting -- Unrepresentative and misguided -- Official evaluation of the legislation.
Summary - political exclusions and selective input -- Notes -- 2 Perceptions, understandings and constructions -- Sending a signal and political posturing -- Distracting from the well-being of sex workers -- Terminology -- Mainstream understandings - abolitionist radical feminism -- Abused, impoverished and desperate -- Selling sex, exacerbating trauma -- Never free, always forced - distinctions as 'odious' -- Distinctions between sex work and trafficking? -- Male sex workers -- Conflated with female sex work -- Deproblematised and invisiblised -- People who buy sex -- In contrast - diversity and nuance in sex work -- Motivations to sell sex -- Experiences of sex work -- People who buy sex -- Criticism of generalisations -- Summary - generalisations and conflations -- Notes -- 3 Levels and spaces of sex work in Sweden -- Levels of sex work -- Female sex work -- Male and trans sex work -- Migrant sex work and trafficking -- Has the sexköpslagen decreased levels of sex work? -- A decline in street sex work? -- A decline in overall levels of sex work? -- A decline in trafficking? -- Spaces of sex work -- Making contact -- Public sex work -- A displacement of sex work - abolitionist feminism as a 'framework for opposition against prostitution' -- The Norwegian model of displacement - clarifying Sweden's objectives -- Summary - displacement and containment -- Notes -- 4 The Swedish model on service provision - the prostitution units and harm reduction -- Harm reduction -- The need for harm reduction -- Harm reduction strategies -- Sex worker-targeted service provision - the prostitution units -- Overview of the prostitution units -- Making contact -- Political positioning -- Inter-organisational networking and cooperation -- Swedish opposition to harm reduction -- Condom provision -- Safer sex selling and harm reduction kits -- Harm exacerbation.
The Malmö model of harm reduction -- Summary - harm exacerbation, not harm reduction -- Notes -- 5 The Swedish model on service provision - sex workers' experiences -- General, non-targeted service provision -- Do sex workers seek assistance? -- The Stockholm Prostitution Unit -- High threshold service provision -- Conditionality, judgement and disincentive to seek assistance -- The Malmö Unit - more inclusive? -- Official criticism of the prostitution units -- Modifying behaviour and identity: disseminating dominant discourse -- Summary - conditionality and judgement -- Notes -- 6 Compromised citizenship - outcomes of law, policy and discourse -- Impacts of the sexköpslagen and its discursive backdrop -- Stigma -- Historically established stigma -- The sexköpslagen's victim labelling -- Fatalistic acceptance of danger -- Increased danger? -- Rushed negotiations -- Greater competition - a blessing and a curse? -- Anonymous clients -- Results of 'harm exacerbation' policies -- Other laws and policies -- The tax authorities -- Evictions and harassment -- Losing child custody -- Migrant sex work and trafficking - deportation -- Disincentives to contact the authorities -- Male sex workers -- People who buy sex -- Authorised violence - the Swedish police -- Problems in public sex work and with police abuse -- Difficulties in reporting crime to the authorities -- Do sex workers seek assistance from the police? -- Taking safety into your own hands -- Summary - violence, danger and risks to health -- Notes -- Conclusions: social exclusion in Sweden's 'People's Home' -- Summary of key findings -- Legal debates and social constructions -- No decline in levels of sex work, but an increase in harm -- A definitive 'Swedish model'? -- Exporting the law -- 'This is how we solved it' -- Implications of exportation.
In conclusion - learning the lessons of the 'Swedish model' -- Bibliography -- Index.
Summary: In 1999, Sweden criminalised the purchase of sex whilst simultaneously decriminalizing its sale. In so doing, it set itself apart from other European states, promoting itself as the pioneer of a radical approach to prostitution. In the context of its continuing international influence, this book draws upon fieldwork undertaken in Sweden in order to explore the effects of these laws, and their justifying discourses, upon the dynamics of sex work and the lived realities of sex workers. It demonstrates that the Swedish model has failed in its ambition to demonstrably decrease prostitution and the dangers experienced by sex workers.
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Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of figures -- Acknowledgements -- Glossary: abbreviations, acronyms, translations -- Introduction: Sweden - A brief history of 'The People's Home' -- Social engineering in The People's Home -- Broad constructions of sex work - a threat to normative society -- Swedish containment and control -- Overview of this book -- Notes -- Methodology -- Overview and background of research -- Fieldwork and data collection -- Mixed and holistic methodologies -- Making contact, sampling and surrounding difficulties -- Key respondent/informant sampling -- Targeted sampling and participant observation -- Overview of respondents -- Considerations prior to fieldwork and interviewing -- Positionality and reflexivity -- Concerns of location -- Consent and confidentiality -- Interviews and interview structure and content -- Description of formal interviews -- Categorisation of data -- Language during interview -- After fieldwork -- Presentation of research and referencing -- A note on my preferred terminology -- Summary - mixed methods, careful analyses -- Notes -- 1 The sexköpslagen - legal and discursive precedent -- Abolitionist radical feminism, gender equality and a fear of the foreign -- The commissions and remiss responses -- Criminalising the purchase of sex -- Liberal models of understanding and legislation? -- An understanding of sex work as work -- The harms of criminalisation and a call for decriminalisation -- Swedish dismissal of the 'liberal' models -- Creating consensus -- The role of the women's movement -- Absence of divergent voices -- Exclusions of sex workers - radical feminism's modes of silencing -- False consciousness -- Putting-on-a-brave-face, lying and acting -- Unrepresentative and misguided -- Official evaluation of the legislation.

