In , the UK Parliament voted against such a measure when it was tabled as an amendment to the Modern Slavery Bill. It was also rejected by the French Senate. Numerous academics, including Dr Jay Levy author of Criminalising the Purchase of Sex: Lessons from Sweden , contend it has been ineffective in achieving its aims and has increased danger for sex workers. Dr Levy spent several years living in Sweden, conducting research on the sex purchase ban for a PhD at Cambridge University.
His book, Criminalising the Purchase of Sex: Lessons from Sweden, is a thorough examination of the Swedish prostitution law, its effects and its actual aims, alongside what is purported by supporters of the legislation.
The research for this book has been extensive. In his three and a half years of fieldwork, Dr Levy interviewed a wide range of participants, numbering approximately ninety, from sex workers affected by the legislation to individuals responsible for its creation. Boldly, a chapter on his methodology is included. This is especially pertinent given the controversy over previous studies on the Swedish legislation, which he and other academics have critiqued.
This includes their forced sterilisations that were taking place until quite recently, and their vagrancy and venereal disease laws that were used to control sex workers over two hundred years ago. I was shocked to learn their approach to HIV prevention includes incarceration. When this has been enforced, sex workers have been among those targeted. Indeed, their mandatory contact tracing is a disincentive for sex workers to be tested.
HIV prevention within the sex worker community is further compromised by the sex purchase ban. Respondents from the prostitution units make this clear in their interviews as well as from the accounts of sex workers themselves. The book covers service provision and harm reduction, or the lack thereof, extensively, and rightly so.
