Comparative Prostitution Policies

Abstract

Different countries have formulated and implemented different policies aimed at regulating prostitution. These range from punishing clients with the aim of abolishing prostitution altogether (Sweden) to transforming prostitution into a regular business sector that is integrated into the welfare state (Netherlands). These widely varying approaches are rooted in strong moral-ideological positions on prostitution, prostitutes and clients. Prostitution policy is an instance of moral politics. In practice that usually implies two things: 1) policy goals are ideologically loaded and overly ambitious, and 2) policy formation and implementation tend to be impervious to facts and experiences. At the same time, policies aimed at regulating prostitution suffer from a host of unintended, or even perverse, consequences. In this panel we take a cold look at the formation, implementation, and effects of prostitution policies. Policy makers aimed at regulating prostitution, if they want to be effective at all, need to be willing to confront themselves with uncomfortable social facts (For example that the prostitution sector operates as a market, and that policy interventions influence that market.) and with the experiences of those involved, particularly those who work and love in the prostitution market. But policy makers also need to have a realistic grasp of the fragmented and decentralized landscape of governance in which prostitution policies are implemented. Finally, prostitution policies interact in unforeseen ways with large international trends in immigration and crime. In this panel we compare the origins, implementation, and effects of prostitution policies in several European countries, and try to draw some lessons for research and policymaking.

Title	Details
The Criminalization of Sexual Demand	View Paper Details
Profession or Oppression? Arguments and Lobby Groups behind German and Swedish Prostitution Policies	View Paper Details
Prostitution and the State: Towards an Analytics of Policy Implementation	View Paper Details