Summary - political exclusions and selective input -- Notes -- 2 Perceptions, understandings and constructions -- Sending a signal and political posturing -- Distracting from the well-being of sex workers -- Terminology -- Mainstream understandings - abolitionist radical feminism -- Abused, impoverished and desperate -- Selling sex, exacerbating trauma -- Never free, always forced - distinctions as 'odious' -- Distinctions between sex work and trafficking? -- Male sex workers -- Conflated with female sex work -- Deproblematised and invisiblised -- People who buy sex -- In contrast - diversity and nuance in sex work -- Motivations to sell sex -- Experiences of sex work -- People who buy sex -- Criticism of generalisations -- Summary - generalisations and conflations -- Notes -- 3 Levels and spaces of sex work in Sweden -- Levels of sex work -- Female sex work -- Male and trans sex work -- Migrant sex work and trafficking -- Has the sexköpslagen decreased levels of sex work? -- A decline in street sex work? -- A decline in overall levels of sex work? -- A decline in trafficking? -- Spaces of sex work -- Making contact -- Public sex work -- A displacement of sex work - abolitionist feminism as a 'framework for opposition against prostitution' -- The Norwegian model of displacement - clarifying Sweden's objectives -- Summary - displacement and containment -- Notes -- 4 The Swedish model on service provision - the prostitution units and harm reduction -- Harm reduction -- The need for harm reduction -- Harm reduction strategies -- Sex worker-targeted service provision - the prostitution units -- Overview of the prostitution units -- Making contact -- Political positioning -- Inter-organisational networking and cooperation -- Swedish opposition to harm reduction -- Condom provision -- Safer sex selling and harm reduction kits -- Harm exacerbation.

The Malmö model of harm reduction -- Summary - harm exacerbation, not harm reduction -- Notes -- 5 The Swedish model on service provision - sex workers' experiences -- General, non-targeted service provision -- Do sex workers seek assistance? -- The Stockholm Prostitution Unit -- High threshold service provision -- Conditionality, judgement and disincentive to seek assistance -- The Malmö Unit - more inclusive? -- Official criticism of the prostitution units -- Modifying behaviour and identity: disseminating dominant discourse -- Summary - conditionality and judgement -- Notes -- 6 Compromised citizenship - outcomes of law, policy and discourse -- Impacts of the sexköpslagen and its discursive backdrop -- Stigma -- Historically established stigma -- The sexköpslagen's victim labelling -- Fatalistic acceptance of danger -- Increased danger? -- Rushed negotiations -- Greater competition - a blessing and a curse? -- Anonymous clients -- Results of 'harm exacerbation' policies -- Other laws and policies -- The tax authorities -- Evictions and harassment -- Losing child custody -- Migrant sex work and trafficking - deportation -- Disincentives to contact the authorities -- Male sex workers -- People who buy sex -- Authorised violence - the Swedish police -- Problems in public sex work and with police abuse -- Difficulties in reporting crime to the authorities -- Do sex workers seek assistance from the police? -- Taking safety into your own hands -- Summary - violence, danger and risks to health -- Notes -- Conclusions: social exclusion in Sweden's 'People's Home' -- Summary of key findings -- Legal debates and social constructions -- No decline in levels of sex work, but an increase in harm -- A definitive 'Swedish model'? -- Exporting the law -- 'This is how we solved it' -- Implications of exportation.

In conclusion - learning the lessons of the 'Swedish model' -- Bibliography -- Index.

In 1999, Sweden criminalised the purchase of sex whilst simultaneously decriminalizing its sale. In so doing, it set itself apart from other European states, promoting itself as the pioneer of a radical approach to prostitution. In the context of its continuing international influence, this book draws upon fieldwork undertaken in Sweden in order to explore the effects of these laws, and their justifying discourses, upon the dynamics of sex work and the lived realities of sex workers. It demonstrates that the Swedish model has failed in its ambition to demonstrably decrease prostitution and the dangers experienced by sex workers.

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