January 1, 1999 Sweden was the first country in the world who instituted the law of sex purchase act. It means that now was the person who was buying sex to be criminalized. But in 2005 the law was substituted by a new punishment provision called purchase of sexual services.  But before the law sex purchase act was instituted, Sweden had different types of laws. One law was “lösdrivierilagen”. It means that the prostituted was accused crime. This law was abolished 1965. The purpose with this study is to view two Swedish state public investigations (SOU) that is focusing on prostitution. These two investigations published the years 1962:22 and 1995:15. The third investigations from 2010:49 will be used the consequences of the laws. To do this study gender needs to analyze the investigations. The professor Caroll Lee Bacchi´s method What is the problem represented to be? will be used in this essay.

This is a qualitative study inquiring ”What does it entail to be a sex worker in Sweden today?” Four female sex workers were interviewed in semi-structured interviews. Using methods for reflexive analysis, interpreting the interviews and their context theoretically through notions of Competence and Stigma, the results of this study shows that sex workers may be both competent agents and stigmatized. This informs the understanding of sex work, stigma and how learning, subjective room for action and social agency can be aggravated or hindered by stigma. The results are viewed in the context of Swedish legislation against sex purchase in relation to previous research which shows that said legislation is problematic. This study recommends; further studies on varieties of competence, room for action and social agency among sex workers; further studies on how sex workers subjective room for action is affected by the Swedish law against sex purchase; further studies on how the Swedish law against sex purchase affect sex workers prospects for learning; studies on how stigma and discrimination against people in socially vulnerable and/or excluded groups affect individual learning; as well as updated estimations on the prevalence of male, female and transgender sex workers in Sweden. It is also suggested that Sweden could look to other countries for constructive ideas on how to reform sex purchase laws. In this context, New Zealand and Germany are mentioned specifically.

The purpose of this study is to examine social workers’ discourses about the Swedish sex purchase law and how they perceive that the sex purchase law and the social workers’ professional ethical principles affect the social workers’ ability to support people who are selling sex. This study is a discourse analytical interview study based on a social constructionist perspective. The study focuses on analyzing the interviews based upon an inductive method. The interviews are qualitative and semi-structured. The interviews were conducted by interviews with three social workers with experiences of working with people who sell sex. The central focus of the study is to analyze the social workers’ statements that are regarded as their perceptions. The statements serve as arguments that answers the purpose questions. The results show that the interviewed social workers perceive that the sex purchase laws do affect the social workers’ ability to support people who sell sex. On the other hand, they show disagreement on whether the social workers’ professional ethical principles affected the social workers’ ability to support people who sell sex.

The primary objective of this thesis is to conduct a comparative analysis of Sweden'slegislation, that criminalizes the purchase of sexual services, with Finland's laws thatdistinguish prostitution from human trafficking and prohibit the purchase of sexual services ifthe customer is aware of or ought to have suspected that the prostitute is a victim of humantrafficking. The study aims to identify and examine the core differences between these laws and how they reflect distinct views on prostitution and women, and the extent to which they are aligned with gender equality. The study employs a liberal sex work perspective which regards prostitution as a form of work that can be separated from the individual's body and aneo-abolitionist perspective that views prostitution, whether voluntary or involuntary, as a harmful and exploitative practice that oppresses women. The study employs a most-similardesign and ideological analysis to address the research questions. The results reveal the legislations' role in promoting gender equality as part of a broader feminist struggle against patriarchal structures. Sweden's law addresses gender inequality by identifying prostitution as a manifestation of male violence against women, while Finland's law targets exploitation insex trafficking, maintaining gender equality by protecting those most vulnerable inprostitution.

Att människohandel för sexuell exploatering utgör ett brott mot mänskliga rättigheter står klart. Människohandel kränker flertalet av individens rättigheter och staters skyldigheter gentemot dessa individer finns således stadgade i flertalet internationella konventioner. Palermoprotokollet stadgar den första internationellt gemensamma definitionen av människohandel och stadgar vidare ett krav på att definitionen utgör ett brott i konventionsstaternas nationella lagstiftning. Om prostitution anses kränka individers rättigheter och föranleder krav på rättslig reglering är däremot omtvistat, detta trots de likheter som finns. Med utgångspunkt i mänskliga rättigheter syftar uppsatsen, med hjälp av genus- och rättssociologisk teori och metod, att undersöka om prostitution torde omfattas av dessa samt om, och i så fall, vilka positiva skyldigheter stater enligt folkrätten har gentemot personer som befinner sig i prostitution. Detta för att utreda huruvida det är möjligt att kräva att stater kriminaliserar sexköp, antingen för att uppfylla de konventioner som kräver ett förebyggande arbete mot människohandel för sexuell exploatering men även för att leva upp till de åtaganden stater åtagit sig för att motverka den könsojämställdhet, könsdiskriminering och våld som prostitution bevisligen kan innebära. Det finns en tydlig korrelation mellan prostitution och människohandel för sexuell exploatering. Forskning visar att omfattningen av människohandel är högre i stater med legaliserad prostitution samtidigt som både prostitutionen och människohandeln minskat i Sverige sedan sexköpslagen trädde i kraft. Prostitution kan anses uppfylla många delar av det som utgör människohandelsbrottet enligt Palermoprotokollets definition och torde således generellt sett kunna vara en form av människohandel. Således, med hänvisning till krav på förebyggande åtgärder mot människohandel, så torde det kunna krävas att stater kriminaliserar sexköp, inte minst då det bevisligen kan vara ett effektivt sätt att motverka den efterfrågan vilken upprätthåller både prostitution och människohandel för sexuell exploatering. / Whether trafficking for sexual exploitation constitutes a violation of human right is indisputable. Human trafficking violates several individual rights and states' obligations towards victims of trafficking are thus stated in various international conventions. The Palermo Protocol constitutes the first international joint definition of human trafficking and the statute further requires that the definition constitutes a criminal offence in the convention states' national legislation. Whether prostitution is considered a violation of human rights and therefore induce a legal obligations of states is however disputed. Based on human rights, with a gender -and sociological theory of law this study aims to examine whether prostitution also should benefit from these rights and if so, determine the obligations of states under international law towards people in prostitution. Further to investigate whether it is possible to require states to criminalize the purchase of sexual services, either to comply with international conventions that urges prevention of human trafficking for sexual exploitation but also to live up to commitments to discourage the gender inequality, discrimination and violence often included in prostitution. There is a correlation between prostitution and human trafficking for sexual exploitation. Research shows that the scope of human trafficking is higher in states with legalized prostitution, while both prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation decreased in Sweden since the Sex Purchase Act came into force 1999. Prostitution is often considered to satisfy several elements of what constitutes trafficking under the Palermo Protocol's definition and could therefore generally be considered a form of human trafficking. Thus, by referring to the many requirements of preventive measures against trafficking it could therefore be argued that states should criminalize purchase of sexual services, as it is proven an effective way to counter the demand that maintains both prostitution and human trafficking for sexual exploitation.