Abstract
May-Len Skilbrei and Charlotta Holmström, Prostitution Policy in the Nordic Region: Ambiguous Sympathies. Ashgate Publishing Limited: Surrey 2013. 184 pp ISBN: 9781409444268 (hbk).
Prostitution Policy in the Nordic Region: Ambiguous Sympathies, published in 2013, in advance of the recent debates within the European Parliament on the criminalization of those who purchase sex, contests the notion that there is such a thing as a ‘Nordic model’ of prostitution policy. Arguing instead that the prostitution policies in the Nordic countries ‘differ in substantial ways in how they were argued for and how they function’, the authors conclude that ‘the great differences and ambivalences found between and within the Nordic countries make understanding them as representatives of a single Nordic model of prostitution policies or a Nordic prostitution policy regime of little value’ (p.142). Sub themes within the text focus on how policies can vary in terms of their trajectories, contexts and consequences even when they look similar on paper, and the ways in which knowledge production, social work and criminal justice operate together as a regulatory framework.
In the Introduction Skilbrei and Holmström argue that despite the volume of literature on the Nordic situations, representations of the prostitution policies in the Nordic countries often lack sufficient contextualization and it is the interpretation and contextualization of Nordic knowledge-production, social policies and criminal justice approaches to prostitution that they see as their main contribution. Chapter Two presents the literature on prostitution policies and the one-sided criminalization of the purchase of sex, implemented in some form or another in four of the five Nordic countries, is acknowledged to have posed a challenge to existing models for State intervention in prostitution. A brief introduction to the Nordic context is provided in Chapter Three with the authors highlighting how, despite high levels of welfare and security in the Nordic countries, prostitution came to be defined as a type of social problem that required targeted social measures. How this came to be the case is the subject of Chapter Four where the authors explore the role of knowledge production on prostitution from the late 1970s onwards. Focusing on what kind of problem prostitution is considered to be within research and NGO literature in the Nordic region, Skilbrei and Holmström argue that ‘the strong link between social work agendas and research has impacted what is documented by research and the priorities of research’ (p.39).
Chapter Five examines the targeted social services for individuals involved in prostitution in the Nordic countries. The authors unpack who is targeted by such services and how the services are designed with the differences between countries in understandings of why prostitution exist highlighted. The extent to which social work agencies throughout the Nordic region draw on a harm-reduction ideology is shown to vary. Arguing that there has been a shift over recent years towards a stronger focus on prostitution as a criminal justice problem, Chapter Six explores the reasons for and consequences of this shift with the current ways in which prostitution is regulated in each of the five countries clearly presented. The decriminalization of the sale of sex is acknowledged to be an important legal change that has occurred; one way in which responsibility has been shifted from the seller to the buyer in the sale of sex. However, the authors note that selling sex is still partially criminalized in Sweden, Denmark and Finland through the Alien Act. It is the governance of prostitution through the Alien Act, along with the ways in which the law is appropriated by various actors, such as the police, that leads the authors to assert that ‘how prostitution is actually approached in the Nordic countries speaks of ambivalences towards women who sell sex’ (p.100). The treatment of migrants who sell sex is highlighted as a particular example of such ambivalence. Reports on the consequences of the criminalization of the purchase of sex in Sweden are briefly examined with Skilbrei and Holmström concluding that ‘with lack of sound empirical evidence, whether you conclude that the legislation has worked or not depends on who you believe’ (p.128). In the final chapter the authors identify common features of the approaches to prostitution in the Nordic countries whilst upholding their argument that there is no such thing as a ‘Nordic model’.
Prostitution Policy in the Nordic Region is a timely reminder that ‘laws do not alone make up prostitution policy’ (p.11). The authors’ attention to historical and empirical contexts, national and Nordic debates, international obligations and changes in prostitution markets serves to remind readers of the complexity of issues entwined in prostitution and the centrality of ideology in the formation of prostitution policies. The case that there is no such thing as a ‘Nordic prostitution policy regime’ is convincing. However, the one-sided criminalization of the purchase of sex, in some form or other, within four of the five Nordic countries does mark a distinct approach from historical and other current prostitution policies worldwide and the question thus raised is what level of similarity is required for policies to be defined as a model. More significantly, what purpose is served by defining the prostitution polices in the Nordic countries as a single model and, conversely, what purpose is served by discrediting such a notion? This brings us back to the centrality of ideology and ideas concerning the end-goal in relation to prostitution. With the ‘Nordic model’ gaining increasing support and precedence in policy discussions, at least within a European context, one of the political goals of the book needs to be understood as a rebuttal of the prioritizing of gender inequality as a framework for understanding prostitution; arguing instead for analytical frameworks that focus ‘more on migration law, labour law, border control and migration processes’ (p.145).