I’ve absolutely no idea what it entails, but the one consensus across the board from other sex workers is that apparently it’s a terrible ‘model’ for governments to use for sex work
In: 2362
The basic idea is to decriminalize prostitutes themselves, to allow them to get help, and criminalize the crap out of their clients, to kill off the industry.
The premise behind it is that sex work is pretty much never really consensual and often linked to violent/organized crime so killing it off is the best plan, while minimizing the harm to the women themselves.
The basic idea is that buying sex is illegal, but offering to sell sex is not. Thus, you could arrest a man who solicits sex from a sex worker, but not the sex worker.
One of the biggest problems with illegal sex work is that sex workers won’t go to the police to report being attacked because they themselves would face arrest and jail time for prostitution; this is even true of trafficked victims forced into prostitution. The (alleged) advantage of this is that it discourages men from engaging in the transaction, so you’re reducing sex work (which is the policy goal). At the same time, because the sex workers themselves are not at legal risk, they are able to go to the police if they are assaulted by a buyer.
Now, since sex workers are saying it doesn’t work out like that, I will take them at their word.
Supporters of this law model suggest that all sex workers are victims,and all “buyers of sex” are abuser to be punished.
>The Nordic Model calls for a ‘sex buyers’ law, **criminalising the act of paying for sex**. This puts workers into dangerous situations as clients are scared of being caught. Transactions then take place ‘in the shadows’, with the worker being forced to work underground. They must also work alone, as the law makes it illegal to work with others.
>Sex workers groups and health organizations WORLDWIDE are **campaigning against it**Sex worker organizations are campaigning for recognition of sex work as work and of their rights as workers.They want freedom and autonomy over their bodies, and they want safety. Regardless of the reasons that they do sex work, they need to be able to work more safely and be able to organize
As you can imagine, it’s a very controversial topic.
Sweden (where it started) Norway, Iceland, Canada, Northern Ireland, France, Ireland, and Israel have all adopted the model. The EU is discussing it.
EDIT: The model was first instituted in Sweden in 1999 and then into effect in Norway and Iceland in 2009 as part of the “Sex Buyer Law” . After that was referred in EU as “Nordic model approach to prostitution”.
**Not all Nordic countries have the same approach** (notably Denmark and I think Finland). The name just indicates it’s origin
I’m not sure why it is called ‘Nordic Model’, because the last time I checked, Denmark was still part of the Nordic countries and our laws on the subject does not look like what I am reading here.
The “Nordic model” means that *selling* sex is legal, but *buying* sex is illegal. Usually profiting from other’s sex work (pimping) is also illegal.
There are several problems with this approach:
* Since the clients are hiding from the law, so are the prostitutes. In order to keep their clients away from the police they have to take greater risks: meeting clients at the client’s home, getting into strange cars, working in poorly lit and/or remote locations. In short: it forces the whole business underground.
* The “no pimping” clause means that anyone who helps prostitutes can risk going to jail. Rent an apartment to prostitutes? Risk jail. Result: prostitutes get evicted and risk ending up homeless. Two prostitutes work together for safety? They can both be jailed for profiting from the sex work of the other. Result: Prostitutes work alone, which is much riskier. Work as a bodyguard for a prostitute? You can be sent to jail for pimping. Result: prostitutes are unprotected. Run a brothel? Straight to jail. Result: Prostitutes work the street or from home, which is much less safe.
* Since the clients are criminals the police justify raiding brothels while looking for them. This is of course a terrifying experience for prostitutes who risk having their workplace and/or home invaded by uninvited strangers and taken in for questioning.
* If the police DOES raid the prostitute’s home, any money they find may be considered the proceeds of a crime and confiscated.
The Nordic model is another one of those things that seem like a good idea and appeals to our sense of justice but is actually harming the people it purports to protect.
In Finland, selling sex is legal, buying sex is legal. And then comes the BUT, you can’t rent hotel room/apartment to a sex worker. Because you would benefit from that, (no one asks if you are a sexworker anyway.)
