04/08/2026
HOW THE SWEDISH S*X PURCHASE LAW MOVED THE SHAME OF PROSTITUTION FROM THE WOMEN TO THE PUNTERS
“Simon Häggström talks with Francine Sporenda about his work as a Swedish Detective Inspector in the Prostitution Unit enforcing the S*x Purchase Law in Stockholm. He now heads the Swedish Police Trafficking Unit, which tracks trafficking and pimping networks. He is the author of “Shadow’s Law: The True Story of a Swedish Detective Inspector Fighting Prostitution.”
FS: The rationale behind the Swedish S*x Purchase law (sometimes known as the Nordic Model) is that prostitution negatively affects society as a whole. Can you tell me about this and how it is a magnet for all kinds of criminality?
SH: It is true that prostitution is a magnet for all kinds of criminals, but when we say that prostitution affects the whole of society, it’s not necessarily the criminal perspective that we talk about first, because prostitution causes damage, not only to the individuals involved in it – particularly the women that actually provide s*x and the buyers – but to everybody in society.
When it’s legal to buy s*x, something happens to how we look upon each other. Young boys are raised with the mentality that whenever you want to get laid, you just have to pay for it. Of course it does something to the way we view each other as human beings in general, but to be more specific, to how we view women – because they are seen as objects, as things that can be consumed. That’s why we believe prostitution is damaging to the whole of society.
FS: What do you say to the famous pro-prostitution argument that the law criminalizing the purchase of s*x drives prostitution underground?
SH: I find this argument surprising, and I hear it all over the world except in Sweden. Outside Sweden, everybody is an expert about what happens when this law is enforced: “Oh, look what happened in Sweden, prostitution went underground and the police can’t find prostituted women anymore.”
My answer is: “Hey, I am police officer. I have been in the Prostitution Unit for 10 years, and prostitution is not hidden, we can find it. Just give me a cellphone, and I’ll show you where it is.”
I don’t really know where that argument comes from, to be honest. Of course, we’ve seen a shift in prostitution arenas. In the 1990s, most prostitution was out in the open, in the streets. But then the Internet revolution came and now we have apartments and hotel rooms, and that’s where prostitution goes on. But just because it isn’t in the public eye, it doesn’t mean that it has gone underground. We have our methods to find it and if the buyer can find these women in apartments or hotel rooms, so can the police. All I need is a cellphone.
Basically, this argument is just a myth, but it has become very widespread and my answer is: Don’t believe the myths, just talk to us, the people that actually work with the law, because we know. We know it’s a lie that’s been floating around – finding prostitution is definitely not a problem for us at all. We need only a couple of minutes to track down an apartment where prostitution takes place…”
Read more: https://nordicmodelnow.org/2018/07/20/how-the-swedish-s*x-purchase-law-moved-the-shame-of-prostitution-from-the-women-to-the-punters/
