Debating the legality of prostitution in Germany and Sweden and why this is a development issue


Book Description

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject Social Work, grade: 1,0, Protestant University of Applied Sciences Ludwigsburg, language: English, abstract: This paper is debating the legality of prostitution in Germany and Sweden. To begin my thesis, I will first talk about the background and history of Prostitution. How long has it existed, where does it originate, and how has it changed over the centuries. There will be a list of reasons accounting for, why Prostitution is such an old profession. A main aspect is poverty, which is a development issue. Further, I will explain why the German Government moved to legalize Prostitution in 2002 and the impact of this decision. To improve recognition of prostitutes and make their job safer, the Prostitution Protection Law came into effect in 2017. It is important to understand the different opinions of feminists on this topic, because most prostitutes are women. It all comes down to the way people view prostitution: as a violation of human dignity or as an autonomous decision to risky activity or as a profession like any other. As my last topic, I will explain the Swedish Model and how it developed. Sweden has a completely different view on how to deal with prostitution than Germany. Both countries decided to pass laws for more gender equality. However, the impacts of the laws are unique. That is why there will be a debate in the end as to why social work is necessary in dealing with prostitution. “The dignity of men is sacrosanct” - this is the first Article of the Constitutional Law in Germany. If every person has the same value and worth, everybody must be treated the same way. How does this include people who are forced into prostitution? They aren’t being treated like any other person - instead, some people think that since they are paying for sexual services, they can treat people on the sex industry however they want.




Criminalising the Purchase of Sex


Book Description

In an attempt to abolish prostitution, Sweden criminalised the purchase of sex in 1999, while simultaneously decriminalising 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 been enormously influential, and has since been adopted and proposed by other countries. This book establishes the outcomes of this law – and the law’s justifying narratives – for 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. Criminalising the Purchase of Sex: Lessons from Sweden utilises a wealth of respondent testimony and secondary research to redress the current lack of primary academic research and to contribute to academic discussion 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, academics and students across a number of related disciplines, including law, sociology, criminology, human geography and gender studies.




Women's Global Health


Book Description

For many women around the globe, health has become the central intersection of the personal and the political; women's bodies are the arena for policy debates about population, poverty, reproduction, and morality. Women's Global Health: Norms and State Policies is a comprehensive assessment of health for women around the globe that will inform debates underway in a wide range of disciplines. These fields include public health, most obviously, but also sociology, anthropology and other disciplines. This book will advance the interdisciplinary fields of ethics, women’s studies, and international studies. It answers several questions with implications for knowledge in the preceding fields, along with relevance to policy. Some of these complex questions include: How do the laws and policies of a nation-state affect women's health? Is the state invested in these issues because women are seen to be bearers and nurturers of future citizens? Or are there other concerns such as economic development, human welfare, or religious ideology that shape this engagement? This book also examines the current and historical responsibilities of the state in addressing women’s health issues, and how these responsibilities can they be measured and improved upon. Finally, the book looks at how to best approach the underlying ethical issues in practical and useful ways for women around the globe.




The War on People who Use Drugs


Book Description

This book explores the outcomes of Sweden’s aim to create a ‘drug-free society’ on the lived realities, health, and welfare of people who use drugs, and on the dynamics of Swedish drug use. Drawing on a wealth of empirical data, including extensive interview testimony and participant observation from years of fieldwork conducted in Sweden, the book debunks the widely-believed myth that Sweden is a progressive, liberal, inclusive state. In contrast to its liberal reputation, Sweden has criminalised the use of drugs and allows for compulsory treatment for those with drug dependencies. The work argues that Swedish law and policy cannot be demonstrated to have decreased drug use as intended, with the law used instead as a means with which to displace people who use drugs from public spaces in Sweden’s cities. And where the law has failed in its ambition to decrease drug use, Swedish law and policy have increased and exacerbated the problems, dangers, and harms that can be associated with it. People who use drugs in Sweden experience considerable and endemic difficulties with health, violence, abuse, and social exclusion, stigma, and discrimination as a result of Sweden’s drug laws, policies, and discourses.




Legalizing Prostitution


Book Description

While sex work has long been controversial, it has become even more contested over the past decade as laws, policies, and enforcement practices have become more repressive in many nations, partly as a result of the ascendancy of interest groups committed to the total abolition of the sex industry. At the same time, however, several other nations have recently decriminalized prostitution. Legalizing Prostitution maps out the current terrain. Using America as a backdrop, Weitzer draws on extensive field research in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany to illustrate alternatives to American-style criminalization of sex workers. These cases are then used to develop a roster of “best practices” that can serve as a model for other nations considering legalization. Legalizing Prostitution provides a theoretically grounded comparative analysis of political dynamics, policy outcomes, and red-light landscapes in nations where prostitution has been legalized and regulated by the government, presenting a rich and novel portrait of the multifaceted world of legal sex for sale.




Global Perspectives on Gender Equality


Book Description

The Nordic countries have long been seen as pioneers in promoting gender equality. This book brings together scholars from the global South and post-socialist economies to explore, from a comparative perspective, the vision, values, policies, mechanisms and political processes that help to explain Nordic achievements on gender equality.




Criminalising the Purchase of Sex


Book Description

In an attempt to abolish prostitution, Sweden criminalised the purchase of sex in 1999, while simultaneously decriminalising 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 been enormously influential, and has since been adopted and proposed by other countries. This book establishes the outcomes of this law – and the law’s justifying narratives – for 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. Criminalising the Purchase of Sex: Lessons from Sweden utilises a wealth of respondent testimony and secondary research to redress the current lack of primary academic research and to contribute to academic discussion 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, academics and students across a number of related disciplines, including law, sociology, criminology, human geography and gender studies.




Incest in Sweden, 1680–1940


Book Description

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. In early modern Sweden, if a man and his deceased wife's sister were found guilty of engaging in sexual intercourse they would be sentenced to death by beheading. Today the same relationship is not even illegal. Covering the period 1680–1940, this book analyses both incest crimes and applications for dispensation to marry, revealing the norms underpinning Swedish society’s shifting attitudes to incestuous relations and comparing them with developments in other European countries. It demonstrates that, even though the debate on incest has been dominated by religious, moral and – in due course – medical notions, the values that actually determined the outcome of incest cases were frequently of quite a different character.




Prostitution, Trafficking and Traumatic Stress


Book Description

Prostitution, Trafficking, and Traumatic Stress documents the violence that runs like a constant thread throughout all types of prostitution, including escort, brothel, trafficking, strip club, and street prostitution. The book presents clinical examples, analysis, and original research, counteracting common myths about the harmlessness of prostitution. It explores the connections between prostitution, incest, sexual harassment, rape, and battering; looks at peer support programs for women escaping prostitution; examines clinical symptoms common among prostitutes; and much more.




The Cultural Politics of European Prostitution Reform


Book Description

The Cultural Politics of European Prostitution Reform traces case studies of four European Union countries to reveal the way anxieties over globalization translates into policies to recognize sex workers in some countries, punish prostitutes' clients in others, and protect victims of human trafficking in them all.