Criminalising the purchase of sex : lessons from Sweden / Jay Levy.
2015
HQ222 .L48 2015 (Map It)
Available at Cellar
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Details
Author
Title
Criminalising the purchase of sex : lessons from Sweden / Jay Levy.
Published
Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.
Call Number
HQ222 .L48 2015
ISBN
9780415739320 (hardback)
0415739322 (hardback)
9781315816708 (ebk)
0415739322 (hardback)
9781315816708 (ebk)
Description
xv, 253 pages ; 24 cm
Other Standard Identifiers
40024150008
System Control No.
(OCoLC)868641680
Summary
"In 1999, Sweden criminalized 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. What has come to be referred to as the Swedish model has now been proposed in the Scottish, French, and Finnish parliaments. This book establishes the outcomes of this law - and the narratives that justify it - upon the dynamics of Swedish sex work, and upon the lives of sex workers. Drawing on recent fieldwork undertaken in Sweden over several years, including qualitative interviewing and participant observation, Jay Levy argues that far from being a law to be emulated, the Swedish model has had many detrimental impacts, and has failed to demonstrably decrease levels of prostitution. Criminalizing the Purchase of Sex: Lessons from Sweden utilises a wealth of respondent testimony and secondary research to redress the current lack of academic discourse on this politically-charged and internationally relevant topic. This original and timely work will be of interest to sex worker rights organisations, policy makers and politicians, as well as researchers across a number of related disciplines, including law, sociology, criminology, and gender studies"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 232-246) and index.
Record Appears in
Table of Contents
List of figures
xi
Acknowledgements
xii
Glossary: abbreviations, acronyms, translations
xiv
Introduction: Sweden -- A brief history of `The People's Home'
1
Social engineering in The People's Home
2
Broad constructions of sex work -- a threat to normative society
2
Swedish containment and control
3
Overview of this book
8
Notes
9
Methodology
11
Overview and background of research
11
Fieldwork and data collection
12
Mixed and holistic methodologies
12
Making contact, sampling and surrounding difficulties
13
Key respondent/informant sampling
13
Targeted sampling and participant observation
13
Overview of respondents
16
Considerations prior to fieldwork and interviewing
16
Positionality and reflexivity
17
Concerns of location
18
Consent and confidentiality
19
Interviews and interview structure and content
21
Description of formal interviews
21
Categorisation of data
22
Language during interview
23
After fieldwork
24
Presentation of research and referencing
24
A note on my preferred terminology
26
Summary -- mixed methods, careful analyses
27
Notes
27
1.
The sexkopslagen -- legal and discursive precedent
29
Abolitionist radical feminism, gender equality and a fear of the foreign
29
The commissions and remiss responses
35
Criminalising the purchase of sex
35
Liberal models of understanding and legislation?
37
An understanding of sex work as work
37
The harms of criminalisation and a call for decriminalisation
38
Swedish dismissal of the `liberal' models
39
Creating consensus
41
The role of the women's movement
41
Absence of divergent voices
44
Exclusions of sex workers - radical feminism's modes of silencing
47
False consciousness
47
Putting-on-a-brave-face, lying and acting
50
Unrepresentative and misguided
51
Official evaluation of the legislation
54
Summary -- political exclusions and selective input
56
Notes
57
2.
Perceptions, understandings and constructions
60
Sending a signal and political posturing
61
Distracting from the well-being of sex workers
63
Terminology
65
Mainstream understandings -- abolitionist radical feminism
69
Abused, impoverished and desperate
69
Selling sex, exacerbating trauma
73
Never free, always forced -- distinctions as `odious'
76
Distinctions between sex work and trafficking?
78
Male sex workers
78
Conflated with female sex work
79
Deproblematised and invisiblised
80
People who buy sex
82
In contrast -- diversity and nuance in sex work
85
Motivations to sell sex
86
Experiences of sex work
90
People who buy sex
93
Criticism of generalisations
96
Summary -- generalisations and conflations
98
Notes
99
3.
Levels and spaces of sex work in Sweden
101
Levels of sex work
101
Female sex work
101
Male and trans sex work
103
Migrant sex work and trafficking
106
Has the sexkopslagen decreased levels of sex work?
107
A decline in street sex work?
107
A decline in overall levels of sex work?
110
A decline in trafficking?
112
Spaces of sex work
113
Making contact
113
Public sex work
115
A displacement of sex work - abolitionist feminism as a framework for opposition against prostitution'
120
The Norwegian model of displacement -- clarifying Sweden's objectives
123
Summary -- displacement and containment
126
Notes
127
4.
The Swedish model on service provision - the prostitution units and harm reduction
128
Harm reduction
128
The need for harm reduction
128
Harm reduction strategies
129
Sex worker-targeted service provision -- the prostitution units
132
Overview of the prostitution units
132
Making content
134
Political positioning
136
Inter-organisational networking and cooperation
138
Swedish opposition to harm reduction
141
Condom provision
143
Safer sex selling and harm reduction kits
147
Harm exacerbation
150
The Malmo model of harm reduction
151
Summary -- harm exacerbation, not harm reduction
153
Notes
154
5.
The Swedish model on service provision -- sex workers' experiences
156
General, non-targeted service provision
156
Do sex workers seek assistance
160
The Stockholm Prostitution Unit
163
High threshold service provision
163
Conditionality, judgement and disincentive to seek assistance
166
The Malmo Unit -- more inclusive?
170
Official criticism of the prostitution units
171
Modifying behaviour and identity: disseminating dominant discourse
172
Summary -- conditionality and judgement
173
Notes
174
6.
Compromised citizenship -- outcomes of law, policy and discourse
175
Impacts of the sexkopslagen and its discursive backdrop
175
Stigma
175
Historically established stigma
175
The sexkopslagen's victim labelling
179
Fatalistic acceptance of danger
182
Increased danger?
183
Rushed negotiations
184
Greater competition -- a blessing and a curse?
186
Anonymous clients
189
Results of `harm exacerbation' policies
190
Other laws and policies
193
The tax authorities
193
Evictions and harassment
195
Losing child custody
198
Migrant sex work and trafficking -- deportation
199
Disincentives to contact the authorities
204
Male sex workers
207
People who buy sex
208
Authorised violence -- the Swedish police
211
Problems in public sex work and with police abuse
214
Difficulties in reporting crime to the authorities
216
Do sex workers seek assistance from the police?
218
Taking safety into your own hands
219
Summary -- violence, danger and risks to health
220
Notes
221
Conclusions: social exclusion in Sweden's `People's Home'
223
Summary of key findings
223
Legal debates and social constructions
223
No decline in levels of sex work, but an increase in harm
225
A definitive `Swedish model'?
226
Exporting the law
227
`This is how we solved it'
227
Implications of exportation
229
In conclusion -- learning the lessons of the `Swedish model'
230
Bibliography
232
Index
247