The Nordic Model

The Nordic Model

What is the Nordic Model?

• Decriminalises selling sex
• Criminalises buying sex
• Provides exiting programs for those who want to leave the sex trade
• Introduced in Sweden in 1999, Norway in 2008 and Iceland in 2009. (Sometimes called the Swedish model because first introduced in Sweden.)

The effects of the Nordic Model

• Street prostitution reduced by half in Sweden (Evaluation of the ban on purchase of sexual services, 2010 http://www.government.se/sb/d/13358/a/149231)
• Internet prostitution has not disproportionately increased in Sweden, i.e. this is a real reduction, not displacement (ibid)
• Overall amount of prostitution has remained stable in Sweden when has increased in neighbouring countries without these laws (ibid)
• Has made Sweden undesirable to traffickers - “The NCID has received signals from Europol and national police forces in other European countries that Sweden no longer is an attractive market for traffickers..." (Ekberg, 2004 http://action.web.ca/home/catw/attach/Ekberg.pdf)
• Number of male sex buyers in Sweden is lower: "the number of male sex buyers had decreased from 13.6 percent to 7.9 percent." (Targeting the Sex Buyer, 2010 http://exoduscry.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/swedish_model.pdf)
• Law appears to have caused a reduction of serious violence against women in prostitution in Norway (http://feministcurrent.com/7038/new-research-shows-violence-decreases-under-nordic-model-why-the-radio-silence/)

The UK

Prostitution law in the UK

The failure of legalisation

Where prostitution is legalised (or brothel keeping and pimping are decriminalised, as in New Zealand):

• Not illegal to buy or sell sex
• Illegal to loiter or solicit in a public place
• Illegal to approach someone in a public place to attempt to buy sex from them
• Illegal to buy sex from someone being exploited or coerced, whether or not you are aware
• Illegal to keep or manage a brothel
• Illegal to get someone to sell sex so you can profit from it (pimping)
• Illegal to traffic someone for prostitution
• Illegal to buy sex from a child, or get a child to sell sex

What we want in the UK

Coercion of women into the sex trade continues

Human trafficking increases

According to a Dutch police study, 50 to 90 percent of women in legalized brothels were “working involuntarily.”

Efforts to help women exit prostitution are reduced

(Schone Schijn: De signalering van mensenhandel in de vergunde prostitutiesector [Keeping Up Appearances: The Signs of Human Trafficking in the Legalized Prostitution Sector] KLPD, Driebergen, 2008). http://www.om.nl/onderwerpen/mensenhandel_en/@148766/de_signalering_van/

In New Zealand, only 2 of 87 local authorities had funded services to assist women to exit. (No central government provision made.)

"The researchers used a global sample of 116 countries. They found that countries where prostitution is legal tend to experience a higher reported inflow of human trafficking than countries in which prostitution is prohibited...Germany showed a sharp increase in reports of human trafficking upon fully legalising prostitution in 2002. The number of human trafficking victims in 2004 in Denmark, where it is decriminalised, was more than four times that of Sweden, where it is illegal, although the population size of Sweden is about 40 per cent larger."

(Report of the Prostitution Law Review Committee on the Operation of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, New Zealand Government, 2008)

http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/commercial-property-and-regulatory/prostitution/prostitution-law-review-committee/publications/plrc-report/documents/report.pdf

• Decriminalisation of those who sell sex
• Criminalisation of those who buy sex
• State funded exiting services, and programs for girls at risk of entering the sex trade
• Erasure of loitering/soliciting convictions for those who sell sex, erasure of criminal records for those made to commit offences while trafficked or coerced
• National education strategy for children and adults, sex education, realities of prostitution and trafficking

http://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/news/archives/2012/12/Legalised-prostitution-increases-human-trafficking.aspx

In the Netherlands “only 6% of the municipalities indicated, when asked, that attention is being given to the possibilities for prostitutes to get out of the prostitution.”

(Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking? Cho, Dreyer & Neumayer, 2012)

http://www.lse.ac.uk/geographyAndEnvironment/whosWho/profiles/neumayer/pdf/Article-for-World-Development-_prostitution_-anonymous-REVISED.pdf

(Prostitution in the Netherlands since the lifting of the brothel ban, Daalder, 2007)

http://english.wodc.nl/onderzoeksdatabase/1204e-engelse-vertaling-rapport-evaluatie-opheffing-bordeelverbod.aspx

The illegal sex trade continues to flourish

(June 2013) http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2013/06/forced_prostitution_shifts_to.php

Women continue to experience violence

"Legalising some parts of the industry, while policing and suppressing illegal forms of prostitution has not eliminated the existence of and demand for illegal brothels, escort agencies, and street prostitution. It has been estimated that the current regime only addresses as little as 10% of all forms of prostitution in Queensland. In other words, 90% of prostitution remains unregulated in this state and most sex workers continue to work outside the regulated industry….Illegal forms of prostitution cater for a demand that is not met by the legal industry……Licensed brothels also have a competitive disadvantage to their illegal counterparts" (University of Queensland, 2009 http://www.law.uq.edu.au/documents/humantraffic/reports-presentations/UQ-HTWG-Ten-Years-of-Prostitution-Regulation-in-Qld-Sep-2009.pdf)

Organised crime flourishes

Children are prostituted in legal brothels

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-brothel-owner-guilty-of-prostituting-teen-20130712-2pv0g.html (July 2013)

July 2011, Victoria, Australia http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/prostitute-to-sue-brothel-over-gun-20110712-1hc7n.html

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/five-arrested-over-brothel-contracts/story-e6frg6nf-1226673592794 (July 2013)

Prostitution comes from male dominance of women

• Male entitlement to women's bodies
• Myth that women do not have own sexual desire so must get something in return
• Convenient (old) patriarchal narrative that whatever men want is what women enjoy
• Framing of something imposed (power inequality) as natural and inevitable
• Recognition of harms of prostitution does not come from desire to prevent or shame women from enjoying sex - on the contrary, desire for the sex that women have to be free of male control

Women who sell sex experience great harm (indoors and on-street)

High incidence of violence - "Reported experience of client violence over the lifetime was high (63%). In the past six months, 37% had experienced some form of client attack." (Barnard et al, 2002 http://www.equation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Client-Violence-Against-Prostitute-Women.pdf)

High incidence of rape - estimates vary between 25% and 80% - e.g. 63% (Farley et al, 2003 http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/pdf/Prostitutionin9Countries.pdf)

High murder rate - 18 times higher than average person

(Hard Knock Life, New Philanthropy Capital, 2008 http://socialwelfare.bl.uk/subject-areas/services-client-groups/families/newphilanthropycapital/142273Hard-knock-life.pdf)

High risk of problematic drug or alcohol use - e.g. 83% (Eaves, 2012 http://i1.cmsfiles.com/eaves/2012/11/Breaking-down-the-barriers-a37d80.pdf)

What you can do

This violence is intrinsic to punters' attitudes

"Twenty-seven per cent of our interviewees explained that once he pays, the customer is entitled to engage in any act he chooses.... Forty-seven per cent of these London men expressed the view to a greater or lesser degree that women did not always have certain rights during prostitution...Twenty-five per cent told us that the very concept of raping a prostitute or call girl was “ridiculous.”" (Eaves, 2009 http://i3.cmsfiles.com/eaves/2012/04/MenWhoBuySex-89396b.pdf)

"She just didn't engage. Cold as ICE...We had sex but she covered her face with her hands. Can you believe it!!... If you want to bang a dead fish then yes she will do the job but anything else then save your money."

(Punternet, via The Invisible Men Project http://the-invisible-men.tumblr.com/post/54190700169)

Write to your MP, Policing and Crime Commissioner and Local Councillors

Start a solidarity campaign

Fight to change the conditions that push women into prostitution

Educate people in your local area about the reality of prostitution, and remind them that women who sell sex are members of the community too.

