In the past 15 years Sweden has seen a tremendous increase in the number of Thai massage parlors distributed across the country. With an estimated 80 % of the parlors providing sex trade with low risks of legal penalties the expansion highlights a growing social issue. The implementation of the Sex Purchase Act in 1999 made Sweden pioneers within the regulation of sex trade, legally altering consumers of sex purchases to perpetrators and suppliers to victims. The evident issue of sex trade in the current expanding number of parlors heighten the relevance of an ongoing debate regarding the effectiveness and unintended repercussions of the regulatory framework. Contributing to the debate, literature in recent years have shed light on a substitution effect between sex trade and other sex crimes (i.e. rape). No study has yet to investigate the parlors casual contribution to the ongoing illegal sex trade and its effects on other sex crimes. This paper aims to estimate the expanding number of Thai massage parlors’ impact on reported rates of sex purchases and other sex crimes. By the use of a difference-in-difference event study, with a rollout design, the paper reveals a statistically significant increase in rates of sex purchases the years following the implementation of a Thai massage parlor. Investigating the impact of the parlors’ establishment, on a number of sex crimes, a statistically significant decrease in the rates of rape is found. The results indicate that the services offered in the parlors provide the perpetrators with the same utility as that of rape.