The Swedish model is not “partial decriminalization”, and I wish people (especially reporters; we expect lies from politicians) would stop pretending otherwise. Sex workers are still criminalized under it. Imagine robbery itself were not illegal, but everything about it (including, say, “entering a business with intent to rob” and “possessing stolen money”, etc) still was. You would call anyone crowing that “robbery was partially decriminalized” an idiot, and you would be right. So please, don’t be an idiot. The Swedish model is not decriminalization of any kind, “partial” or otherwise.
Things that are still illegal under various Swedish model regimes (they’re not all the same):
- seeing clients at a specific place, such as a home (often enforced by compelled eviction)
- talking to or assisting other sex workers
- having any support (maid, driver, etc)
- advertising
The Swedish model also criminalizes all normal human connection a sex worker might have, including friends, romantic partners, landlords, sometimes even adult offspring. Sex workers can be evicted, expelled from university, deported, committed to institutions, or have their children ripped from them. Their persons can be “searched for evidence” (guess where), and they can be caged to force them to testify vs their clients. Still think it’s “partial decriminalization”? No? Then don’t be a damned stooge parroting prohibitionist propaganda.
This is horrifying. I always thought Nordic countries were so much more enlightened and progressive than we are. Maybe some are. But Sweden seems to have taken a dark detour awhile back. They’re the ones who decided to just ignore the pandemic in 2020: and it did not end well.
“Enlightened and progressive” is kinda Sweden’s brand, and once they convinced themselves that legally classifying adult women as perpetual adolescents in the sexual sphere fell into that brand, they’ve aggressively marketed their “model” to other countries. So far Norway, Iceland, France, Ireland, and Canada have fallen for it despite the fact that 23 years’ experience shows it A) does not decrease the rate of prostitution, which is driven by economic & social necessity rather than some nebulous “sexism”; and B) measurably increases violence, especially sexual violence, not merely toward sexworkers, but toward ALL women.