Prostitution utgör ett betydande samhällsproblem som kräver specialiserade insatser på nationell, regional och kommunal nivå. Dessa insatser påverkas i sin tur av en rad olika faktorer, vilka kan både skapa problem och möjligheter i arbetet med prostituerade personer. Vår studie syftar till att belysa de faktorer som påverkar stödinsatser riktade till prostituerade personer. Samtidigt utforskar vi de problem och möjligheter som dessa faktorer skapar, enligt professionella inom stödverksamheter.  Denna studie genomfördes med en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi som bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer med yrkesverksamma inom stödverksamheter som riktar sig mot prostituerade personer. Studiens resultat indikerar att insatserna inom stödverksamheter främst påverkas av olika lagar, målgruppens behov samt av samarbetet med andra aktörer. Dessutom påverkas insatserna riktade till prostituerade personer av faktorer såsom utmaningar vid implementering av insatserna och tillgång till professionellt stöd.

Att arbeta med prostituerade kvinnor är en kvalitativ studie om hur arbetet med prostitution bedrivs och upplevs av socialarbetare. Studiens resultat bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem kvinnliga socialarbetare varav tre från prostitutionsenheten, som är den enda myndigheten i Sverige som arbetar med frågor som rör prostitution, och två från Rose Alliance som är en frivillig organisation som arbetar för sex- och erotikarbetares rättigheter i Sverige. Studiens syfte är även att jämföra om det finns likheter och/eller skillnader i yrkesutövningen beroende på om arbetet bedrivs från en myndighet eller frivillig organisation. I tolkningsramen presenteras olika stressteorier, lagrum och organisationsbeskrivningar som sedan används för att analysera studiens resultat. I studiens resultat framkommer det bland annat att respondenterna upplever sitt arbete som betydelsefullt men att olika typer av stress och dilemman kan förekomma. De slutsatser som framkommit i studien är bland annat att respondenterna på prostitutionsenheten upplever negativ stress i större utsträckning än de på Rose Alliance. En ytterligare slutsats är att det krävs mer resurser för både prostitutionsenheten och Rose Alliance för att förbättra upplevelsen av arbetet såväl som de insatser som erbjuds. / Working with women in prostitution is a qualitative study about how the work is conducted and experienced by social workers. Results of the study is based on semi structured interviews with five female social workers from whom three works at the unit of prostitution, which is the only authority in Sweden who works with questions concerning prostitution, and two from the voluntary organization Rose Alliance who works for sex workes rights in Sweden. The aim of this study is also to compare similarities or/and differences in the professional practice depending on whether the work is performed by social workers from an authority or a voluntary organization. In our interpretive are different theories about stress, sections of the law and organization descriptions presented which is used to analyze the study’s result. The study’s result reveals that the participants experience their work as important, although different kinds of stress and dilemmas are occurring. The conclusion of this study is for example that the participants from the unit of prostitution experience negative stress in greater extent than the participants from Rose Alliance. Another conclusion is that it requires more resources, for the unit of prostitution as well for Rose Alliance, to improve the experience and action that is being offered.

On the 14th of may 2020, the Swedish TV- personality and entrepreneur Paolo Roberto was captured by the police when he bought sex from a prostitute. The next day he went out on television and apologized to the people and described himself as a victim by blaming the purchase of sex on his self-harming behavior. This announcement became a scandal and the result was that all of the newspapers started to write about it. This case study’s purpose was to see how Paolo Roberto’s purchase of sex was framed, how the prostitute and also how prostituion was framed in two tabloid newspapers, Aftonbladet and Expressen, from a scandal perspective. This case study also studied if the newspapers describe the sexbuyers position or the prostitutes situation.  Framing analysis was the method that was used in the case study of 20 news articles, 10 from each newspaper.  The results of this study shows that the sexbuyer Paolo Roberto is framed as the “fired entrepreneur” and all of the focus was on his company that fired him and ended their cooperation with him. Another two frames included “Lack of personality” and “Loss of sexual norms”. In this frames actors and well known persons were interviewed and they talked about his punishment, that he didn`t understand the sexual norms, and his lack of personality. The prostitute was framed as a “victim” when she got mentioned in the newspaper, which wasn´t much. She also got a frame for “not mentioned at all” and another frame when she was mentioned she got “The women from one of Europe's poorest countries”. There was no other information about her, so the reader gets no more information about who she is more than a “poor woman” or just a “woman”. This left the reader to construct the prostituted woman by themself. The frame of prostituion was when it was mentioned, which wasn’t much, to “Fight prostitution” and means that all focus is to catch the sexbuyers. Another frame that was discovered was “Is there any prostituion?” because prostitution is not mentioned in the news articles. This was because Paolo Roberto’s sex purchase got all of the attention with his companys and other people´s opinions.

