It’s the john that gets arrested in Norway and Sweden
December 30, 2008
by SantaFeK
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As of January 1, 2009, prostitution by women is no longer a criminal offense in Norway. Sweden introduced a similar ban in 1999. Norway follows Sweden with fines up to $5000 (USD)
Here’s the kicker: Purchase of sex by males is a criminal offense. So while it is now legal for women to sell their bodies–and they won’t be arrested–male customers will be arrested, if caught.
They expect there will be no prostitutes on the streets of Oslo beginning the new year–most of whom are Eastern European.
Even more interesting, if Norwegian males purchase sex and are caught any place in the world, they will also be punished when they get back home to Norway. That puts a crimp in that trip to Thailand.
Reuters reported the following April 18, 2008 when the law was being considered:
“People are not merchandise, and criminalising the purchase of sexual services will make it less attractive for human traffickers to look to Norway,” Justice Minister Knut Storberget said in a statement.
Prostitution is allowed in Norway although procuring, or “pimping,” is illegal. A rise in street prostitution in the capital, Oslo, in recent years has triggered calls for a ban.
Proponents of the measure say it makes sense to try to stop prostitution by punishing those who use the service rather than the women themselves, who are often poor, young immigrants.
“The goal is that the ban should contribute to … reducing demand and thereby give a lesser market for human trafficking,” Storberget said.
Opponents of the ban say it will jeopardise women in the trade by driving prostitution underground where they will be even more vulnerable.
“Criminalisation shall not lead to a worse situation for the prostitutes,” Storberget said, adding that the government had taken other steps to get prostitutes out of the business.
The justice ministry said the punishment could be fines on rising scale according to the offender’s financial means or a jail term of up to six months, or both. [boldface mine]
Jail sentences of a year could be imposed in aggravated cases involving adult prostitution and of up to three years where child prostitutes are involved, the ministry said.
You can link to the text of the law with an English translation along side the Norwegian. (The source for this interesting info today was in Aftenposten a Norwegian newspaper, Dec. 29, 2008, Thanks to RBK.)
This is great. I hope this doesn’t mean that the pimps and traffickers are not prosecuted, though. This is the way the law should be.
Santa Fe – Very interesting. Thanks for doing the research and writing the piece .Much appreciated. Now, if they can figure out a way to get at why some women turn to prostitution, that’d really be icing on the cake. Everything requires backing up, backing up, in time to figure out how did this come about in the first place. I hope all of those women will find a way to survive economically if, indeed, prostitution becomes a non-”job” after the law takes effect.
interesting. I’ve always wondered why, here in the US, there are no consequences for the john. in fact, it always seems like a lot of effort goes into protecting the john, keeping his name out of the news, etc.
also, the question about how women get into prostitution is an interesting one. possibly a lot of the women were raised in an environment where they were led to think sex was the only thing of value they had to give.
Men create prostitution. Men create the demand for prostitution. Then men create the prostitution itself by pimping and trafficking. Sometimes women pimp and traffic women. But the majority of this is done by men in a culture where men believe that women are bodies, they need sex from women for their manhood and they are entitled to it. So men create the demand for it. Then through economic oppression of women (paying them less then men, forcing them into shitty paying jobs or none at all) men create the pool for it. Then men actually pimp and traffic women. If men were serious about stopping prostitution they would stop MEN.
This is awesome! I hope other countries including the US follow suit. I always thought more focus should be put on the “john’s” and this one fits the bill. I also appreciate that some countries are realizing that strip clubs are also a means of harming women. I understand Iceland has outlawed them. Some males designed society for them and their benefit, without thinking of the ramifications for women. Now people are actually starting to think more about the protection of women than assuming men are beasts that must be entertained and are pathetic enough that they have to buy sex. Bravo!
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