You can’t take a X amount of loan and buy a house and rent it to a ”obvious” sex worker and get money to pay off the loan, because you are the one who benefits from that, but you can rent it to basicly anyone. No law requires you to know what people do for a living.
If you sell sex from your own house that you own. Nobody cares how you pay your bills and loan.
Also ”obvious” sex traffic victims is a no no, can’t buy from those because you would support those pimps.
”Edit” You can rent a hotel, apartment, house etc for them to live in them, but if they practise sex selling in them and only reason for renting is to sell sex in that place, then it’s not allowed to rent.
It goes pretty well like this.
In the “Nordic Model”, it’s not illegal to sell sex, but it is illegal to purchase it. Hypothetically, this would make it so that sex workers that want out or feel unsafe can go to the authorities without risk of legal punishment.
In actuality, it doesn’t work that way. Criminal organizations still hold leverage over the industry as a whole, and since it’s not inherently illegal from the supply side, those organisations can apply significant pressure to sex workers to remain in it. Threats of violence, threats against their families, threats of public exposure.
On the other side of that same coin, those purchasing sex have higher stakes if they get caught, so they’re going to opt for sex workers with organizations that aren’t keeping any records of clientele (which increases the spread of disease, results in no screening for whether or not the consumers are dangerous, and more). They’re also more likely to outright kill the sex worker if they become paranoid, because the criminal punishment for sex work is weighed against the chance that they don’t get caught.
Implementations of this model have resulted in worse outcomes than the model used in the Netherlands (where prostitution is entirely legal, and regulated to health and safety standards exceeding that of restaurants). Albeit they’re still far better than areas in which prostitution is outlawed at the supply side, but when there’s a method that has known better outcomes, the argument for anything else falls flat.
Its not a ‘nordic’ thing (being danish i can attest to it). In Denmark, sex work is legal. You have to pay taxes. And you cannot profit on other ppl doing sex work (so no managers of brothels, the workers gotta manage thenselfs, and important: no pimps). In sweeden, they made it illegal to buy sex services but not selling it. So as you can see, different ways if handling it. Have heard the sweedish way generates pimps who can make the girls costomers safe from police. Different ways of viewing sex as a sellable service, no uniform nordic model to deal with sex work, so there is no ‘nordic model’ in this regard.
I mean it’s a bad model for a society that wants sex work. It’s a pretty good model for a society that’s interested in banning sex work though.
In the US (and everywhere), sex work is strongly associated with human trafficking, poverty, and child exploitation (look up sources yourself, I’m not your google). Assault rates for sex workers is incredibly high, and just in general it’s a dangerous profession that has you interacting with customers that frequently view you mostly as an object (which then implies a lack of respect for your boundaries and rights). Incidentally, as we see with pornography addictions in the US, paid sex work encourages the objectification of women and diseases of sexuality in men.
There’s also the question of whether consent is practically obtainable in the case of paid sex; if a person’s livelihood is dependent on their sexual performance, is it really a free decision? Or is it an elaborate form of coerced sex that disproportionately affects the poor? What is an appropriate age of consent for this type of work (in the US it’s 18, ie senior year of _high school_ )?
Long story short, many societies regard sex work as inherently problematic, and a scourge upon the weakest people in our society. However, the Nordic model contextualizes sex workers themselves as victims of capitalistic exploitation of their bodies (rightly, in my opinion). Because of this, sex workers are not criminalized, and can report bad behavior more freely. Obviously, this discourages sex work generally, and isn’t a perfect fix. Some sex workers view their job as a voluntary and lucrative, and the more puritanical would like to punish everyone involved in the sex trade, full-stop. That said, both of these groups ignore the harm their preferred policies would do to the most vulnerable in our society.
Rant over, downvote me porn addicts
Ffs, I don’t think a 5yo should be working in the sex industry, attempting to buy sex, or considering sex work in any way. Go outside and play.
A bit prudish on my side I know, but it had to be said.
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