How Sweden Cut Prostitution by Half

A little more than 10 years ago, Sweden adopted a radical approach to prostitution. Rather than punish women who sell their bodies, Sweden publicly outs the men who pay for sex. The result is a 50 percent reduction in street prostitution, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

Christian Science Monitor:

Sweden does not penalize the persons in prostitution but makes resources available to them. Instead it targets and exposes the anonymous perpetrators—the buyers, mostly men, who purchase mainly women and children in prostitution.

The key to the law’s effectiveness lies not so much in penalizing the men (punishments are modest) but in removing the invisibility of the buyers and making their crimes public. Men now fear being outed as prostitution users.

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