Studiens syfte var att ta reda på mer om kvinnor i prostitution, främst om processen in och ut ur prostitution. Detta gjordes genom att läsa fyra böcker innehållande biografiskt material, tre böcker var skrivna av författarna själva och den fjärde av två författare som intervjuat prostituerade kvinnor. Empirin analyserades med tematisk analys och genus och stigma användes som teoretiska perspektiv och tolkningsramar. Resultaten visade att faktorer som ekonomi, traumatiska händelser och självhat utgjorde de största anledningarna till att man började prostituera sig och att utträdet ur prostitution var avhängigt faktorer såsom tiden, relationer och samhällets bemötande. Slutsatserna är att det inte är någon särskild personlighetstyp som blir prostituerad utan att det beror på flera samverkande omständigheter, därför är förebyggande insatser viktiga. Det är också lättare att sluta med hjälp av någon, exempelvis professionella aktörer. / The aim of the study was to learn more about women in prostitution, mainly about the process in and out of prostitution. Four books containing biographical material were read, three were written by the authors themselves and the fourth by two authors who interviewed female prostitutes. The empirical study was analyzed with thematic analysis and gender and stigma was used as theoretical perspectives and interpretation frames. The results showed that factors such as economics, traumatic events and self-hatred were the main reasons for entering prostitution, and that exiting prostitution was dependent on factors such as time, relationships and the treatment of society. The conclusion is that it is not a particular personality type that enters prostitution but it being due to several collaborative circumstances, therefore preventive efforts are important. It is also easier to quit with the help of someone, such as professional helpers.

Ambitionen med denna studie har varit att läsaren ska få en inblick i det våld som medföljer prostitution och att den överhängande risken för att utsättas för våld förekommer oavsett om kvinnan är verksam inom “off-street” eller “on-street” prostitution. Syftet har varit att utföra en jämförande studie av den utsatthet för våld av sexköpare som kvinnor verksamma i “off- street” respektive “on-street” prostitution upplever. Vidare användes en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av svenska biografier om prostitution för att studera hur kvinnorna i prostitution beskrev sina möten med sexköpare. De huvudsakliga resultaten är att det råder skillnader i det våld som kvinnorna erfarit av sexköpare och hur de beskriver sina upplevelser. De rådande skillnaderna har berott på vilket verksamhetsområde kvinnan varit aktiv i. Utifrån biografierna framkom det att kvinnorna verksamma ”off-street” hade ett sexuellt självskadebeteende, att det kunde urskiljas en normaliseringsprocess av det upplevda våldet samt att kvinnorna inom ”on-street” har en ökad risk för att utsättas för viktimisering enligt livsstilsteorin. Slutsatserna i denna studie är att de teoretiska utgångspunkterna har en betydande roll gällande vilken form av våld kvinnorna får erfara av sexköpare. / The aim of this study was to provide the reader with an insight into the violence that accompanies prostitution and that the imminent risk of violence is present regardless of whether the woman is active in “off-street” or “on-street” prostitution. The purpose has been to carry out a comparative study of the vulnerability to violence by sex buyers that women in “off-street” and “on-street” prostitution experience. In addition, a qualitative content analysis of Swedish biographies on prostitution was used to study how women in prostitution described their meetings with sex buyers. The main results are that there are differences in the violence that women experience from sex buyers and how they describe their experiences. These differences depended on whether the women were active in “off-street” or “on-street” prostitution. Based on the biographies, it was found that the women in “off-street” had a sexual self-harm, that a normalization process of the experienced violence could be distinguished and that women active “on-street” have an increased risk of being victimized according to the lifestyle theory. The conclusions of this study are that the theoretical aspects have a significant role in what kind of violence women in prostitution experience from sex buyers.

Former studies show that the break-up from prostitution can be seen as a process with several stages which the person has to go through and that there are several factors which can affect the break-up. The aim of this study is to create an understanding for and illustrate how a break-up from prostitution can look like. We have interviewed three ex-prostitutes about their own break-up and three social workers who work with helping individuals to exit prostitution. We have analyzed the material through the theory of exit process by Helen Fuch Ebaugh (1988) and through former studies. All the ex-prostitutes and the social workers in our study described the break-up from prostitution as a process. All our respondents agreed on that there are several different factors affecting a break-up from prostitution, whereof close relationships and the own motivation to make a change are the most significant ones. Formal support from professionals is also considered having an impact on the exit process as well as during the period after the break-up. In summary, the break-up process from prostitution is very complex, can be emotionally exhausting and may vary to a great extent between individuals.