More and more foreign law enforcement officials are coming to Sweden to learn more about its 1999 law. With latest scandals involving prostitution some countries are considering emulating the Swedish law which prosecutes the client but views the prostitute as an exploited victim. The same law that was ridiculed 9 years ago when it was introduced.

Under “Sex Purchase Law” paying for sex is punished by money fines or up to six months in prison, plus the humiliation of public exposure. Swedish officials say that this approach to prostitution reduced the demand for it and totally reshaped the attitude towards sex trade.

“We don’t have a problem with prostitutes. We have a problem with men who buy sex,” said Kajsa Wahlberg, of the human trafficking unit at Sweden’s national police board. Police officials from Netherlands and Great Britain are among interested in this law. Also Norway’s government plans to propose a Swedish-style prostitution law after Easter.

The law doesn’t prosecute the customers only, pimps and brothel keepers are also prosecuted, while the prostitutes are viewed as victims, treated as commodities in the sex trade.

According to Kajsa Wahlberg accurate statistics are hard to obtain, but estimates the number of prostitutes in Sweden dropped 40 percent from 2,500 in 1998 to 1,500 in 2003. “They are calculating profits, costs and marketing and the risk of getting caught,” Wahlberg said. “We’re trying to create a bad market for these activities.”

A 46-year-old escort opposes he law said it had left prostitutes more vulnerable to violence. “If a sex worker seeks to establish contact with a client on the street, and police are waiting around the corner, she’s going to jump into the car without making a security assessment,” she said.

The “Sex Purchase Law” took effect when many European countries were moving in another direction. Most European countries prohibit pimping and running brothels, but tolerate prostitution. Brothels are legal in Holland and Germany provided they have business licenses.

When Marianne Eriksson first proposed the change in 1997 she was ridiculed by fellow lawmakers, but today, she said, she feels the Swedish model has “a very strong response” in other European countries.

At the moment Sweden’s government is planning a thorough review of the effects of the law, expected to be ready next year.

Even though authorities judge this system a success, I have agree with critics question: “Has it really reduced prostitution or merely pushed it off the streets into more isolated and dangerous surroundings?”

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