LIFT in Tower Hamlets did this with good results. http://liftcampaign.org.uk/

• Fight the depiction of women as sexual objects, existing for men's pleasure
• Fight other forms of violence against women that push us into prostitution (e.g. child sexual abuse, domestic violence)
• Fight racism, class inequality, ableism and discrimination against LGBT people
• Fight austerity (the cuts), and to protect our NHS and welfare state
• Fight for workers' rights and women's equality in the workplace
• Fight for women's access to education
• Fight for women's access to our legal rights

= fight to end patriarchy and women's inequality

• Ask them what services are in place in your area to support women who wish to exit prostitution
• Ask them to enforce the law that already exists to deter men from buying sex in a public place http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/p_to_r/prostitution_and_exploitation_of_prostitution/#a16
• Ask them to stop arresting women involved in prostitution
• Ask them if they have court diversion schemes in place for women involved in prostitution and women with substance misuse problems
• Suggest they support the Nordic Model nationally
• Ask them to implement the Lambeth Model locally: http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/FACE6709-4679-4E60-8973-5C8D03839947/0/buysex.pdf.

Email us or find us on social media if you want help or advice with your campaigning.

nordicmodeladvocates@gmail.com

http://www.facebook.com/nordicmodeladvocates

http://www.twitter.com/NorMAs_2012

You can write to your MP here: http://www.writetothem.com/

You can find out who your PCC is here: http://www.choosemypcc.org.uk/election-results.

If you live in Greater London, your PCC is the Mayor (Boris Johnson).

You can find your local authority website by searching here: http://local.direct.gov.uk/LDGRedirect/Start.do?mode=1.

Then look for a list of local councillors on your local authority website, which will have their contact details.

Prostitution is the result of structural inequality

Prostitution disproportionately affects vulnerable girls and women

Prostitution disproportionately affects women and girls who suffer from multiple (intersecting) oppressions, who are more likely to be in poverty

Women and girls who are / have been in care

• "many report poor school attendance and as many as 70% spent time in care" (Home Office, 2004 http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/paying_the_price.pdf?view=Binary)

Women and girls who are / have been homeless

• 20% of women surveyed said that while homeless they had engaged in prostitution to pay for somewhere to stay (Crisis, 2011 http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/HiddenTruthAboutHomelessness_web.pdf)

Women and girls with substance misuse (drug and alcohol) problems

• "Ninety five (83%) interviewees disclosed current or former problematic drug or alcohol use at the time of interview." (Eaves, 2012 http://i1.cmsfiles.com/eaves/2012/11/Breaking-down-the-barriers-a37d80.pdf)

Women and girls seeking asylum

• "Asylum-seekers 'forced into prostitution' by support system failures" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/asylumseekers-forced-into-prostitution-by-support-system-failures-8471717.html

Class

• "Women are turning to prostitution to feed their children as welfare reforms hit the poorest and most vulnerable families in Hull." (August 2013, http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/Mums-selling-sex-feed-children-benefit-cuts-hit/story-19650230-detail/story.html#ixzz2fHJBEerf.)

Race

• e.g. in a 1998 survey, 80% of women in street prostitution in Vancouver, and 70% in Winnipeg were indigenous women (who make up 3% of the population) http://projectrespect.org.au/system/files/Paper+presented+at+Swedish+Seminar.pdf

Disability (including mental health problems)

• e.g. a UNICEF study in Taiwan found that the proportion of children being prostituted who had mild developmental disabilities was six times greater than what might be expected from the incidence in the general population. http://www.unicef.org/videoaudio/PDFs/UNICEF_Violence_Against_Disabled_Children_Report_Distributed_Version.pdf

LGBT

• A disproportionately high number of trans* women become involved in prostitution due to social stigma and employment discrimination http://www.igh.org/Cochrane/operario_etal.pdf

Other types of violence push girls and women toward prostitution

Domestic violence

• "some become homeless through abuse and violence at home and are forced into prostitution to survive on the streets." (Rape Crisis http://www.rapecrisislondon.org/content/prostitution-and-trafficking)

Child sexual abuse

• "as many as 85% report physical abuse in the family, with 45% reporting familial sexual abuse" (Home Office, 2004 http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/paying_the_price.pdf?view=Binary)

Grooming

• "Home Office minister Lord Taylor of Holbeach said 2,409 children and young people had been confirmed as victims of sexual exploitation [in the UK] in gangs or groups between August 2010 and October 2011" http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/uk-police-investigate-54-cases-of-child-grooming-gangs-29285035.html