Posted on 03/16/2008 7:15:48 AM PDT by NYpeanut
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Selling sex isn’t illegal in Sweden, but buying it is — a radical approach to prostitution that faced ridicule when it was introduced nine years ago.
Now, while Americans are preoccupied with the downfall of New York Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer in a prostitution scandal, some countries are considering emulating the Swedish model, which prosecutes the client but views the prostitute as an exploited victim.
Officials say the changed approach has reduced the demand for prostitutes and reshaped attitudes toward the sex trade.
“We don’t have a problem with prostitutes. We have a problem with men who buy sex,” said Kajsa Wahlberg, of the human trafficking unit at Sweden’s national police board.
She said foreign law enforcement officials and politicians are coming to Sweden in droves to learn more about its 1999 law.
On Friday, Wahlberg was meeting with police officials from the Netherlands, where prostitution is legal but where authorities have closed some brothels in a crackdown on organized crime in Amsterdam’s red light district.
In January, a high-level British delegation came to study the Swedish approach as Britain reviews its own prostitution laws, which prohibit soliciting and loitering for sex, but not buying sex.
Norway’s government plans to propose a Swedish-style prostitution law after Easter.
Under Sweden’s so-called “Sex Purchase Law,” paying for sex is punished by fines or up to six months in prison, plus the humiliation of public exposure.
Pimps and brothel keepers are also prosecuted, but not prostitutes, because they are viewed as victims, treated as commodities in the sex trade.
While authorities judge the new system a success, critics question whether it has really reduced prostitution or merely pushed it off the streets into more isolated surroundings. Wahlberg concedes that accurate statistics are hard to obtain, but estimates the number of prostitutes in Sweden dropped 40 percent from 2,500 in 1998 to 1,500 in 2003.
She says police know from eavesdropping on human trafficking rings that Sweden is considered bad business because of its tough stance.
“They are calculating profits, costs and marketing and the risk of getting caught,” Wahlberg said. “We’re trying to create a bad market for these activities.”
Are they going to investigate Eliot’s hooker for tax fraud?
________________
This investigation was initiated by the IRS, so I guess so.
Sure, fishing expeditions are just peachy in a free society. P.S. she has until Apr 15 of this year to pay taxes on all income earned since Jan 1 2007.
Nope.
I wonder how they differentiate between a man who goes on a date, buys an expensive dinner, maybe a gift of jewelry, a who “loan’s” his “date” a $100, with one who gives her $100?
Actually that seems to imply they’ve already investigated. If they’re offering her immunity from prosecution, they probably already know what she could be prosecuted for, which means they’ve already investigated.
you have to target the supply, not the demand. and this applies to all kinds of things: abortion, taxes, monetary policy, etc.
Just don't come crying to to taxpayer for help if you get some strange STD, I say suffer with it, you made your bed, now sleep in it.
Just be prepared to live with the consequences, that you brought upon your self.
Oh! Thats why rapes are up in Sweden.
> I wonder how they differentiate between a man who
> goes on a date, buys an expensive dinner, ...
Prostitution is a class of “thought crime”.
It’s usually only illegal when the recipient of the
largess has no doubt about the nature of their role
in the relationship.
Usually the legal indiscretion is merely being
insufficiently discreet.
__________
The STDs, of course, make no such distinctions.
I thought Johns paid everywhere.
However they damn well please.
I guess that means you do not have alimony in Sweden. :)
Gee, do you think that this might be due to the fact that middle aged men who buy sex have deeper pockets than hookers?
"Welcome to the Mr.Obvious Show......"
btt
"Huh, I never made the connection. Thanks Mr. Obvious, your a lifesaver."
The sump pump in the basement making growling noises like a bear was the funniest bit I’ve ever heard.
Why don’t liberals make matters clearer for all by just opening a season on men?
“Gee, do you think that this might be due to the fact that middle aged men who buy sex have deeper pockets than hookers? “
Why not legalize it? The amount of money spent on rounding up street hookers and processing them through the legal system is unbelievable. Why don’t they spend that money helping the victims to get out of that kind of life? Or use it to arrest the pimps? I say legalize it, make it a legitimate business, tax it and make it safer. Sex is never going to go away and those who pay for it or take money for it aren’t either. Require testing, make it safer for the true victims (of rape or abuse) to report those crimes, and don’t allow control over them via pimps.
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