Professional Documents
Culture Documents
DOI 10.1007/s13178-011-0072-z
Methods
The data gathering, aimed at knowing how the Swedish
model was implemented at the local level, took place in
March 2006 in Stockholm with personal interviews and
other written exchange with 12 privileged observers (and
others). The interviewees were:
81
82
concern (Law no. 90, 2005): What is stated in the first part
is valid even if the payment was promised or given by
somebody else (Penal Code, cap. 6, 11, second part). In
May 2011, the article was emended raising the prison
penalty from 6 months to 1 year.2
There is no legal obligation for the client to compensate
the prostitute,3 only procurers and exploiters can be
sentenced to pay damages. Procuring and exploitation of
prostitution, called koppleri, were already punished in the
previous abolitionist law that had been applied very strictly.
Koppleri refers to anyone who favours or unjustly profits
from the fact that another person engages in occasional
sexual relations in return for payment (Penal Code, cap. 6,
12). The crime includes all the actions of third parties,
from managing a brothel to exercising psychological
influence in the decision of another person to prostitute
herself or himself, to publishing advertisement, and so on.
A partner who lives off the earnings of a prostitute
inevitably commits procuring, since the obligation of
cohabiting couples to support each other does not apply in
the case of prostitutes. Any child over 18 who lives with a
prostitute and benefits from her earnings can be charged.
The same applies to flat owners who are aware that
prostitution happens on their premises.
Methods of Evaluation
The Swedish prostitution policy must be evaluated according to its own aim by measuring the scope of prostitution
and trafficking in persons to detect whether there has been a
reduction after the change of policy. How can this happen?
Criminal statistics are not decisive, since it is well known
that not all crimes are reported, and their dark figure is
much bigger than the records. Moreover, the number of
5
83
Prostitution in Stockholm
In Stockholm, a metropolitan area with 1.3 million
inhabitants in 2006 (the county, ln, had 1.9 million
inhabitants), street prostitution had already been effectively
confined within two streets well before the approval of the
law against clients: Artillerigatan (on the island of stermalm)
and Malmskillnadsgatan (in a business area close to the main
railway station). In 1991, following complaints from residents, Artillerigatan was closed to traffic, and prostitutes were
forced to move to the only tolerated road, where the few
residents had not organised any collective protest.
In 1999, Sweden had 13 striptease clubs, called
sexklubber, about a quarter located in Stockholm (SOU
2001, 14). Apart from (partial) strip shows on-stage, these
clubs offer rental or on-site viewing of pornographic
movies, and sell pornographic magazines and sex shop
items. After stripping, the girls may have closer contact
with clients for a private posing session in booths where a
Plexiglas screen separates them from the client, or they may
dance at the clients table. Some Stockholm clubs have
rooms for massage sessions and hot tubs.
Exchanges of sex for money may also take place in
solariums and massage or pedicure parlours: 2025 of these
venues were unmasked as brothels (BR Brottsfrebyggande
84
85
86
87
Stockholm county
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
46
47
29
46
215
61
153
82
104
126
203
392
Source: Communication by BR
Stockholm county
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
210
16
25
13
22
33
27
25
26
34
26
53
48
Source: Communication by BR
88
13
12
Source: Communication by BR
12
89
Number of prostitutes
Number of foreign prostitutes
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
101
13
112
5
112
5
77
1
104
7
15
13
90
91
92
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